Updated March 28, 2024
How to Determine Your Home’s Electrical Service Needs
Over the past few decades, technological advances have pushed a whole new wave of amazing devices into our homes. From the latest in appliances to big-screen televisions and digital assistants, the list is almost endless. Those devices, however, all have one thing in common. They require electricity to function. And the average Dickinson home, unless it’s relatively new, doesn’t necessarily have the electrical capacity to handle the load. That reality leads many homeowners to consider electrical service upgrades for their homes to help meet the electrical needs of today and tomorrow. Here’s how you can begin that process by determining your home’s electrical service needs.
Standard Residential Electrical Service
For example, most homes built in the 1960s and 1970s would have had 100-amp electrical service. Homes older than that might have had 60 amps. If your home falls into one of those categories and has never had an electrical upgrade, there’s a good chance you already find yourself juggling electricity-hungry devices in an attempt to avoid tripping your circuit breakers.
In truth, even homes with 200-amp service may be starting to reach their limit, too. Whether or not that’s true depends on the type and quantity of devices you have at home and how and when you use them. For example, an HVAC system alone might consume anywhere from 15 to 60 amps depending on its size. That’s a significant chunk of the available power in a 200-amp home. It wouldn’t take many more devices or appliances to reach the upper limit.
How to Tell What Type of Electrical Service You Have
The easiest way to figure out what type of electrical service your home has is to call in an expert electrician from Mackey Services to take a look. However, if you simply want a rough estimate, there are a few ways you can go about doing it.
One way is to look at the circuit breakers in your home’s main electrical panel. All you have to do is add up the amperage of every circuit in the panel, and you should arrive at the total electrical service amperage for your home. Of course, this gets a bit more complicated if your home has any sub-panels or if your home has any non-standard wiring.
In those cases, there’s another quick method that you can use to estimate your home’s electrical service. All you have to do is take a look at your home’s main electrical meter. By measuring the pipe that exits the meter, you can estimate the type of electrical service your home has.
You can use the following as a guide:
- A 1-inch diameter pipe for 60-amp service
- A 1.25-inch pipe for 100-amp service
- A 2-inch pipe for 200-amp service
- A 2.5-inch pipe or larger for 400-amp service and above
Calculating Your Home’s Electrical Needs
If you believe your home’s electrical service needs an upgrade, you’ll then need to figure out your estimated power needs. If your home already suffers from circuit breakers that trip frequently, your best bet is to call Mackey Services to evaluate your home. If you don’t have that issue but believe your home is reaching its power limits or may soon reach them, you’ll have to do some math.
You can start by figuring out your home’s basic electrical needs. You can do that by multiplying your home’s total square footage by 3. This will give you an estimate of the total wattage of your home’s lights and outlets. Then, add 1,500 watts for each small kitchen appliance you own and each circuit in your laundry room if your home has one.
Next, go around to each of your home’s major appliances and look at their labels. Each should list a wattage. You’ll want to be certain to check things like electric ovens, water heaters, clothes dryers, and portable air conditioners. When you’ve finished collecting this information, add up everything you’ve collected since the first step.
At this point, there’s one more number to collect. To find it, you’ll need to look in two places. First, look at your home’s heating system and note its wattage. Then, look at your home’s central air conditioning system, if it has one, and note its wattage. Add whichever is the higher number to your running total. Then, all you need to do is divide your total by 230, and you’ll know how many amps everything in your home requires.
Future-Proofing Your Home’s Electrical System
So far, you’ve only figured out how much power your home uses today. Before you make any upgrade decisions, though, you’ll need to think about its future needs, too. A simple way to do this is to use the numbers you’ve already collected. Think about when each device on your list first appeared in your home. Go back as far in time as you can remember. Then, break each device into categories based on the year you bought them. That should give you a rough estimate of how much your home’s power needs grew each year. You can use that information to project your home’s future needs.
Of course, if you’re considering adding a whole new kind of electricity-consuming device to your home, the equation changes. For example, if you’re planning to purchase an EV and add a charging station in your home for it, that will represent a major leap in your home’s electrical needs. So, think about those things as you create your home’s energy projection. As you do, you should also keep in mind that you don’t want to have to make upgrading your home’s electrical service a regular event. So, it’s better to go with your highest realistic estimate and not your most conservative one.
Call The Electrical Experts in Dickinson
Hopefully, this guide has given you plenty of food for thought and the knowledge you need to start figuring out your home’s electrical service needs. Afterward, if you need help or feel ready to explore an electrical upgrade, the team here at Mackey Services is happy to help. We’ve offered expert residential and commercial electrical services, as well as comprehensive HVAC installation, repair, and maintenance services to Dickinson and the greater Houston, TX, area since 1992. We also pride ourselves on our reputation for providing top-notch service and customer care in everything that we do. For proof, check out the glowing reviews from our many satisfied customers.
So, if your home needs an electrical service upgrade or has any other electrical problem you need help with, contact us at Mackey Services today!
