10 Electrical Questions Homeowners Always Ask Red Deer Electricians

10 Electrical Questions Homeowners Always Ask Red Deer Electricians

If you’ve ever wondered whether flickering lights are harmless or if your home’s electrical panel is due for an upgrade, you’re not alone. Homeowners across Alberta have real concerns when it comes to safety, efficiency, and staying up to code.

That’s why we sat down with Ryan, the owner of LumenTek Electrical, a trusted name in residential and commercial electrical services in Central Alberta.

In this interview, Ryan answers some of the most common questions that homeowners are searching online, like when to call an electrician, how much upgrades really cost, and what to expect with modern installs like EV chargers or backup generators.

Whether you’re renovating, building new, or just trying to keep your family safe, Ryan shares practical, no nonsense advice to help you make smart electrical decisions.

Ryan, thanks so much for being here today.

Thank you.

All right. So, question number one is, “What are the signs my home’s electrical system needs upgrading?”

Signs Your Home Electrical System Needs an Upgrade

The biggest sign that you need to upgrade your electrical system is when you find that there’s no room in the panel for new circuits.

Two, if you’re going to be adding a lot of electrical loads. So that being EV charger, basement suite, detached garage, if you plan to do a lot of welding and work like that.

Anything large that you’re doing to your electrical service, you should be considering it. Might not be needed in every case, but it’s definitely worth looking at when you’re planning on doing any kind of alterations or additions to it.

Okay. All right.

Now, number two. How often should I have an electrical inspection done on my home?

Generally, you don’t need to inspect your home electrical work too often. It’s more if you’re changing anything, it’s good to, depending on what’s getting changed, get an inspection done.

What are those things where you do need an inspection?

Anytime you’re adding anything new to the house, you should be getting an electrical inspection.

So, if you’re simply just taking a light fixture out, putting a new light fixture in the same place, you don’t need an inspection for that. Or if a plug stops working and you replace it with a new plug or new switch or anything like that, you don’t need an inspection.

When you would add something new or change what something was doing before, that’s when you would call an inspection.

So, if you’re doing a kitchen renovation, you’re moving a wall or something, and you’re taking the electrical out of the old wall, moving it to the new wall, adding plugs, switches, stuff like that, then that’s when you would call an inspection.

If you’re going to finish your basement, you’re going to be adding new lights, smoke detectors, stuff like that, then you’re going to need an inspection.

Okay. All right. That makes a whole lot of sense.

You don’t need anyone to come regularly check on your plugs and switches unless something is failing, right?

Third question we have here is, “Is it safe to DIY small electrical jobs like changing outlets or light fixtures?”

That really depends on the homeowner’s ability. If they’re fairly competent with tools, it’s not a difficult task.

We’ve definitely walked into a few where they shouldn’t be allowed to own any tools.

Just going to take those away.

They’ve created more of a mess than if they just called us in the first place. It would have saved them a ton of money and headache.

It really depends on the individual. If they know how to do something, like if you’re in a trade already, you’re probably fine to do it.

But if you have no experience with tools or anything technical, then yeah, you probably shouldn’t be touching it.

But things like plugs and switches aren’t too complicated typically.

Yeah. They shouldn’t be. If it was working before and you’re just updating it to a different style or something, it’s pretty much just take it apart the same way, put it back.

Don’t switch sides. Don’t switch anything around. Just put it in the same spot, and you should be okay.

Fuse Boxes vs Breaker Panels in Red Deer Homes

Question number four. What’s the difference between a breaker panel and a fuse box? And should I upgrade?

If you actually have a fuse box, you probably should.

A lot of people call their breaker panel a fuse box, but it’s not actually.

Way back, they used fuses instead of breakers. Now, I don’t think you can even get home insurance without breakers. Too many people were putting different-sized fuses in just to stop them from blowing.

Now pretty much everything from the last 50 or 60 years is going to be a panel with breakers in it instead of fuses.

When you need to upgrade depends on a few factors. If you’re running out of room, if you pull the cover off and you’ve got multiple circuits on breakers, then yeah, you need to upgrade.

If you have a Federal Pioneer panel or an old Commander panel, they’re known for not tripping at the right amperage.

I would definitely call someone and take a look at that.

All right. Those are the times when you should change out your breaker panel.

Yeah. Definitely.

Question number five that we’ve got here for people. How much does it cost to rewire an older home?

Again, that’s almost like saying how much does a car cost? It could cost anything from $1,000 to a million dollars.

It’s kind of hard to give an exact number without seeing the specific house, what the homeowner intends to use each room for, if they’re doing anything that’s kind of out of the ordinary that would require anything extra.

The size of the house too. If it’s a one-bedroom, one-bath house, you’re not looking at a whole lot. But if you’re rewiring an 8,000-square-foot house, it’s going to be a lot more money.

The only way to really give an accurate number would be to come take a look in person, talk to the homeowner, and see what they actually intend on doing.

You can do one light and the bare minimum of plugs in each room and that saves money, or you can put 10 lights in each room and a plug every six feet.

It really depends on what they’re using it for.

