Federal Pacific Electric Box. Federal pacific electric started off making electrical switchgear but in the 1950s some folks at a company called federal electric products came up with a circuit breaker and panel design to jump in on the building boom and newfangled invention of residential circuit breakers that was going on at the time. These breaker panels have high failure rates linked to thousands of house fires.
Millions of homes were built with fpe stab lok panels between 1950 and 1990. Federal pacific electric breaker panels commonly known as fpe stab lok breaker panels have a high potential risk for unexpected failure. How to tell if you own a federal pacific electric stab lok panel.
Meaning they couldn t prevent overloading and electrical faults.
If your home was constructed during this time frame then it may contain one of these panels. Millions of their panels were installed in homes across the country. After reports of electrical fires in the 1980s an investigation revealed that 1 out of 4 stab lok breakers couldn t trip. Federal pacific panels also known as fpe panels were a popular residential electrical panel choice in the mid to late 20th century.
