Commercial electrical contracting
Commercial electrical contracting across Lebanon, Lancaster and Berks counties: fit outs, remodels, service and panel upgrades, lighting, parking lots and EV charging.
Electrical service and panel upgrades
A service upgrade is one of the few electrical jobs where the decision matters more than the labour. Size it from a calculation and it lasts twenty years. Size it from habit and you pay twice, because the second upgrade costs more than the difference would have. This page covers how the size gets decided, what the utility controls, and what actually happens on the day the power goes off.
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- Kinds of work under this heading
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- Counties: Lebanon, Lancaster, Berks
What we do
The services behind this work
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Infrared thermographic surveys, torque and insulation testing, and arc flash studies for plants and farms across Lebanon, Lancaster and Berks counties in Pennsylvania.
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Commercial and fleet EV charging installation
Commercial EV charger installation, load calculations, load management and conduit for future stalls across Lebanon, Lancaster and Berks counties in Pennsylvania.
What it is
How to tell a service has been outgrown
Most buildings do not announce it. The symptoms arrive one at a time over several years, each treated as its own small problem, until somebody adds them up.
- The main breaker trips under load, or the utility fuse has blown more than once
- Lights dim when a compressor, dryer or large motor starts
- No spare space, and the last few circuits went in as tandem breakers or a tapped lug
- A sub panel fed from another sub panel, fed from a third
- Conductors or terminations discoloured, and the panel cover warm
- Equipment added since the service was sized: a kitchen, a line, a dryer, a shop, EV charging or a generator
- A discontinued panel with a known breaker failure history, such as Federal Pacific Stab-Lok or Zinsco
The calculation that decides the size
The size comes from Article 220, not from what the neighbour installed. For an existing building there is a better route than adding nameplates up: 220.87 lets the calculation use the maximum demand recorded over the previous twelve months, taken at 125 percent, plus the new load. Utility demand data, or a recording meter left on the service for a month, turns a guess into a measurement. That is the argument in the load study write up.
It is also what stops 200A being the automatic answer. Two hundred amps is a residential reflex. On a farm yard feeding several buildings, in a shop with a welder and a compressor, or in a restaurant, it is often too small and the right answer is 400A, 600A or three phase, as in this three phase distribution upgrade. Plenty of other buildings need no more amperes at all. They need the distribution rearranged, because the problem is where the power goes rather than how much arrives, which is the subject of how distribution is arranged in a building and of when a panel is no longer enough.
What the utility controls, and what we do
The ownership line runs through the meter. The utility owns the transformer, the drop or lateral and the metering. The service entrance conductors, the meter socket, the main and everything downstream are yours. That split is why an upgrade always has two schedules running at once, and why theirs decides your date.
We make the application, submit the load calculation, agree the point of attachment and book the cut in and the inspection in the right order. Two questions are worth asking early. Whether the existing transformer can carry the new load, because if it cannot, that is a utility job with its own lead time. And whether three phase is available at the road, which depends on what is already on the poles, and whose consequences are set out in three phase against single phase. Overhead work often takes in the mast and the drop too, as in rebuilding a service pole.
Changeover day
Most of a service upgrade happens with the power on. The new panel or switchboard is set, the service conductors are run, the grounding electrodes are driven and the feeders are prepared while the old service keeps feeding the building. Only the changeover needs an outage.
On a panel replacement where the branch circuits can be reused, the power is typically off for a working day, sometimes less. Where the meter, the mast or the point of attachment move, the outage has to line up with the utility crew and the inspector, so it is a scheduled window rather than an afternoon. Where a building cannot go dark at all, the new service is energised alongside the old and the loads move across in stages. On a farm that is planned around milking and feeding rather than around us, which is what this farm service entrance upgrade describes, while a meter and service upgrade in Womelsdorf shows the commercial version.