We did one last summer where basically it was a finished house. They just couldn’t get home insurance because nothing was grounded and there was a lot of cloth wiring that the home insurance companies were just not touching.

So we had to essentially rewire the whole house to current electrical codes without cutting holes in the drywall.

That was around $25,000, but that was also a ton of labor because every circuit had to go up into the attic, down through a closet, and back to the panel.

They had four circuits originally. The oven and dryer were on the same circuit, and it didn’t trip no matter what you did.

There was all sorts of crazy stuff in that house.

But they also wanted pot lights in every room and extra things that wouldn’t be required if you just wanted to do the bare minimum.

We’ve also done them for around $12,000 on a smaller house.

So really it’s anybody’s guess as to what it would be.

Yeah.

So basically, best thing to do if you have a house that you want to rewire, old or new, call Ryan at LumenTek Electrical.

EV Chargers and Backup Generator Installation

Question number six. Can you add more outlets or USB ports in older homes without rewiring everything?

You got to start over. I’m kidding. Just burn the place down. Start over.

No, you can add plugs and USB receptacles and all that.

The age of the house has nothing that would stop you from doing that. The only code consideration would be you can only have 12 receptacles on a circuit.

So if you’re under your 12 receptacles on your circuit, there’s no reason why you couldn’t add another plug.

USB plugs, you can just replace any plug with a USB plug. That’s generally not an issue.

Question number seven. What’s involved in installing a backup generator or EV charger at the home?

For EV chargers, we calculate out the electrical load of the house and see if the service is capable of handling an EV charger.

Every house can have one. It’s just a matter of how big of a charger you can put in and how fast you can charge your car.

We’ve seen houses where we’ve been able to put in a 60 amp charger and they can charge their car in like four hours.

There’s other houses where we couldn’t really do much more than just like a 30 amp RV receptacle for it.

For generators, it’s kind of the same thing, but it’s more tailored toward what the homeowner is using the house for.

We can do everything from totally turnkey where the power goes out and powers back on automatically, except your neighbors have no lights.

Or we can prioritize things like lights, plug circuits, furnace, and freezers.

Most people are okay with their dryer or air conditioning not working during an outage.

There’s also the GenerLink option that we install so everything will get power, but you just have to keep in mind it’s limited to 30 amps.

So that gives a little more flexibility as well.

Why Lights Flicker and How to Improve Efficiency

Question number eight. Why do my lights flicker when I use appliances, and should I be worried?

It depends on what appliances you’re using, how they’re flickering, and the way they’re flickering.

If your air conditioner starts and the lights dim for a second and come back up, or if the dryer kicks in and they dim for a second and come back up, I wouldn’t worry.

That’s just a quick voltage dip from a large load turning on and off.

When flickering lights would be concerning is if they almost turn off, stay dim for a while, and don’t stabilize after maybe one flicker or a couple flickers.

Then I’d be concerned about loose connections and a bigger voltage drop.

LEDs are super sensitive to voltage drop.

If you took all your LEDs out of your kitchen, put regular bulbs in, and turned the oven on and off, you’re probably not going to see any flickering. The LEDs amplify that.

A lot of the time there’s no reason to worry. It’s more if it’s consistent.

You might need a surge protector, grounding issues, neutral issues, stuff like that.

Question number nine. How can I make my home’s electrical system more energy efficient?

The biggest one is LEDs.

Anything that’s incandescent, you can change to LED, and that’s a huge savings right there.

They’re almost 80% more efficient than an incandescent bulb.

The other thing we’ve been doing more and more is programmable switches.

For my house, we put smart switches in the kids’ rooms so at 8:00 in the morning the lights just turn off automatically because they almost always get left on.

You can also set outside lights based on your location so they’ll automatically come on when it gets dark and shut off later at night.

Stuff like that where you’re turning lights off when they don’t need to be on is another big thing.

You can also get more efficient appliances now, but that’s a huge upfront cost to save a small amount.

An old fridge versus a new fridge usually isn’t enough savings to justify throwing away a good fridge.

But if you are shopping for a new appliance, look for something that has a better rating and uses less power.

Lights are definitely the biggest one.

What about adding solar or anything like that?

We don’t personally install solar, but there are a lot of companies that do it, and that definitely helps offset the cost.

If you’re selling energy back to the grid or using it as you’re making it, then you’re not paying for it because you’re using it.

Question number 10. Do I need permits or inspections for residential electrical work in Central Alberta like Red Deer and Blackfalds?

It really depends on what you’re doing.

If you call us because something’s not working and we replace a part or fix something to get it working again and we haven’t changed anything with the system, then you don’t need an inspection or permit.

If we’re adding something new or changing what something did, then you would need a permit and an inspection afterward.

That’s basically the rule.

Thank you for sharing the information today and answering the top questions people have about their electrical systems, upgrades, and more.

If you guys are looking for an electrician in Central Alberta, whether that’s an electrician in Red Deer, Blackfalds, Lacombe, Sylvan Lake, or surrounding areas, call LumenTek Electrical.

They’re master electricians, top rated, and have over 83 Google reviews.

You can call them and ask for Ryan to come out and give you a quote on any electrical work.

Until then, see you next time.