If your electrical panel is powered by at least 100 amps of service and your home is under 2,500 square feet, you can usually electrify your home without having to increase your service. All it takes is some upfront planning, and QuitCarbon can help.
Related: How to find your main electrical service
In addition to saving you money, making choices to electrify on your existing electrical service is both grid-friendly and neighborhood-friendly. It allows more people to electrify their homes more quickly and affordably.
Here are some ways to cut down on your home’s power consumption and save you the cost of a service upgrade:
- Choose energy-efficient appliances and smart devices. We can help you choose them.
- Circuit-sharing smart splitters and smart panels can help you better manage the energy loads in your home.
- 15-amp, 240-volt or 120-volt heat pump water heaters require less power than their 30-amp counterparts.
- Likewise, some heat pump clothes dryers have lower power requirements. Washer/dryer combos are another great energy-saving option.
- For heating and cooling, variable speed heat pumps are not only less energy-hungry, they also do a better job of keeping indoor temperatures consistent.
- If you drive an EV, setting your charger to 16 amps still offers fast enough charging for most households, or opt for a power-smart EV charger, or an EV charger that pauses its power consumption while other appliances are running.
But before you break out the bubbly, there are sometimes good reasons to upsize your main electrical service (from 100 amps to 200 amps typically).
More amps means more juice to power all your appliances and devices. Homeowners love having the flexibility to choose their appliances—and when and how they’re used.
An electrical service upgrade is also an insurance policy: it equips your home for unforeseen electrical demands or expansions and remodeling projects for you or a future occupant.
It's also possible that you can remain on 100 amps of service, but just upsize your main panel or install a new subpanel to accommodate new breakers and circuits for your new electric appliances.
In cases where the existing electrical equipment is damaged, unsafe, or just obsolete, upgrading that panel and/or wiring may be unavoidable. (Knob and tube, old fuse boxes, and fire hazard panels like Zinsco and Federal Pacific Electric are examples of unsafe and obsolete equipment.)
The cost of upgrading an electrical panel averages $3,000 - $5,000, or sometimes more if the new panel requires other electrical upgrades and/or coordinating with your utility to bring in new 200 amps service lines.
QuitCarbon provides free ENERGY STAR® certified guidance along with vetted local contractors to upgrade your home with heat pumps, induction cooking, EV chargers, solar, batteries, and more. Get started.
