Although there are probably times you could use a cold shower, jumping into the shower first thing in the morning only to be shocked by cold water coming out of the showerhead is not my idea of a good day. In fact, it probably is telling you what kind of day you will be having.

If you have an electric water heater, which many people do, you may have experienced this eye-opening experience a couple of times over your lifetime. For those of you who haven't, it's much like experiencing the polar bear plunge into icy water to revive your inner self. Yeah, right! I just call it stupidity. Myself, I'd prefer a dip in a luke warm swimming pool or a hot dip in a hot tub.

Electric water heaters have problems from time-to-time and need maintenance to get them working properly. Sometimes, it is as simple as a defective electric heating element.

There's a new form of electrical circuit protection and in comes in the form of a circuit breaker. Looking much like a ground-fault circuit interrupter (GFCI), this breaker protects your electrical branch circuits from arc faults and helps save you, your family, and your home from an electrical fire, among other things.

They are the new standard, according to the 2009 National Electrical Code, and it is a wise investment to add to your electrical panel at home. So waht is the big deal about arc-fault circuit interrupters anyway?

Photo: Timothy Thiele

You may be wondering what trees and branches have to do with electricity. Well, let me explain a little further to help you get the idea. You see, power is fed form the utility company's power lines through an electric meter, disconnect and finally to your main sevice panel. It is the tree that feeds you home with power.

These circuits, that leave via individual circuit breakers, are called branch circuits. They are the branches of the tree that go every which way throughout the home. These branches have their individual missions to supply appliances, lighting, and outlets. Hopefully, with this explanation, you'll understand better just what branch circuits are.

Photo: Timothy Thiele

Electrical service panels certainly have come a long way since their early years. Back in years past, a simple 110-volt feed to a home was sufficient to supply the little bit of power required to power lights and appliances in a home. As you may be aware, we were not as electrically hungry back then as we are today. In fact, just turn the power off to someone's home for an hour and watch the utility company's switchboard light up like a Christmas tree! Why it's worse than losing toilet priviledges!

It is true that we just assume we can flip on a light switch and the power will be there waiting to light our world. There are, in fact, times when storms and other problems arise that disconnect the power feed from our homes and you will need some special electrical devices to help you get throught it. Oh No! What are we to do? Call 911? Well, not exactly. Call the utility company maybe, but you may be fortunate enough to own a portable generator that can come in quite handy in times like these. Just remember to opertate them safely if you have to use them, your life and those of others may be in the balance.

These generators are connected to the service panel through a transfer switch. Its purpose is to supply power to a service panel either from the main power the utility company provides or a generator. A knife switch allows only one or the other and that just simply saves lifes! Backfeeding power can power downed powerlines and injure utility workers and other people that may come into contact with the powerlines down the road. Please, be careful and think before you act!

Service panels distribute the power throughout your home and they sure have come a long way. Do you know the major differences in service panels?

Photo: Timothy Thiele