“How much is a panel upgrade” is really several questions at once, and the reason quotes vary so much is that people asking it are often describing different jobs. This separates them out.
Three jobs that all get called “a panel upgrade”
- Panel replacement at the same service size. The panel is swapped and the existing circuits transferred. The incoming service, meter and service conductors stay as they are. Cheapest of the three, and the right job when the panel is the problem.
- A service upgrade. The capacity coming into the house increases — commonly 100A to 200A. New panel, new service conductors, usually new meter arrangement, grounding brought up to current requirements, and the utility involved to disconnect and reconnect. Substantially more work than a replacement.
- Adding a subpanel. A second, smaller panel fed from the existing one. Adds breaker spaces without adding capacity. Often the cheapest answer to the actual problem.
If you are collecting quotes, establishing which of these each contractor has priced is the first thing to do. It explains most large discrepancies.
Is the panel the constraint, or the service?
These are different limits and they need different work. The panel is the box and its breaker spaces: run out of spaces and you cannot add circuits, even with capacity to spare. The service is how much current the utility supply and its conductors can deliver: run out of that and no amount of panel space helps.
A load calculation is what distinguishes them. It totals the general lighting and receptacle load, the fixed appliances, heating and cooling, and any large dedicated loads, applies the standard demand factors that account for not everything running at once, and produces a figure to compare against the service rating. Being clear which limit you have hit is what stops a subpanel being sold where a service upgrade is needed, and vice versa.
100A and 200A, and why the answer is not automatic
A 100A service is not obsolete. A modest house with gas heating, gas water heating and no large dedicated loads can sit comfortably within it. The same house with electric heat, an EV charger and a hot tub will not.
The extra cost of going to 200A while the service is open is proportionally small compared with doing a 100A replacement now and a service upgrade in three years. If a charger, a heat pump, a generator or a workshop is anywhere in your thinking, that arithmetic usually favours doing it once. If none of them is, paying for capacity you will never use is not a virtue.
The condition of what is already there
This is the variable that most often turns a straightforward quote into a revised one, and the reason a good contractor wants to look before committing.
- Cable length. Circuits cut short at the old panel may not reach the new one’s terminals. Each needs extending properly in an accessible enclosure.
- Aluminium branch circuits. Not automatically a rewire, but the terminations need specific devices and treatment.
- Damaged or brittle insulation at the panel end, common on older installations and near heat.
- Grounding and bonding. A panel replacement is where this gets brought up to current requirements — grounding electrode, water pipe bonding, and grounds and neutrals properly separated in any subpanel. It is not an optional extra.
- Undocumented circuits. Unlabelled or spliced-in circuits have to be identified before they can be transferred, which takes time.
Utility involvement and the meter
Anything that changes the service means the supply has to be disconnected and reconnected, and that is the utility’s work on their schedule rather than yours. It affects the price through coordination and through the length of the job, and it is the main reason a service upgrade cannot be done as a same-visit job.
The meter enclosure, service mast, weatherhead and main disconnect may also need replacing as part of the upgrade — sometimes because they are being resized, sometimes because they are simply old enough that reusing them would be false economy with the service already open.
Permits and inspection
Service work normally requires a permit and an inspection, and the fees are set locally rather than by the contractor. The permit is pulled by the licensed contractor doing the work. A quote that omits this is not cheaper — it is incomplete, and it is worth asking about explicitly. How permits and inspections work in Lawton
When a subpanel is the better answer
If the load calculation shows the service has headroom and the problem is purely that the panel is full, a subpanel adds spaces for considerably less than a service upgrade. It is also the natural answer when circuits are needed a long way from the main panel — a garage, a workshop, an outbuilding — because one feeder to a subpanel out there is cheaper and tidier than several long runs back to the house.
Where it is the wrong answer is when the service itself is the limit. Then a subpanel divides the same capacity into more boxes, and the tripping continues.
If a charger or generator is the reason
Both are substantial continuous loads, and in both cases the load calculation is the first piece of work rather than a formality. Plenty of houses can take a Level 2 charger with no service work at all. Others need the charger configured to a lower current, or a load management device, either of which can avoid an upgrade entirely — worth knowing before committing to one.
Getting a number that will not change
For a quote to be firm, the contractor needs to have seen the panel, the meter and enough of the circuits to know what they are transferring. What you can usefully provide up front:
- A photograph of the panel with the door open enough to show the labels.
- The rating on the main breaker, if it is visible.
- The make of the panel, usually on the label inside the door.
- A photograph of the meter and where the service enters the house.
- What you are trying to add, if anything, and what you might add later.
- Whether the house has had additions, a converted garage, or a change of heating fuel.
Panel upgrades and replacement — what the work involves, and how to request an estimate.