Not every electrical job is dramatic. Sometimes it is a breaker box with a few stubborn problems and a handful of specialty outlets and fixtures that a homeowner wants installed the right way. That was the case for Ashley G., a homeowner in the Upstate who called Carolina Heating Service’s electrical team. Her story is worth telling for what happened afterward as much as for the work itself, because some months later, when she needed a plumber, she called the same company. Here is how the two visits went, and what a breaker box in an Upstate home tends to need.
The electrical problem
Ashley’s breaker box had what she described as tricky issues, the kind that do not announce themselves as a single failure but as a panel that no longer behaves the way it should. She also wanted several specialty outlets and light fixtures added during the same visit, which in a home with an aging panel is a sensible pairing, since new circuits are easier to plan when the panel is already open.
Why she chose Carolina Heating Service
Carolina Heating Service has served Greenville and the Upstate since 1981, and the company sent electrician Nick M. Ashley received a photo of her technician and an on-the-way message before he arrived, and he arrived on time, every time, across the visits the job took. Nick gave her a fair quote for the work, presented before any of it began, which set the tone for the rest.
The electrical work
Nick worked through the breaker box issues carefully, explained Ashley’s options as he found each one, and helped her decide which to address now and which could wait. He then installed the specialty outlets and the light fixtures she wanted, each on a circuit sized for it rather than added to one that was already carrying enough. Ashley described him as professional, knowledgeable, and easy to work with, and said the work was done neatly and explained plainly. Every technician at Carolina Heating Service completes a multi-month training program at hire, and the job was recorded on video and carried a one-year workmanship warranty.
The return call
Some months later, Ashley needed plumbing work, and rather than searching for a new company she called Carolina Heating Service again. The same office scheduled it, the same standards applied, and the plumbing visit went the way the electrical one had. That return call is the part of the story most worth noticing, because it is what a company with four trades under one roof is for: a homeowner who has been treated well by an electrician does not have to start over when the problem is a drain.
What a breaker box in an Upstate home tends to need
Ashley’s panel is not unusual. Homes across Greenville built before the 1990s often carry panels sized for a house with one air conditioner and no home office, and the tricky issues homeowners describe are usually one of three things: breakers that have tripped so often they no longer trip reliably, connections that have loosened and begun to heat, or a panel with no open slots and tandem breakers doubled into single spaces. Our post on the three reasons a panel gets replaced sorts them out, and an electrical inspection opens the panel and says plainly which applies. Adding new circuits at the same time, as Ashley did, is the efficient way to do it.
What this means if your panel is misbehaving
Two things in Ashley’s story are worth borrowing. First, a panel that is behaving oddly is a reason for an electrician to open it rather than for a homeowner to keep resetting breakers, because the connection behind an odd panel builds heat. Second, if you are adding outlets or fixtures anyway, have them planned alongside the panel work, since a new circuit is simpler to add when the cover is already off. Members of the Carolina Comfort Club receive priority service and member pricing on repairs across all four trades.
If your breaker box has tricky issues of its own
Carolina Heating Service has served Greenville and the Upstate since 1981. Schedule an electrical inspection online or through the 24/7 website chat, and if a breaker will not stay reset or the panel smells hot, call, since same-day repair service is available by phone. The electrician will open the panel, explain what was found, and present the price before the work, and when the next problem at your house is a plumbing one, the number will be the same.