Electrical questions for Mid-Michigan homes.

If you can do it safely, turn off that circuit’s breaker or the main breaker, then call an electrician. If there is smoke or fire, get everyone out and call 911.

Don’t keep resetting a breaker that trips with a burning smell, and don’t open the panel cover. A hot, buzzing or discolored outlet, switch or panel is a sign of a loose or overheating connection that needs to be found and repaired. Revolution Electric offers 24-hour emergency service at 989-621-3597.

Partial power loss is often a problem with one leg of the incoming service: a damaged service wire, a loose connection at the meter or main, or a failed main breaker. Turn off the main if it is safe to do so and call.

It can also be a utility-side problem. If neighbors have the same thing, report it to your electric utility. If it is only your house, it needs an electrician, and soon, because a loose service connection can overheat.

Stay well away from the wires, keep everyone else away, and call your electric utility to report a downed line. Treat every downed wire as live.

Once the utility has made the line safe, the service mast, weatherhead, meter base and wiring on your house are usually the owner’s responsibility. An electrician repairs those, and the repair may need an inspection before the utility reconnects you.

If your neighbors are dark too, it’s almost certainly a utility outage: report it to the utility named on your bill and wait for restoration.

If only your house, or only part of it, is out, check whether a breaker has tripped. If the main breaker is on and you still have no power, or breakers trip again right away, call an electrician.

A brief dip when a large motor starts can be normal, but heavy dimming, flickering that comes and goes, or lights that get brighter in some rooms are signs of a loose connection or an overloaded circuit and should be checked.

Brightening lights in particular can point to a lost neutral connection, which can damage electronics and appliances. Turn off the main if it’s safe and call.

No. Back-feeding a house through an outlet with a “suicide cord” can electrocute utility line workers and neighbors, damage the generator and start a fire. Connect a portable generator only through a properly installed inlet with an interlock or transfer switch.

Always run a portable generator outdoors, well away from doors, windows and vents, never in a garage or basement. Carbon monoxide from a generator can kill within minutes. Keep working CO alarms in the house.

A standby generator is permanently installed outside the house, runs on natural gas or propane, and starts by itself through an automatic transfer switch when the utility power fails. A portable generator has to be wheeled out, fueled with gasoline and connected by hand.

Standby units can power a whole house or a set of essential circuits, and they keep running for long outages as long as the fuel supply lasts. Revolution Electric is an Elite Generac dealer and installer for Mid-Michigan.

Size it to what you want to run during an outage, not to the square footage. Well pumps, sump pumps, furnaces, central air, electric ranges and water heaters are the loads that decide it.

An essential-circuit system covering the furnace, well and sump pumps, refrigerator, some lights and outlets can use a smaller unit. Running the whole house as normal, including air conditioning, takes a larger one. An in-person load review gives you the right answer.

Because storms here take the power out often, and rural lines can be among the last restored. Revolution Electric’s own words describe “the constant poor weather that always seems to knock out power.”

Many homes in the area depend on electricity for water (well pumps), for keeping basements dry (sump pumps) and for heat (furnace blowers), so an outage in January or during a spring storm is more than an inconvenience.

Follow the maintenance schedule in your unit’s manual, which is based on run hours and time; many owners schedule service at least once a year. The generator also exercises itself on a regular schedule to stay ready.

Service usually covers oil and filters, the battery, spark plugs and a check of the transfer switch and error history. Revolution Electric’s published Generac service price is $170; call 989-621-3597 to schedule and confirm.

Yes. Revolution Electric services and repairs Generac generators across Mid-Michigan, whoever installed them, including broken backup generators that won’t start or won’t transfer.

Yes. A standby generator installation involves electrical work and usually a gas connection, and both generally need permits and inspections from the local enforcing agency or the state.

Your installer should pull the electrical permit and tell you what else is required for your address, including setback rules for where the unit can sit.

Either works. If you have natural gas service, it is the simplest fuel because it never needs refilling. Rural homes without gas lines commonly use propane from a tank, which needs to be sized so it can carry the generator through a long outage along with your other propane appliances.

Signs include a full panel with no spaces, breakers that trip under normal use, a fuse box or a 60- or 100-amp service, and plans to add big loads such as a generator, central air, an EV charger, a shop or an addition.

A load calculation compares what the house draws with what the service can carry. It tells you whether you need a bigger service or just a better-organized panel.

A fuse box isn’t automatically dangerous, but it often signals a small service and old wiring. The real hazard is a fuse that has been replaced with a larger one than the wire is rated for, which lets the wire overheat.

If fuses blow often or you need more circuits, replacing the fuse box with a modern breaker panel, and usually upgrading the service, is the fix.

Many electricians recommend replacing Federal Pacific Stab-Lok and Zinsco panels because of long-standing concerns that their breakers may not trip when they should. They were installed in many homes built in the 1960s and ’70s.

