What electrical load calculations involves

Service work means coordinating with the utility, not just with the customer. The work starts with finding out what is actually there. With electrical load calculations, that means looking at the existing wiring, the panel capacity and whatever the last person left behind.

We explain the job in plain terms before anything starts: what we are changing, why, and how long the power will be off. If a smaller fix does the job, that is the fix you get.

Where this comes up

Services, switchgear, transformers and the distribution behind the meter. Most of these calls come from Des Plaines and the surrounding suburbs, but we take them anywhere in our service area.

New load on old wiring is the most common version. A heat pump or a charger for the car goes in, the circuits that were fine until then start complaining, and the real question becomes whether the existing service can carry it at all.

How we do it

Licensed electricians, to code, cleaned up behind us. Where the village requires a permit we pull it and we meet the inspector, so the work is on record and it passes.

Why it usually cannot wait

Electrical problems do not stay the same size. A loose connection heats up, the heat oxidizes the metal, the oxidized metal raises the resistance, and the resistance makes more heat. That loop runs in one direction only and it ends at a scorched box.

If something is tripping, buzzing, warm to the touch or smells like hot plastic, that is the system telling you where the problem is while it is still cheap to fix.

How we quote it

We price after an electrician has had the panel cover off and traced the circuits involved. It takes a little longer than a number over the phone, and it means the price you approve is the price on the invoice unless the scope changes.

You get a written quote with the work broken into items, so you can compare it, question it or ask us to adjust the scope. Once you approve it, that is the job. Changes only happen with your say-so.

Code, permits and inspection

Unincorporated areas usually fall under the county for permits instead of a village. The process, the paperwork and the inspection schedule can all differ, so the first question on any permitted job is simply who has jurisdiction at that address.

We deal with whichever jurisdiction the job sits in. We pull the permit, we schedule the inspection, and we are there when the inspector walks it. You get the paperwork at the end, which matters when you sell the building or when an insurer asks.

Copper, aluminum and what is in your walls

Aluminum branch wiring went into a lot of houses in the late sixties and early seventies. It is not automatically dangerous, but it expands and contracts more than copper, which loosens terminations over time, and it needs devices and connectors rated for it.

The repair is usually not a full rewire. Proper connectors at every termination, done thoroughly, solves most of it. Anybody quoting you a whole-house rewire on sight has not looked.

What to do before we arrive

If an outlet or switch is sparking or scorched, leave it alone and turn off its breaker. Do not pull the plug from a device that is visibly burning at the receptacle. Keep people and pets out of that room until we get there.

Leave the affected circuit off if it smells hot or keeps tripping. Otherwise, just remember what you were using when it acted up.

Service size is a ceiling on everything

The service is the limit every other circuit lives under. A 100-amp service was generous when houses had one air conditioner and a gas range. Add electric cooking, a heat pump, a car charger and a finished basement and it stops being enough.

Upgrading means coordinating with ComEd, replacing the meter socket and mast, and sizing the new panel for what the building will need in ten years rather than exactly what it needs today.