Grounding, bonding, and why a damaged panel is a replacement
A new service is the one chance to get the grounding right, and in an older building it usually is not right. Article 250 requires every electrode present at the building to be used and bonded together: the metal underground water pipe, a concrete encased electrode where one is accessible, and rods where required. The neutral and the equipment grounds separate at the first disconnect and stay separated downstream, which is the most common error we find in buildings that grew a sub panel at a time. On farms the bonding between buildings matters more still, because it is the mechanism behind most stray voltage complaints.
One point catches people out on damaged gear. Since the 2020 edition the Code has drawn a line at 408.8: switchboards, switchgear and motor control centres may be reconditioned, panelboards may not. A panel that has been through a fire, a flood or a serious fault is therefore a replacement, and anyone offering to recondition one is offering something the Code does not recognise. The signs are in when a panel needs replacing rather than repairing, and the price drivers in what it costs to replace a panel. An open new service is also the cheapest moment to fit surge protection.
What this covers
48 kinds of work under one heading
If what you need is not on the list, it is still worth asking. This is what we are asked for most, not the limit of what we do.
Service entrance work
Everything between the utility connection and the main.
- Overhead service entrance replacement
- Underground service lateral installation
- Service mast, weatherhead and point of attachment
- Meter socket and meter base replacement
- CT cabinets and current transformer metering
- Main disconnects and service rated equipment
- Service relocation to a better position
- Temporary services for construction
Panels and switchgear
The boards themselves and what feeds them.
- Panelboard replacement reusing branch circuits
- Switchboard and switchgear installation
- Obsolete panel replacement, including Federal Pacific and Zinsco
- Sub panel installation and feeder runs
- Load centre relocation out of a bad position
- Breaker replacement and panel interior work
- Tandem breaker and overfilled panel correction
- Working space corrections under Article 110.26
Capacity and calculation
Deciding the size with arithmetic instead of habit.
- Article 220 load calculations
- Existing building demand studies under 220.87
- Recording meter left on the service for a month
- Utility demand data review
- Three phase feasibility and utility enquiry
- Future load allowance for EV, generators and equipment
- Single line drawings and as built documentation
- Written recommendation with the reasoning shown
Grounding and bonding
The part of a new service most often got wrong.
- Grounding electrode system under Article 250
- Ground rod installation and testing
- Water pipe and concrete encased electrode bonding
- Neutral and ground separation at the first disconnect
- Building to building bonding on farm yards
- Equipment grounding conductor corrections
- Intersystem bonding for phone, data and cable
- Ground ring and supplemental electrode work
Utility and permits
The schedule you do not control, managed for you.
- Utility service application and load submission
- Point of attachment and connection agreement
- Transformer capacity enquiry with the utility
- Municipal permit applications
- Underground, rough and final inspection scheduling
- Meeting the inspector and closing out corrections
- Coordination of the cut in with the utility crew
- Documentation pack handed over at the end
Changeover and protection
The day itself, and what gets fitted while it is open.
- Staged transfer for buildings that cannot go dark
- Temporary supplies to critical loads during the cut over
- Out of hours and weekend changeovers
- Circuit identification and re labelling
- Filled in panel directories left in the board
- Whole building surge protection at the service
- Branch circuit surge devices at sensitive equipment
- Infrared check of the new terminations under load
Buildings we do this in
- 01
Farm service entrances and yard distribution points
- 02
Shops, offices and retail units
- 03
Restaurants after a kitchen change
- 04
Warehouses and light manufacturing
- 05
Pole buildings, workshops and equipment sheds
- 06
Buildings adding EV charging or standby power
- 07
Older buildings with obsolete or failing panels
Who we do this for
01
Farms that have added four buildings to one service
The house, then the barn off the house, then the shop off the barn. At some point the arithmetic stops working, and the fix is usually a proper distribution point rather than simply more amperes.
02
Buildings changing use
A retail unit becoming a restaurant, a warehouse taking a production line, a shop adding a welder and a compressor. New connected load against a service nobody has recalculated since it was installed.