If yours is warm, buzzing, scorched, or has breakers that won’t reset, call soon. Otherwise, plan the replacement and get it priced.

Older houses can have original ungrounded wiring, cloth-insulated cable that has become brittle, knob-and-tube in walls and attics, too few circuits for modern kitchens, and add-on wiring from many decades.

The first step is an inspection by an electrician to find what’s original, what’s been updated and what’s overloaded. From there, work can be done room by room.

Two-prong outlets usually mean ungrounded wiring from before grounding was required. Swapping in a three-prong outlet without a ground is not a fix.

The proper options are running a ground or new circuit, or installing GFCI protection and labeling the outlets as having no equipment ground. An electrician can tell you which suits the circuit.

It’s worth considering, especially in an area with frequent thunderstorms. A surge protective device at the panel helps protect wiring and hard-wired appliances such as furnaces and well-pump controls from surges coming in on the service.

It works best together with plug-in surge strips for sensitive electronics. No device stops a direct lightning strike.

No. A ceiling fan has to hang from a box that is listed and marked for fan support, fastened to the framing. An ordinary light box can loosen and let the fan fall.

When we install a fan where a light used to be, we check the box and replace it with a fan-rated box and brace if needed.

Interconnected alarms all sound when one detects smoke, so a fire in the basement wakes people in the bedrooms. Hard-wired alarms with battery backup don’t depend on someone remembering to change batteries.

Smoke alarms also wear out; replace them by the date printed on the unit. Hard-wired, interconnected systems are a good upgrade during a remodel or a service upgrade.

No. A breaker is sized to protect the wire on that circuit. A larger breaker lets the wire overheat before it trips, which is a fire risk.

A breaker that trips repeatedly means the circuit is overloaded, a device is faulty, or there is a short or ground fault. Unplug what’s on the circuit and call an electrician to find the cause.

GFCI protection is required in locations where water and electricity meet, such as kitchens, bathrooms, laundry areas, garages, unfinished basements, crawl spaces and outdoors. The exact list depends on the code edition and when the work was done.

If your older house has none, adding GFCI protection in those areas is one of the most effective safety upgrades you can make.

Usually, yes. A Level 2 charger needs a dedicated 240-volt circuit, and many homes with a 200-amp service have room for it. A load calculation answers it for your house.

If the service is close to full, a load-management device or a service upgrade may be needed. The charger and circuit should be installed with a permit.

Directional boring drills a path underground and pulls conduit or cable through it, so a run can pass under a driveway, sidewalk, lawn or landscaping without digging a trench across it. Only small pits are dug at each end.

It’s used for feeders to garages, barns and generators, and anywhere a trench would tear up something you’d rather keep. Revolution Electric offers directional boring and direct burial.

It depends on the wiring method and what’s above it. Direct-burial cable generally needs more cover than conduit, rigid metal conduit needs the least, and runs under driveways need more.

The required depth comes from the National Electrical Code as adopted in Michigan. An electrician chooses the method and depth that fits your run and gets it inspected before backfill.

A feeder sized for the building’s load, run overhead or underground from the house service or a separate meter, a panel or disconnect at the building, proper grounding, and the lights and outlets inside.

Barns are hard on wiring: dust, moisture, animals and rodents. Use wiring methods and fixtures suited to the conditions, and GFCI protection where required.

Sometimes. A separate meter can make sense for a large farm building or a long distance from the house; feeding from the house service is simpler for a garage or a modest barn. It depends on the loads, the distance and your utility’s rules, and is worth deciding before any wire goes in the ground.

Electrical contractors and electricians in Michigan are licensed through the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA), Bureau of Construction Codes. You can look up a license on LARA’s website.

Ask for the contractor’s license number and check it before work begins. Revolution Electric describes itself as licensed and insured.

Most electrical work beyond simple like-for-like replacements, such as new circuits, service upgrades, panel replacements and generator installations, needs a permit and an inspection.

Permits are issued by the local enforcing agency for your address, which may be your city, township or county, or by the State of Michigan’s Bureau of Construction Codes where no local agency enforces. A licensed contractor normally pulls the permit.

Michigan’s electrical code is based on the National Electrical Code (NEC), adopted with Michigan amendments. The edition in force changes over time, so requirements for things like GFCI and AFCI protection can differ from what was required when your house was built.

Check the license, ask about insurance, get the price before work starts, and make sure permits will be pulled where the job needs them. Read reviews that describe real jobs.

Pay attention to whether they call back, listen to what you want and explain what they find in plain words. Revolution Electric’s slogan is “Do it right the first time.”

Revolution Electric describes its pricing as “affordable, upfront pricing”: you get the price before the work starts. Its published Generac service price is $170.

Other work is priced by the job after a look at what’s involved. Call 989-621-3597 or send a request for a quote.