What transfer switches involves

Critical power has no acceptable downtime, which changes how everything gets built. The work starts with finding out what is actually there. With transfer switches, that means looking at the existing wiring, the panel capacity and whatever the last person left behind.

We tell you what we find before we tell you what it costs. If the scope is smaller than you expected, it gets smaller. That happens more often than people assume.

Where this comes up

Critical power, UPS, redundancy and the electrical behind server rooms. Most of these calls come from Des Plaines and the surrounding suburbs, but we take them anywhere in our service area.

Previous work is the wild card. Plenty of Illinois homes and shops have circuits somebody extended on a weekend, splices buried in a wall with no box, and breakers upsized to stop a nuisance trip. We find those first, because they decide what is safe to build on.

How we do it

Licensed and insured on every call. No job is too small to do properly, and no shortcut is worth an inspector’s red tag. We would rather do it once.

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

A photo of a panel tells us the brand and not much else. It does not show a loose lug, a scorched bus bar or aluminum on the branch circuits. That is why we come out and look before we put a number on anything, large job or small.

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.

The inspection is the point

An inspection is an independent check that what went behind the drywall matches what was supposed to. Work that passes has been verified by somebody with no stake in the invoice.

That is also why we would rather you hire a licensed contractor than the cheapest number you can find. Unpermitted electrical work is a problem you inherit, and it usually surfaces at the worst moment.

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.

When to stop and call

When something electrical smells hot or looks burnt, the safest thing you can do is stop using it and call. Do not open the panel to investigate. Tell us what you saw and we will tell you how urgent it is.

Once a breaker has tripped three or four times in a week, the troubleshooting phase is over. Unplugging things and moving loads around only hides the pattern. Leave it off and have an electrician find what is actually overloading it or faulting.