Richard K. of Canton, Ohio, had a problem: water was getting inside his home’s electrical service panel. Not only that, but both the panel and his electrical service line had become badly corroded.
The deterioration of his electric line likely allowed water to seep into the electrical service panel, and corrosion in the service panel can ruin the connection between the line and the house and is a fire hazard. These problems caused partial loss of power to the home, with no power available in the kitchen, living room or bedrooms when it rained.
Even worse, his wife was on oxygen and the outages caused her oxygen concentrator to stop working, forcing her to switch to her portable tank – a limited resource that could only be refilled once every three months. The frequent usage because of the power outages was eating through her limited supply.
Something Richard didn’t realize was his home only had 60 amp service – far below the modern standard of 200 amps. Many insurance agencies won’t even insure homes with less than 100 amp service. Too much demand on a low amperage system will cause blown fuses, and, if a more modern fuse replaced an older fuse, it might be too powerful for the system, creating yet another fire hazard.
Richard had more problems than he knew, because, not only did he need his connection and electrical service panel replaced, but his electrical service needed to be improved to at least 100 amps to eliminate the partial power loss and fire hazard. All this work would cost thousands of dollars – something that Richard, a retiree on a fixed income, didn’t have. He and his wife were faced with a grim choice: either make thousands in repairs or live in an unsafe home with the constant threat of power outages.
Enter BP Electric and HomeServe. After BP Electric answered a service call to Richard’s home and diagnosed the problem, HomeServe agreed to cover all the couple’s repairs through the company’s HomeServe Cares Foundation. Through the Caring for People program, HomeServe provides pro bono emergency home repairs to qualified homeowners who are faced with safety, sanitation or quality of life issues.
BP sent a crew out on a Saturday to ensure that service was returned to normal as quickly as possible.
“This particular customer has half power, so they’re only getting one leg of power to their home, about half the stuff in their house doesn’t work,” Ben Bantz, electrician, said. “[She] is on oxygen, so we came out here on Saturday.”
Through HomeServe and BP’s partnership, full service was returned to Richard’s home, so rain no longer infiltrates his electrical service panel and causes a power outage – or a risk to his wife’s health.
HomeServe USA offers an optional suite of emergency home repair plans, including electrical and gas service lines, interior gas and interior electric. Our licensed and insured network contractors are fully vetted and local, and our Award-winning call center is fully staffed 24/7/365. To find out more, contact us.
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