Electrical questions for Canton and Stark County homes, answered.

If it’s safe to reach, turn off the breaker for that circuit or the main breaker, then call an electrician. If you see smoke or flames, get everyone out and call 911 from outside.

A burning or fishy smell, a warm cover plate or a discolored outlet usually means a connection is overheating. Don’t keep using the circuit to see if it happens again.

That usually means one leg of your service or the service neutral has failed, which can damage appliances quickly. Turn off the main breaker if you can do it safely and call your utility (AEP Ohio or Ohio Edison) right away.

The fault can be on the utility’s side (the line or transformer) or yours (the meter base, service cable or panel). The utility checks its side first; an electrician repairs anything from the meter base in.

Stay well away from it, keep kids and pets away, and call your electric utility or 911. Treat every downed line as live, even if it isn’t sparking.

Don’t try to move it with anything, and don’t drive over it. If a line falls on your car while you’re in it, stay inside unless there’s a fire.

A faint hum can be normal, but a panel that’s warm to the touch, buzzing loudly, crackling or smells hot is not. Turn off the main if you can do it safely and call an electrician.

Those signs usually point to a loose connection, a failing breaker or an overloaded service. They get worse, not better.

No. Panel, service and new-circuit work should be done by a licensed electrician, with a permit and inspection. Mistakes there cause fires and shocks, and unpermitted work can cause problems with insurance and when you sell.

It’s fine to reset a tripped breaker once, test your GFCI outlets and replace a light bulb. Beyond that, call.

No. Leave the house right away, don’t touch light switches or anything that could spark, and call your gas utility or 911 from outside.

Once the gas utility has made the house safe, we can help with any electrical work that needs doing.

Look in the basement or attic for single wires running separately on white ceramic knobs and through ceramic tubes in the joists. Homes built before about 1940 often had it, and many Canton houses from that era still have some in the walls.

Knob-and-tube wasn’t built for modern loads, has no ground, and its insulation gets brittle with age. Many insurers ask about it. We can tell you how much is still live and what replacing it involves.

Two-prong outlets mean the circuit has no ground. They aren’t an emergency, but they don’t protect you or your electronics the way a grounded circuit does.

The fix is either adding a ground or installing GFCI protection on the circuit and labeling the outlets ‘No equipment ground’, which the code allows. Simply swapping in a three-prong outlet without a ground is not a safe fix.

A fuse box in good condition, with the right size fuses, isn’t dangerous by itself. The danger is when someone has put in oversized fuses to stop them blowing, which lets wires overheat.

Fuse boxes also tend to come with small services and too few circuits. Many insurers and buyers want them replaced, and a breaker panel makes adding circuits much simpler.

Some homes built in the late 1960s and early 1970s used aluminum for branch circuits. It can be found in Stark County houses of that age. Its connections can loosen and overheat over time.

Repairs use connectors and devices specifically rated for aluminum. Warm cover plates, flickering or a burning smell mean turn the circuit off and call.

One flickering bulb is usually the bulb or a loose fixture connection. Flickering in several rooms, or when large appliances start, points to a loose connection at the panel, meter or service, or an overloaded circuit.

LED bulbs on old dimmers flicker too; a dimmer rated for LEDs fixes that. Widespread or worsening flicker should be checked, because loose connections heat up.

Not always. Many older homes can be updated in stages: replace the panel, add grounding and GFCI and AFCI protection, then replace the original circuits in order of priority, starting with kitchens, baths and anything showing wear.

A walk-through tells you what’s actually in the walls and what can wait.

A breaker trips because the circuit is overloaded, there’s a short or ground fault, or the breaker is worn out. If it trips when one appliance runs, that circuit is likely carrying more than it was built for.

Reset it once. If it trips again right away, or the breaker feels hot, leave it off and call an electrician. Repeatedly resetting a breaker on a real fault is how wires overheat.

You likely need one if your panel is full, you have a 60- or 100-amp service and you’re adding central air, an electric range or dryer, an EV charger, a hot tub or a finished basement, or your lights dim badly when big loads start.

A load calculation tells you for certain. Many homes are fine at 100 amps; others need 200.

A service upgrade usually means a new meter base, service cable or mast, and main panel, plus grounding and bonding. It needs a permit, an inspection and coordination with your utility to disconnect and reconnect power.

Most residential upgrades take a day of work with the power off for part of it. We schedule the utility and inspection so you know when to expect it.

GFCI protection shuts off power when current leaks to ground, such as through a person. AFCI protection shuts off power when it detects arcing that can start fires in wiring.

