Tag Archive for: electrical issues

Replace FPE Stab Lok Panels

FPE Stab-Lok Panels: What They are and Why You Should Replace Them

Electrical Panel Replacement Recommended for Older Homes and Buildings

If you live or work in an older building, you could be sitting on a ticking time bomb when it comes to the safety of the electrical panel and circuitry. You’ll want to check to see if you have a Federal Pacific/Pioneer Electric Stab-Lok breaker panel installed.

The FPE Stab-Lok Breaker Panel was manufactured from the 1950s to the 1980s, remaining a popular installation choice well into the 2000s.

In every home or workplace, the electricity for the building is controlled and sent around via an electrical panel box. These electrical panel boxes feature breakers that can trip, effectively shutting off electricity in order to prevent risk of an electrical fire.

While modern electrical panel boxes are very safe, FPE Stab-Lok panels have been found to fail safety requirement testing and therefore are considered a safety risk. In this blog, we’ll take a look at exactly what FPE Stab-Lok panels are, how to identify if your building has one, and why you should replace them. But first, let’s cover some electrical panel basics.

What is an Electrical Panel and How Does it Work?

Your home or business gets electricity from a meter located somewhere outside the building. From there, electricity runs to a circuit breaker panel inside, at which point it gets redirected to each room and thus each appliance that requires electricity to operate.

In a typical breaker panel, there will be a main switch that controls the electricity for the entire home or business, as well individual switches for each room or circuit.

A breaker will sometimes trip, resulting in a loss of power to a specific area. Usually, a tripped breaker is caused by the circuit being overloaded (too many appliances running at the same time), but here are a few other reasons:

  • Arcing. Occasional tripping is expected, but repeated tripping can indicate a loose wire connection that results in sparking or arcing.
  • Grounding. If the hot wire connects with a grounding wire, or any of the metal components of the breaker box, the circuit will short out. This kind of fault is especially dangerous since it carries the risk of shock.
  • Shorting. A short happens when the hot wire connects with the neutral wire, a bare grounding wire, or the metal components of the breaker box. This causes an unobstructed flow of electrical current, which results in the breaker tripping.

How Do I Know I Have an FPE Stab-Lok Panel?

Identifying an FPE Stab-Lok panel is easy because they have some very distinct characteristics:

  • There is a Federal Pacific Electric Company or FPE label on the front of the unit or inside the door.
  • The breakers are painted red.
  • The schematic between the two rows of breaker switches is painted white, with rounded corners and tick-marks between the numbers.

If you’ve looked for all these visual characteristics, but you still aren’t sure, ask a licensed electrician. They can remove each switch and check for E- or F-shaped openings that are unique to this kind of breaker. 

Do not attempt to remove them yourself, as there is a risk of electrocution.

Why You Should Replace Your FPE Stab-Lok Panel

In 1982, Reliance Electric reported that the Stab-Lok circuit breaker panels had a “possible defect”, but these panels actually pose a significant safety hazard. 

FPE Stab-Lok panels have two important safety concerns:

  • Inability to trip when overloaded or short-circuited. Excess current heats up and ignites, which could cause electrical fires, leading to property damage or even loss of life.
  • Metal expansion. Electrified metals heat up and expand and different metals will expand at different rates. FPE Stab-Lok breakers feature copper connectors, while electrical panels are made of aluminum. This difference leads to a loose connection, which can result in fire. 

Tried, Tested and Failed

In the 1980s, the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) hired Consulting Engineer Jesse Aronstein, and the company he worked for, to safety test FPE’s Stab-Lok panel. In tests, over 50% of the tested breakers failed to trip, indicating a significant flaw in the panel design.

Aronstein and statistics expert Richard Lowry co-authored a peer-reviewed paper in which they estimated the following numbers to have occurred yearly:

  • $40 million property damage
  • 2,800 fires
  • 13 deaths

In spite of the massive failure in the tested breakers, the CPSC never stated whether they felt the FPE Stab-Lok panels were unsafe, instead calling the over 50% failure inconclusive. 

