Electrical Panel (Breaker Box)
The gray metal box where utility power enters your home and splits into individual protected circuits. Also called a breaker box, load center or service panel.
The panel is the heart of the system. Incoming service conductors land on a main breaker, which feeds two energized bus bars; every branch circuit in the house starts at a breaker snapped onto those bars. The panel's job is distribution and protection: each circuit gets exactly the overcurrent protection its wiring can tolerate.
Panels have a rating (100, 150, 200, 400 amps) and a physical number of breaker spaces, and homes outgrow both. A full panel with no spare spaces, a 60s-era 100-amp rating, or a brand with a known defect history (Federal Pacific, Zinsco) are the three classic reasons electricians recommend replacement. A buzzing, warm or rusty panel is a call-now symptom, not a watch-it symptom.
Talking to a contractor about this?
Run the project past a licensed electrical pro first. Calls are answered around the clock and routed to a pro serving your area.
- Double-Pole Breaker : A breaker occupying two panel spaces that connects across both hot bus bars to deliver 240 volts, used for dryers, ranges, AC units, EV chargers and other heavy loads.
- Tandem Breaker : A slim breaker that fits two separate 120-volt circuits into a single panel space, used to open up room in a full panel where the panel is rated to accept them.
- AFCI (Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter) : A breaker or outlet that detects the electrical signature of dangerous arcing (loose connections, damaged wires) and cuts power before the arc starts a fire.
- GFCI Breaker : A panel breaker that adds ground-fault protection to an entire circuit at once, the alternative to installing GFCI outlets at individual locations.