Current code requires GFCI protection in wet and outdoor areas and AFCI protection on most living-space circuits in new work. Adding them to an older home is a smart upgrade.

It’s worth having. A surge protector at the panel helps protect furnaces, appliances and electronics from surges caused by lightning and utility switching, which plug-in strips can’t do alone.

Northeast Ohio gets plenty of summer thunderstorms. Whole-home surge protection works best alongside good grounding and point-of-use protectors for sensitive electronics.

Have an electrician install a generator inlet with an interlock kit or a transfer switch. Then run the generator outside, well away from doors, windows and vents.

Never plug a generator into a wall outlet with a double-ended cord. It sends power back onto the utility lines, which can electrocute line workers, and it can start a fire in your house.

In Stark County, the usual list is the sump pump, the furnace blower in winter, the refrigerator and freezer, a few lights and phone chargers. Size the generator and choose the circuits around that list.

A transfer switch or interlock lets you pick those circuits without running cords through the house.

A portable generator with an inlet and interlock is the most affordable way to keep the essentials running. A permanently installed standby generator starts automatically and can run more of the house, at a higher cost.

If outages leave your basement at risk of flooding while you’re away, an automatic standby system is worth considering.

A Level 2 charger needs a dedicated 240-volt circuit, usually 40 to 60 amps depending on the charger, and enough room in your panel and service to carry it.

We check your panel and do a load calculation first. Some homes can add a charger as-is; others need a panel or service upgrade, or a charger set to a lower current.

Unplugging sensitive electronics during a severe storm is a reasonable precaution, if you can do it before the storm arrives. Don’t handle cords during lightning.

Whole-home surge protection at the panel, plus plug-in protectors for electronics, is the long-term answer.

Usually, but the ceiling box has to be rated for fan support, and many older light boxes aren’t. We replace the box with a fan-rated one or add a brace between joists, then install and balance the fan.

If you want the fan and light on separate switches, that may mean an extra wire from the switch.

Finishing a basement typically means new circuits for lights and outlets, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, GFCI protection where required, and a permit and inspection before the walls are closed.

Plan outlets and lighting before framing goes up. It’s far cheaper to wire an open wall.

A pool pump needs a dedicated, properly sized circuit with GFCI protection, a disconnect within sight of the equipment, and equipotential bonding of the pump, metal parts and the water.

Bonding prevents dangerous voltage differences around the pool. It’s inspected, and it’s not something to skip.

Outdoor outlets need GFCI protection, weather-resistant receptacles and an in-use (bubble) cover that keeps them dry with something plugged in.

Holiday lights, pond pumps and tools all draw from these, so it’s worth putting them where you actually need them.

A freezer, microwave, window air conditioner or space heater is best on its own circuit, or at least one that isn’t shared with other big loads. Space heaters in particular draw close to the limit of a standard 15-amp circuit.

If a breaker trips whenever two of these run, it’s time for another circuit.

Yes. Custom Electric works for businesses as well as homeowners, and public permit records include commercial interior alterations in Stark and Summit counties.

Call (330) 456-3375 to talk through a build-out, lighting update or equipment circuit.

Electrical contractors in Ohio are licensed by the Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board (OCILB), part of the Ohio Department of Commerce. A state license is required for commercial electrical contracting, and cities such as Canton require it to register for permits.

License numbers for electrical contractors start with ‘EL’. Custom Electric’s is EL.45285, held by Larry D. Whipkey II.

Use the OCILB license lookup on the Ohio Department of Commerce eLicense site. Search by the contractor’s name or license number and check that the license type is Electrical Contractor.

Also ask whether they’ll pull the permit, and check that the license holder’s name matches the company you’re hiring.

Most electrical work beyond simple like-for-like replacements needs a permit: new circuits, panels, service upgrades, remodel wiring, generators and EV chargers. In Canton, permits come from the City of Canton Building Department; in many townships, from the Stark County Building Department.

Your electrician should pull the permit and schedule the inspection. If someone suggests skipping it, find someone else.

Ask for their OCILB license number, whether they carry insurance, whether they’ll pull the permit, who will do the work, and what the price includes.

A good electrician explains the problem in plain words and tells you what can wait as well as what can’t.

Ohio adopts the National Electrical Code with state amendments. The Stark County Building Department states that it applies the 2023 NEC to residential and commercial work.

Code changes over the years are why older homes often don’t meet current requirements. That isn’t automatically unsafe, but upgrades are made to the current code.