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About 20 years or so back, Federal Pacific lost their rating and certification by Underwriters Laboratories (UL). The design and operation of the breakers no longer met the criteria required for listing by UL. My home had a Federal Pacific panel that was installed at the end of World War II. The main breaker to my home was also a Federal Pacific. I never had a failure of a breaker to trip in an overload condition.

It may be wise to replace your FP breakers with a new and modern panel that is certified by UL. Should your home or business be involved in a fire ruled to be electrical in origin you may find that your insurance company would use that as a reason to not pay. I am not an attorney and certainly do not presume to give legal advice, I have, however, dealt with insurance companies and I am somewhat familiar with how they operate.

Chances are that your breaker panel is a number of years old. For safety and peace of mind it may be wise to consider an upgrade.

My panel was replaced about 3 years back when I installed a standby generator.

The main circuit breaker to my home was 50 amps with only 8 distribution circuits. This was before the days of central air and heating, electric water heaters, and electric ovens and stove tops. Today, this would not approach passing building code requirements.

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15y ago

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