03
Owners of a panel with a bad reputation
Federal Pacific Stab-Lok, Zinsco and similar boards with a known breaker failure history. Insurers increasingly ask, and replacement is a planned job at a sensible price rather than an emergency at a bad one.
04
Anyone adding EV charging or a generator
Both are loads that embarrass a service already near its limit, and both are far cheaper to allow for at design stage than to retrofit afterwards. The calculation should happen before the equipment is ordered.
05
Buildings that cannot go dark
Cold storage, plants mid run, farms with stock in the buildings. The new service gets energised alongside the old one and the loads move across in stages, which costs more in labour and nothing in production.
06
People told they need 200 amps
Sometimes true and often a reflex. We would rather do the calculation and tell you the honest answer, including when it is that the distribution needs rearranging and no extra amperes are required at all.
How a job runs
How a service upgrade runs
From the first visit to the labels left in the panel, this is the order it happens in.
- 01
A visit to see the existing service, the panel, the meter position and how the building is actually fed today.
- 02
A load calculation under Article 220, using recorded demand where the building already exists, plus whatever is being added.
- 03
A recommendation with the reasoning shown, including the case for a size you did not expect, as in this 200A upgrade.
- 04
The utility application and the permit, with the transformer and lead time questions asked at the start.
- 05
Preparation with the power on: gear set, conductors run, electrodes driven, feeders made ready.
- 06
The changeover and the inspection, in a window agreed around milking, trading or production.
- 07
Labels and a filled in directory left in the building, because a schedule that matches reality makes the next job quick.
Why this work comes to us
The size comes from a measurement
For an existing building, 220.87 lets the calculation use recorded demand rather than a pile of nameplates. A recording meter on the service for a month turns an argument into a number, and it often saves the cost of the meter several times over.
We ask the transformer question first
Whether the utility's transformer can carry the new load decides your date more than anything we do. Asking it in week one is the difference between a scheduled job and a project that stalls after the gear arrives.
Most of the work happens with the power on
Gear set, conductors run, electrodes driven and feeders prepared while the old service keeps feeding the building. Only the changeover itself needs an outage, and that is where the planning goes.
Grounding gets done properly while it is open
Every electrode present bonded together, neutral and ground separated at the first disconnect and kept separated. It is the one chance to fix what a building accumulated over decades, and it is invisible afterwards, so nobody else charges for doing it right.
We are straight about reconditioning
Since the 2020 Code, section 408.8 allows switchboards, switchgear and motor control centres to be reconditioned but not panelboards. If somebody has offered to recondition your damaged panel, they are offering something the Code does not recognise.
The building leaves documented
Labels, a filled in directory and a schedule that matches what is actually connected. Every future job in that building is faster and cheaper because of an hour spent at the end of ours.
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Jobs of this kind
Questions we get
- For a panel replacement reusing the existing branch circuits, usually a working day. If the meter, the mast or the service position moves, the outage is set by the utility crew and the inspector, so it becomes a scheduled window. Where a building cannot go dark, we plan a temporary supply or a staged transfer instead.
Read first
Service and panels
What a panel replacement really costs: the components of the price and why three quotes never match
What does replacing an electrical panel actually cost, and why is every quote different?
Service and panels
Signs an electrical panel is finished, and the ones that only look serious
How do I know if the panel needs replacing or just repairing?
Power distribution
How electrical distribution in a building works, from the service to the last outlet
Where does the power actually go between the meter and the machine?
Power distribution
Switchgear, switchboards and panelboards: what separates them and when a building needs the real thing
The engineer says we need switchgear, not another panel. What is the difference?
Service and panels
How to read a panel schedule, and why yours does not match the building
The panel directory says kitchen and there is no kitchen. How do I fix this?
Tell us what the building has to run
Anatoly runs the crew and usually answers the phone himself. Based in Myerstown, working across Lebanon, Lancaster and Berks counties, open 24 hours.