Panel work is the heart of an electrician's job. The panel is where everything in your house connects to the grid, and a panel that's full, undersized, or built by a manufacturer with a recall history (Federal Pacific Stab-Lok and Zinsco are the two big ones) is a fire risk that gets worse with every additional circuit you try to add.

A typical service upgrade replaces an old 100A or 60A panel with a 200A panel from Square D, Eaton, or Siemens. The work involves a permit, coordination with Duke Energy for a meter pull (so we can safely disconnect the service drop), the actual panel swap, re-terminating every branch circuit into the new panel, and a county inspection at the end. We do this in a single day for typical homes — the power is off for about 4 hours.

Sub-panels are a separate but related service. They feed detached garages, workshops, hot tubs, pool equipment, in-law suites, and home additions. The sub-panel runs from the main panel through a properly-sized feeder (usually 60A or 100A), and it has its own breakers for the structure it feeds. Done correctly with proper grounding and bonding rules, a sub-panel is the cleanest way to add capacity without rebuilding the main panel.

Whole-home rewires are the heaviest work we do. They're rare — usually triggered by aluminum branch wiring (a 1965–1973 era hazard), knob-and-tube discoveries during renovation, or homeowners who want every circuit replaced as part of a major remodel. Rewires take 3–7 days, leave the house briefly without power section by section, and require drywall patching afterward.