Does an electrical panel upgrade make sense?

Question

My house was built in the 60s in CA with 100 amp service. I have been told that I should consider upgrading to 200 amp servive, but I am not sure it makes sense. I am not having any problems with circuit breakers tripping or anything like that, but I have read that an upgrade can reduce stress on appliances and make them run more efficiently. Is that true? I am also thinking about adding a manual transfer switch for a portable generator. Does a service upgrade make sense, and can I add the transfer switch without the upgrade? Thanks.

additional info: I have a 4-ton AC, but it is only used about one month per year out here in northern CA. I have a gas stove, furnace, and dryer. I also have a portable IR sauna that draws 1200 watts IIRC.

Answer 1

Of late, we've seen "electricians", particularly those found online and referral sites, are paying top dollar for these referrals. They tell you that you need a new panel for almost every job. This is "whaling" behavior, highballing the bid in hope of finding whales too rich/dumb to care.

Technology Connections has an excellent series on how to fully electrify a home without upgrading a 100A service. The stuff in part 1 is a bit pie in the sky, but the stuff in part 2 is solid: load sheds, and heat pump everything. I expect this to become part of everybody's panels in the future since the cost is so very low. (and honestly we could've been doing this in the 1980s; the computing power needed is Atari 2600 tier).

In your house, replacing the A/C with a heat pump would be a good move, because it would allow you to electrify heating while also REDUCING the amps in your load calculation used for HVAC. Because a modern cold-climate heat pump will be more efficient than the A/C in cooling mode, and "more efficient" means "takes less power".

Note that solar and EVs do not require capacity in the service load calculation; solar is an anti-load and EVs have dynamic load management.

On a house your size, if you want to do a generator, well, speaking of the 1980s... the new thing is battery systems, and they are getting better/cheaper by leaps and bounds. The key ingredient to a battery system: a MID/isolation switch that sits in between "the meter" and "the panel with all your breakers". I mention that because in NorCal, "all-in-one" panels are the rage and will certainly be your panel replacer's first choice.... and they don't provide a place to insert the MID.

Whether your panel is suitable for an inexpensive "generator interlock" is situational to your exact panel layout. It's often feasible in all-in-ones, but effectively impossible in split-bus/Rule of Six panels.

The other issue with older Bay Area homes is many have Federal Pacific or Zinsco panels, which have serious issues and should be replaced at the next opportunity. Challenger panels do not have this problem, but do have hazardous breakers that need to be swapped with fixed breakers (called Eaton BR).

Answer 2

The transfer switch is a double pole breaker. Do you have room for it?

A larger panel is probably good "future proofing" for your house. Not only would you have ample space for the transfer switch, but other "nice to have" upgrades like arc fault breakers, whole house surge protection, empty slots to run additional outlets, outdoor GFCI, or a shed subpanel as, and capacity for an upgraded service to run high voltage things like stove, dryer, water heater, e-vehicle charging, or even air conditioning - assuming you have few if any of these now. It would be far preferable to shuffling the power distribution on a subpanel for all those reasons and more.

Answer 3

There are a bunch of different reasons to do a heavy-up. But it is generally not a small process so it is not something most people would do only to future-proof. It typically includes:

• Replace main fuse/breaker panel(s)
• Replace feeder from utility (street or underground) to meter
• Replace meter pan
• Replace meter - this is up to the utility. Less common today for 60A or 100A to 200A as most utilities have replaced meters on their own over the last 30 years or so in order to add smart meters to eliminate manual meter reading. Those replacements are often capable of 200A and it is cheaper to use one meter model "everywhere" than to have different models for different homes based on current service size
• Add a disconnect or "meter main" in order to satisfy new requirements for an outside disconnect
• Replace feeder from meter to main panel
• Replace any circuits displaced by the new main panel (e.g., I needed new receptacles for phone/internet and clothes dryer)
• Reconnect all circuits in the new main panel, fixing problems along the way
• Possible additional upgrades depending on local jurisdiction and/or utility requirements

The question is: Why would/should you do all of this?

• Current panel too small to add desired new circuits. Sometimes this can be handled by adding a subpanel, but not always.
• Need more power! Which does not sound like the case here due to gas appliances. But that is quite common when people want to add EVSE (car charging) or switch from gas to electric or add a workshop or many other reasons.
• Current panel is obsolete and/or dangerous - I had two very old fuse boxes and one small CH panel (not have a huge CH panel) and adding things was getting complicated. Other examples (dangerous) include certain Zinsco, Federal Pacific and Challenger panels.
• Generator interlock - All modern panels can handle a generator interlock to safely add backup power. Many older panels either don't have an interlock available or don't have the 2 breaker spaces needed to install a generator feed.
• Solar power - requires additional breakers and appropriate panel bus capacity

In my case, it was very old panels that should have been replaced decades ago (like most of my neighbors did) plus adding a generator interlock. I had lots of fun helping my electrician, so that was an added benefit :-)

Note that a generator can be added two very different ways:

• A multi-circuit transfer switch wired into your panel. Typical brand is Reliance Controls. These are extremely limited and not recommended for most homes except if you have a situation where installing a generator interlock is simply not an option. They are limited to specific circuits, are an extra box separate from the panel and just don't make a lot of sense.
• Generator interlock wired to an outside inlet. This lets you put any circuits you want on a generator, subject to your decision at the time and the capacity of the generator. The interlock prevents generator power from backfeeding into the utility feed for safety. The inlet is outside which helps prevent the all-too-common problems of people running generators indoors and then dying from carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide or fires.

So a generator interlock itself can be the reason to do a heavy-up on a 50+ year old panel. And while you're at it, you have now added capacity for future circuits in general (breaker spaces), EVSE and similar large loads (utility service size) and other things.