Sometimes scary electric panels

Those old Portland houses I love so much, didn't have electricity way back when.  And then in dribs and drabs, knob and tube wiring, connecting to through fuse boxes, were installed.  Power surges, peaks in demand and such, would cause a fuse to blow - a good thing as it prevented over heating and fires.  To restore electricity, one would replace the fuse. 

In the 1950's (mostly) folks started replacing the fuse box with circuit breakers.  In a power "issue" the breaker would flip, cutting off power to the affected area.  Rather than replacing a fuse, the breaker would merely be flipped back into position to restore electricity. 

For years, twenty four in my case, in selling an old home, we'd be relieved to see any form of circuit breaker box, as opposed to fuses.  But also for years, almost as many, we've heard circuit breaker panels made by Federal Pacific have issues.  To a homeowner, the issue with a breaker would be that it flips to often or unnecessarily.  But you want the circuit breaker to flip when needed.  The Federal Pacific panels have been known not to flip, or trip, when they should.  Ack. This poses a huge fire risk.

In addition, we are hearing that even "good" circuit breaker panels age out, or wear  out.  I've been told the reasonable life expectancy of a circuit breaker panel is about fifty years.  Many of those early circuit breaker panels had a pretty small capacity of 60 or 100 amps.  And as we consume more electricity, many folks have upgraded their panels to accommodate 200 amps of service. Often  circuit breaker panels are upgraded in remodels and additions.

 Other safety features have shown up in the newer boxes, including a "main disconnect" by which one can shut off all the power to the house by flipping one switch. We're also seeing whole house surge protectors (rather than those things you buy at Office Depot to protect your electronics) and whole circuits protected by a ground fault circuit interrupter (rather than GFCI's on individual outlets).

I have facilitated real estate sales where a Federal Pacific panel is replaced as part of the buyer's repair request.  I have not yet seen a buyer request a non-Federal Pacific, but old panel be replaced just because of age.  I do wonder if this is on the horizon.