More Power for a Growing Home

What a panel upgrade actually changes

A panel upgrade replaces the breaker box, the main breaker, and in most cases the service entrance conductors feeding it. The result is more amperage available at the house and more physical space for circuits. A 100 amp panel with 20 spaces can be completely full while the house still has power to spare. A 200 amp panel with 40 spaces gives you the slots for a heat pump, a shop feeder, an EV circuit, and the kitchen work you have been putting off for three years.

The upgrade also brings grounding and bonding up to current code. Older Kennewick and Pasco homes often have a single ground rod, no bond at the water line, and neutrals and grounds sharing one bar. Kyle separates the bars, drives supplemental rods, and bonds the metal water and gas piping per NEC Article 250. That work is invisible once the cover goes back on. It is also the part that decides what happens to your house during a fault.

Why Tri-Cities homes outgrow their panels

Summer here runs past 100 degrees for weeks at a time. Air conditioning and heat pumps are the largest sustained load most houses carry, and they were often added years after the panel was set. Stack a second system for a converted garage, a well pump out toward Finley or Burbank, and a shop with a welder, and a 100 amp service is doing work nobody calculated for it. The house does not fail dramatically. It nuisance trips, and it picks August to do it.

New construction in West Richland and south Kennewick goes in at 200 amps as a baseline, and buyers have started to notice the difference. If you are on a 1960s panel with a full bus and a fused disconnect outside, a home inspection is likely to flag it. Upgrading before you list costs less than negotiating it at closing, and you get to use the capacity in the meantime instead of handing it to the next owner for free.

Permits, inspection, and the power shutdown

Panel work is permitted and inspected, with no exceptions worth taking. In most of Benton and Franklin County the permit and the inspection come through the Washington Department of Labor and Industries. Work inside Richland city limits is inspected by the city instead, depending on jurisdiction and the address. Gale Electric pulls the permit under Washington license GALEEEL790O7, schedules the inspection, and meets the inspector on site. You do not chase paperwork, and nothing gets covered up before an inspector has looked at it.

The power has to come off to change a panel. Depending on your address, that means coordinating a disconnect and reconnect with Benton PUD, Franklin PUD, or the City of Richland utility. Most single panel changes are a one day outage during business hours, and you get the window before the truck shows up. If you work from home, run a home business, or have medical equipment on power, say so when you call and the schedule gets built around that.

What Kyle checks before quoting a price

Every quote starts with a load calculation instead of a guess. That means adding up conditioned square footage, heating and cooling equipment, the range, the dryer, the water heater, and any shop or irrigation loads, then applying the demand factors in NEC Article 220. A house that feels overloaded sometimes calculates fine and only needs a sub panel for space. Saying so costs Gale Electric the bigger sale. It is also the true answer, and it is why those customers call back with the next job.

The site visit also covers the meter base, the mast or underground lateral, the condition of the service conductors, the grounding electrode system, and whether the current panel location still has legal working clearance in front of it. Those items move the price more than the panel itself does. You get the number in writing before anything is scheduled, with permit and inspection included, so there is no second conversation about cost after the wall is open.