Before performing any electrical work: please take safety precautions, consult a licensed electrician, and review your local codes and regulations.

In today's video we explain how the main electrical panel works; these may also be called load centers, circuit breaker boxes, or panelboards. Whether you are renting or you own your place, it is a good idea to understand the basics of how to reset a breaker and what potential malfunctions to look out for. These basics apply whether you have a GE, Square-D by Schneider, Eaton, Siemens, or Leviton panel as they all have the same UL certification. In the future you may want to swap out a standard circuit breaker for one with AFCI or GFCI capabilities; you may even want to add a whole new circuit to your panel. In the United States, residential electrical service provides alternating current electricity at 60Hz with two opposite pole current carrying wires and one neutral or zero voltage wire. The two current carrying wires are at 120 Volts each and can be combined to provide some appliances a total of 240V of electrical potential.