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Electrical

Panel upgrades near you

Service upgrades from 100A to 200A and beyond.

Prepared by the TenBestFind Editorial TeamUpdated September 2026

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  • Part of

    Electrical

  • Companies offer it

    47

  • Cities covered

    8

  • Last checked

    September 2026

The work

What panel upgrades actually involves

More circuits, or more capacity, which are different problems

Two different complaints get called a panel upgrade. One is running out of spaces for new circuits, which can sometimes be solved inside the existing panel. The other is running out of service capacity, where the supply into the house is not enough for what the house now contains, and that means new service from the meter in.

Which one you have decides the price, and the difference between them is large. Adding an electric vehicle charger, a heat pump and an induction range to a sixty-amp service is a capacity problem; wanting two more circuits in a hundred-amp panel usually is not.

Some panel brands have known safety problems and are effectively uninsurable in parts of North America. If yours is one of them, replacement is not really a discretionary upgrade, and an electrician will tell you which you have on sight.

The load calculation

The size of the new service should come from a calculation

Two hundred amps has become the default answer, and it is often right. It should still be the output of a calculation rather than a habit.

The calculation adds up the connected load: heating and cooling, water heating, cooking, laundry, vehicle charging, and a factor for general lighting and outlets by floor area. It is a standard method and it produces a number.

It matters in both directions. Undersizing leaves you doing this again in five years, and oversizing can mean an unnecessary service upgrade with the utility involved, which is the expensive half of the job.

Failure points

Two things that go wrong

All electricians research →

  1. The utility's part of the work

    Ask: “Does this need the utility, and who arranges it and pays for their part?”

    Upgrading the service often needs the utility to change the drop, the meter or the connection, on their schedule rather than the electrician's. That can add weeks, and sometimes cost, and it is the single most common reason a panel upgrade takes longer than anybody said.

  2. Grounding and bonding brought up to date

    Ask: “Does the price include bringing the grounding and bonding up to current code?”

    Older installations frequently have grounding arrangements that no longer meet current requirements, and a panel replacement is the moment that gets corrected. It is a legitimate addition to the scope and a nasty surprise if it appears after the quote was accepted.

Before you book panel upgrades

How we rank →

Six checks, in the order they save you the most. None of them takes longer than a phone call, and the first one is the reason two quotes for the same job can be a thousand apart.

  1. In-house or subcontracted

    Ask whether the crew doing this specific work is on their payroll. Plenty of companies list a service and hand it straight to somebody else, which is not wrong, but it changes who is answerable when something goes back.

  2. The licence for the parent trade

    Look the number up with the authority that issues it rather than reading the certificate they send you. What a licence covers, and whether one is needed at all, changes by state and province.

  3. Insurance, confirmed with the insurer

    A current certificate sent to you by the insurer, not a photocopy from the company. Ask for liability and, where crews are on site, workers' compensation.

  4. What the quote leaves out

    Removal, disposal, subfloor or substrate work, permits and making good afterwards are where two quotes on the same job separate. Ask for the exclusions in writing next to the inclusions.

  5. Two warranties, not one

    The manufacturer covers the material and the company covers the workmanship. Get the second in writing, with its length, and ask whether it transfers if you sell.

  6. How a change is priced

    Agree before the deposit how anything found on the way is priced and approved. The moment to settle that is while you are still choosing between companies, not on the day somebody lifts a floorboard.

Where we cover it

Electricians shortlists by city

Every shortlist →

A company offering panel upgrades appears in the published list for its own market. Each one names the editor who built it and the date they last checked it.

On the lists

Companies that list panel upgrades

Drawn from the profiles where this service is recorded, not from what a company advertises.

Common questions about panel upgrades

Ask us something else →

  • Who handles panel upgrades?

    Panel upgrades is handled by electricians. Not every company in the trade takes this work on, so each ranking lists the services a company genuinely performs rather than everything it advertises.

  • What should I ask before booking panel upgrades?

    Ask what the quote includes and excludes, who is doing the work, whether a permit is needed and who is pulling it, and what the workmanship warranty covers. Get the answers in writing before anyone starts.

  • How do I compare quotes for this?

    Put them on one sheet line by line. Differences in price almost always turn out to be differences in scope, material grade or warranty length rather than margin.

  • Is panel upgrades priced separately from the rest of the job?

    Usually it is a line inside a larger quote rather than its own invoice, which is exactly why the exclusions matter. Ask for it itemised so you can compare that line between companies instead of comparing two totals.

For electrical

Do you offer panel upgrades?

Claim your profile so the services you actually perform are the ones recorded here, alongside your licence, hours and coverage. Neither claiming nor advertising buys a ranked position.

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