← Electrician Portal/Service Upgrade Playbook

Job Playbook

The 200A service upgrade playbook

The job every resi electrician quotes and a lot of them underbid. Here is the whole thing — the walk, the load calc, the utility dance, cut-over day, and the eight line items that quietly eat the margin.

Residential serviceOverhead & undergroundInspection checklist included

A service upgrade looks simple on paper: old panel out, new panel in, meter released, done. In practice it is four trades’ worth of coordination — you, the utility, the AHJ, and whoever patches the wall — and the money is won or lost during the site walk, not on cut-over day.

This is the sequence that keeps a 200A change-out on schedule and on budget. It assumes a single-family dwelling, existing overhead or underground service, and a panel relocation of zero to a few feet. Everything here is general practice. Your adopted code edition and your utility’s service rules are the final word.

Phase 1

The site walk

Ninety percent of the money in this job is decided here. Do not quote a service upgrade off a photo.

Outside first

Service point and drop condition. Where does the utility’s responsibility end and yours begin? That line is set by the POCO, not the NEC, and it decides who pays for what.
Mast, weatherhead, and standoff. A rotted mast or a drip loop that has been wrong for thirty years turns a panel swap into a riser job.
Meter base condition and mounting surface. Rusted-out base, rotten siding behind it, or a base that has to move for clearance — all cost items.
Overhead clearances over the roof, driveway, and walkway. If the existing drop is already low, raising the mast may be a requirement, not an option.
Underground: locate the lateral. Depth, conduit condition, and whether the POCO or you own that run. Call in the locates early — this is the single most common schedule killer.
Grounding electrode system. Rods present? Accessible? Is the concrete-encased electrode available or buried under a finished slab? Water pipe bond present and landed at the correct point?

Inside next

Panel location and working clearance. The new panel needs its working space clear. If the existing panel is in a closet, over stairs, or behind a water heater, you may be relocating — price the feeder and the drywall.
Existing branch circuit condition. Aluminum branch wiring, knob and tube, cloth NM, undersized neutrals, doubled taps. Photograph all of it before you quote.
Conductor length at the panel. Short home-run tails are the reason a two-day job becomes a three-day job. Budget for j-boxes and extensions.
Bonding of metal water and gas piping. Check what is actually bonded, not what someone assumed was bonded.
What is on the old panel that has to survive. Well pump, septic alarm, sump, medical equipment, home office. Note anything that cannot lose power for a full day.
Finish repair scope. Who patches, textures, and paints? Put the answer in the contract in writing.

Before you open anythingTreat the service as energized until you have personally verified otherwise with a tested meter. Line-side terminals in a meter base and main lugs stay hot after the main breaker is off. OSHA 1910.333 covers safety-related work practices for de-energizing and verification; NFPA 70E is the arc-flash and PPE standard most contractors work to. Line-side work on an energized service is not a solo task.

Phase 2

The load calculation

Do it before you promise 200 amps. Do it again if the homeowner mentions an EV, a hot tub, or a mini-split during the walk.

NEC Article 220 gives you two routes for a dwelling. The standard method walks every load through its own demand factor. The optional method for a one-family dwelling (220.82) is faster and is what most residential shops use for a straightforward change-out. In broad strokes the optional method totals the general lighting and receptacle load at 3 VA per square foot, adds the two required small-appliance circuits and the laundry circuit at 1,500 VA each, adds the nameplate rating of the fastened-in-place appliances, applies 100% to the first 10 kVA and 40% to the remainder, then adds the larger of the heating or air-conditioning load at 100%.

Two things catch people out. First, an EV charger is a continuous load — conductors and overcurrent protection get sized at 125% of it, so a 48 A charger needs a 60 A circuit. Second, if the calculated load lands close to 200 A, do not round in your own favour. A 200 A service sitting at 190 A calculated the day you leave has no room for the heat pump they install next spring, and you will be the one they call.

Load CalculatorPanel size and total amps Wire SizeMinimum conductor EV Charger GuideIf they mentioned a car

Verify locallyDwelling service and feeder conductor sizing has its own allowance that lets you use a smaller conductor than the straight ampacity table for a dwelling’s main power feeder. The section that allowance lives in has been renumbered between code cycles, so confirm the article number and the exact conditions in the edition your jurisdiction has actually adopted before you buy wire.

Phase 3

Utility and permit choreography

This is a scheduling problem disguised as an electrical problem.

Pull the permit firstMost utilities will not schedule a disconnect without a permit number on file. The permit is the long pole — start it the day the contract is signed.

Submit the utility service applicationSeparate from the permit, and often a different portal and a different queue. If the meter is moving, relocating, or changing size, most utilities treat it as a new service application with its own review time.

Confirm who cuts and who reconnectsSome utilities send a crew to pull the meter and come back to set it. Some let a licensed contractor pull their own seal. Some require a disconnect appointment and a separate reconnect appointment on different days. Know which one you are dealing with before you promise the homeowner power that night.

Line up the inspectionIn most jurisdictions the AHJ has to pass the service before the utility will release the meter. That is the dependency that strands a family without power overnight when it slips. Book it for the same day and have a backup slot.

Tell the homeowner the real planWritten, in advance: the day power goes out, roughly how long, what will not run, and what happens if the inspector or the utility does not show. Set the expectation before it becomes a complaint.

Phase 4

Material list

The list you build once and reuse. Missing one item on cut-over day costs you an hour and your reputation.

Service equipment

Panel with the right main and enough spaces, meter base from the utility’s approved list, mast and weatherhead or lateral conduit, hub or roof flashing, and the correct number and type of breakers — including the AFCI and GFCI types for the circuits that need them.

