In a home I just bought the inspector said the circuit breaker box may need an upgrade. The place was built in 1975 and the box seems to be doing it's job. An upgrade will cost me $1000+.

¿How can I really know if I should get this thing upgraded?

¿Will it be a hazard or troublesome if I don't get it upgraded?

Call an electrician...dont overload...most of it is specs, not safety

dont worry about it unless u see it smoking

very possibly, have a liscensed electrician check it.

if you keep flipping breakers, then maybe buy one, they usally install the breaker box on a concrete wall so if it does spark, it hurts nothing. If it works don't sweat it, unless your lights always flicker or like the other guy said, you smell smoke

What was his reason? Did the box have more breakers in it than it was rated for?

I don't think so but I can't really say, I don't know much about electrical and wiring to know what questions I should have asked him.

Is it a push button style breaker panel, or do they flip from side to side?

They flip

The only way to be sure is to have a licensed electrician do a load calculation on the house. This takes into account the general purpose lighting load, all the appliances, heating and air, laundry,cooking equipment etc. from that he will determine the total amps, the feeders needed to carry the load and the breaker size needed to protect the feeders.

What happens, is over the years, circuits are added for microwaves, room additions, storage buildings etc...and the panel becomes overloaded.

I can give you a ballpark figure on the panel size, I will need the total square footage, using the outside dimensions of the home, IE: 26 feet x 55 feet= square feet

the number of appliances...
range,water heater, garbage disposal, refrigerator, freezer...list every appliance, and give me the dimensions...also check to see what size the existing panel is..in amps...150 200 etc. a look at the main breaker should give you that.

also don't forget to include the heating and air system, is it a central unit? if so i need the nameplate rating from the unit, in total amps, or total watts, also listed as (VA)

Many houses built in the mid ‘70s had service panels made by a company called “Federal Pacific.” Certain models of the breakers used in these panels were defective and pose a real fire hazard. I have had to change out quite a few in my time. Another reason for your inspector poo- pooing your panel is that it may be simply overloaded as Markecephus says. So how big is your house and, what are you running?
Unfortunately if you do need to have it changed out it will cost you. I usually charge a minimum of $1200 for a service change. If the house requires more than a 100 amp service or there’s a muddy crawl space involved it will cost more still.