Electrical Guides From the Field
Marc Reeves · July 4, 2026
Last August, I got a call from a homeowner in my area who was completely stumped. Her kitchen lights dimmed every time the microwave kicked on. Her garage door opener had started acting sluggish. Her HVAC unit tripped the breaker twice in one week. She thought her appliances were dying. I knew immediately — after … Read more
Marc Reeves · July 3, 2026
Last January, my electricity bill jumped $47 in a single month. Nothing changed in my house — no new appliances, no extra guests, same weather. That mystery sent me down a rabbit hole that turned into a 30-day obsession with phantom load electricity waste. Phantom loads are the watts your devices draw even when you … Read more
Marc Reeves · July 2, 2026
Last summer, a homeowner called me in a panic. Her contractor had quoted $4,800 for a main panel upgrade. A second contractor said she only needed a subpanel for $1,200. She had no idea who to believe — and honestly, that confusion is more common than you’d think. Understanding subpanel vs main panel upgrade cost … Read more
Marc Reeves · July 1, 2026
When I bought my first EV three years ago, I did what most people do — I plugged it into the 120V outlet in my garage and called it a night. For two weeks, that was fine. Then I got my electric bill. The Level 1 vs Level 2 EV charging cost question stopped being … Read more
Marc Reeves · June 29, 2026
Last fall, I climbed onto a client’s roof in Portland and immediately understood his problem. Three massive Douglas firs cast a shadow across the left half of his array from about 10 a.m. onward. He’d had a string inverter system installed two years prior. His energy bills were barely budging. The installer had done nothing … Read more
Marc Reeves · June 28, 2026
Surge damage prevention is one of those topics I bring up on almost every home inspection I do — and almost every homeowner looks at me like I’m overselling them something. Then I show them the fried circuit board inside their HVAC control unit, or the dead smart TV that stopped working two weeks after … Read more
Marc Reeves · June 27, 2026
Last spring I walked through a house where a single lightning strike had taken out the refrigerator, both garage door openers, the smart thermostat, and a brand-new 65-inch TV — all in one shot. The homeowner had point-of-use surge strips on the TV and the computer. None of it mattered. That’s the reality of transient … Read more
Marc Reeves · June 26, 2026
Last spring, I inspected a house in suburban Ohio where the homeowner had spent nearly $4,000 replacing a refrigerator, a smart TV, and a whole-home HVAC control board — all fried in a single lightning strike. When I opened the panel, there was no whole-home surge protection anywhere. There was, however, a $12 power strip … Read more
Marc Reeves · June 25, 2026
Last spring, I inspected a home where a single lightning strike had taken out the refrigerator, two smart TVs, a gaming console, and the homeowner’s home office computer. Total loss: roughly $6,800 in electronics. Every room had power strips. Some even had strips labeled “surge protector” right on the box. None of it mattered. That’s … Read more
Marc Reeves · June 24, 2026
The first time I opened an electrical panel on my own — not as an apprentice standing beside my mentor, but solo, on a job, with a homeowner watching — my hands were steadier than I expected. That steadiness didn’t come from bravado. It came from understanding exactly what I was looking at. That’s the … Read more