Conductors

Service-entrance conductors sized off the calc, grounding electrode conductor per Table 250.66, equipment grounding conductors per 250.122, and enough extra to make up every home-run tail comfortably.

Grounding and bonding

Ground rods and clamps, acorn clamps for the water pipe bond, bonding jumper around the water meter and any dielectric union, intersystem bonding termination, and antioxidant if you are landing aluminum.

The things people forget

Weatherproof sealant, mast standoff bracket, a fresh panel directory, circuit ID labels, blank fillers, j-boxes and connectors for short tails, and a tube of exterior caulk that matches the siding.

Phase 5

Cut-over day sequence

Document the existing panel before you touch it. Photograph every breaker and every conductor landing. Label every home run with its circuit before it leaves the old can. Ten minutes here saves two hours later.
Confirm the disconnect. Utility pulls the meter, or you pull the seal per their rules. Verify dead at the line side with a tested meter, then test your meter again on a known source.
Set the new equipment. Meter base, mast or lateral, panel. Get the enclosure square and the knockouts right the first time — an inspector notices a sloppy can before he notices anything else.
Establish the grounding electrode system before you land branch circuits. Rods driven and clamped, GEC run continuous and unspliced where required, water pipe bonded, intersystem bonding termination installed.
Land the neutrals and grounds correctly. At the service disconnect the neutral is bonded. Downstream of it, separated. Getting this backwards is the single most common failed-inspection item on a change-out.
Land branch circuits by your labels, not by memory. Torque every termination to the value printed in the panel. Use a torque driver — inspectors increasingly ask to see one.
Fill the directory legibly. Room and load, not “lights.” Type it if your handwriting is bad.
Test before you call for inspection. Verify polarity and grounding at a receptacle on every circuit, trip-test the GFCI and AFCI breakers, and confirm voltage leg to leg and leg to neutral.

Phase 6

The inspection checklist

The items inspectors actually write up on residential service change-outs.

Neutral-to-ground bond in the wrong place — bonded at the service disconnect only, separated everywhere downstream.
Grounding electrode conductor undersized, spliced, or run where it can be damaged — size it from Table 250.66 off the service conductors.
Missing supplemental electrode — a single driven rod generally needs a second one unless resistance to earth is documented. Confirm the requirement and the documentation your AHJ accepts.
Water pipe bond missing, or landed downstream of the meter with no jumper around it.
Working clearance obstructed — the space in front of the panel has to stay clear, including of the shelving the homeowner puts back.
Panel directory blank, illegible, or generic.
Missing or wrong AFCI and GFCI protection on circuits that were modified or extended — the trigger for when existing circuits need protection is edition-specific, so check yours.
Open knockouts, missing fillers, or unused openings not closed.
Terminations not torqued, or aluminum landed without the listed compound where it is required.
Emergency disconnect not provided where the adopted edition requires one for a one- and two-family dwelling. This was added in a recent cycle — if your jurisdiction is on an older edition it may not apply.

The money

What eats the margin

None of these are exotic. All of them are routinely left out of the quote.

Short home-run tailsThe new panel is bigger, or three inches over, and now a third of the circuits will not reach. Junction boxes, extensions, and an afternoon.

Drywall and paintEither you priced the patch or you are eating it. There is no third option once the wall is open.

Mast, riser, or meter base replacementDiscovered on the walk it is a line item. Discovered on cut-over day it is a delay and a return trip.

Bringing the grounding electrode system up to currentOld services often have one rod, a bond to a pipe that has since been replaced with PEX, and no intersystem bonding termination.

AFCI and GFCI breakersMaterially more expensive than standard breakers, and on a modified panel you may need a lot of them. Count them at quote time, not at the supply house.

Pre-existing branch circuit problemsYou open the can and find a shared neutral on two breakers on the same leg, or a double-tap, or cloth NM. You cannot un-see it and you should not re-land it. Have a change order ready.

The second tripUtility no-show, inspector reschedule, wrong meter base for the approved list. Every service upgrade should be priced assuming one return visit.

Permit, application, and inspection feesSmall individually, real in aggregate, and almost always absorbed rather than billed.

The fix for most of this is not pricing harder. It is a scope of work specific enough that everything above is either included on purpose or excluded in writing, and a change order the homeowner signs on the spot rather than argues about at the end.

Scope GeneratorWrite the exclusions Change Order FormSigned on the spot What to ChargeBuild your real rate

Accuracy

Code notes to verify

The sections cited on this page — Article 220 for load calculations, Table 250.66 and 250.122 for grounding and equipment grounding conductor sizing — are stable across recent cycles and are named because we are confident in them. Several other items are deliberately described without a section number, because they have moved, changed, or been added between editions:

Dwelling service conductor sizing allowance — the reduced-ampacity allowance for a dwelling’s main power feeder has been renumbered between cycles.
AFCI on extended or modified existing circuits — both the trigger and the subsection have changed.
Emergency disconnect for one- and two-family dwellings — a recent addition, not present in older adopted editions.
Supplemental grounding electrode and the resistance threshold — verify the current wording and the documentation your AHJ will accept.

Always check your adopted editionJurisdictions adopt the NEC on their own schedule and amend it locally. A rule that is current in the newest edition may not be enforced in your county, and a local amendment may be stricter than anything printed in the book. Confirm against the edition your AHJ has actually adopted before you rely on any of this on a job.

The paperwork for this job, already written

Scope of work, change order, and an invoice built for service work — so the walk-through you just did turns into a document the homeowner signs.

Open the paperwork kit Back to the portal

Electrician Portal · NEC Quick Reference · EV Charger Installs · Paperwork Kit

General information for licensed trade professionals. Not engineering or code-compliance advice. Always verify against your locally adopted code edition and amendments.