A Breaker Panel by Any Other Name

The Federal Pacific Electric brand is the most common, but you may just find the words Stab-Lok on the label on your electrical panel. There are also several other companies associated with FPE, who continued to use the Stab-Lok design.  

These companies are:

  • Challenger Electric
  • American Circuit Breaker Company
  • Connecticut Electric
  • Electrical-Mechanical Industries, Inc.
  • Federal NOARK

What To Do if You’ve Got an FPE Stab-Lok Panel

If you own a home or business that was built between 1950 and 1980, it’s possible that you have an Federal Pacific Stab-Lok panel – or even one of a number of other brands that came along later, using the same flawed design.

Historically, the go-to option for a failing panel was to have it removed, tested and repaired. Since the design of the Stab-Lok panel is considered unsafe outright, simply repairing it is like putting a bandage on a broken bone – it won’t fix the problem. 

You need to replace the unit. 

This is where Kobalt Systems can help. Our qualified electrician team will not only ensure that your old panel is safely removed, but they will discuss your electrical needs and determine the best electrical panel replacement unit to suit your needs and your budget. 

While the cost of replacing a breaker panel can run between $1500 and $2000, we do offer financing for qualified applicants. Feeling safe in your own home or business doesn’t have to hurt your budget!

Let our qualified electricians help you feel safe where you live and work – contact us today about replacing your FPE Stab-Lok panel.

Step-By-Step to Help You Troubleshoot Electrical Problems

How to Troubleshoot Electrical Issues

Has this ever happened to you? You go to turn on the coffeemaker in the morning… only to press the button and not see any coffee being brewed! Or maybe you plug in your phone to charge but it never charges!

Most people rarely think about their home’s electrical system. Because your homes electrical wiring system is mostly behind the walls and not visible in your daily life, it’s easy to not worry about it. Out of sight, out of mind. However, when something is not working, we all of a sudden worry about what’s going on behind our walls.

So, when something is not working, what should you do? Use this simple list to help you troubleshoot any electrical problems / issues you face in your home.

First, see if there is power anywhere else in the house. It could be that there’s a power outage affecting your home or the whole block, but you didn’t notice because it was such a sunny day!

If there’s power elsewhere, make sure there is nothing wrong with the appliance or gadget that you’re trying to plug in! (It happens a lot: you might think there’s something wrong with your home’s power when in fact your coffeemaker has just decided to stop working or your phone cord has actually broken.) If there’s nothing wrong with the device then the problem may be associated with that receptacle and/or any other powered items sharing the electrical line. (For example, maybe there are too many appliances plugged in and turned on to that one line.) Unplug other items that share the same circuit.

Next, head to your electrical panel (sometimes people call it a “fuse box” or “circuit panel”) and look for any breaker that has been tripped. Reset it to restore power to that line. (Your circuit panel is made up of circuit breakers that will temporarily “break” the line when something is wrong.)

If power is restored to the line, great! Go back to making coffee… and just keep an eye on how many items you are plugging in to the receptacles that share the line at any one time.

If power is not restored, do not attempt to investigate further or do your own electrical repairs. Electrical current is dangerous and can even be deadly. Leave it to the pros. Get an electrical expert to help you and they’ll quickly and easily diagnose the problem and give you a recommendation to help you solve it.

Think of circuit breaker like a warning sign. If they are constantly tripping something is going wrong with your home’s circuits. Just like the check-engine light in your car, it’s time to call the professionals before something get seriously damaged or catches fire.

The team at Kobalt Systems is here to help, and our Journeyman Master Electricians in Victoria, BC are experts at assessing, repairing, removing and replacing out-dated and faulty whole home electrical wiring systems.  Contact us today 250 213 3788 or email info@kobaltsystems.ca