Electrical · Built before 1990

Older Electrical Panels in Homes Built Before 1990

Homes built before 1990 without a documented panel upgrade may still have their original electrical panel, including brands like Federal Pacific (FPE Stab-Lok) or Zinsco that have a documented history of breaker failures.

What it is

Federal Pacific Stab-Lok and Zinsco panels were widely installed between roughly 1950 and 1990. Independent testing over the following decades found their breakers fail to trip under overload conditions at meaningfully higher rates than modern panels — the panel's whole job is to trip and cut power when something goes wrong.

Why it matters

A panel that doesn't reliably trip is a fire risk, which is why a growing number of insurers ask about panel brand and either decline coverage or require replacement before binding a policy.

What's worth doing next

It's worth having a licensed electrician confirm the panel brand at inspection, since panel labels aren't always obvious from a quick look.

Code changes like these are prospective — they apply to new construction going forward, not retroactively to homes already built. A home that predates a given standard isn't out of compliance with anything; it just predates it. Tarn surfaces this as a consideration worth having evaluated, not a verdict on the home.

See if this applies to a specific address

Enter the year built alongside an address search, and Tarn checks it against this and every other code-era risk factor automatically.

Search an address

Other code-era risk factors