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Electrical Panel Upgrade & Replacement in Las Vegas

The breaker trips again. You walk to the garage, flip it back, and wonder how many more times this happens before it becomes a real problem. If your panel is original to the house, the honest answer is: it already is one.

Quick Answer

An electrical panel upgrade replaces your home's breaker box — usually a 100-amp panel from the era the house was built — with a modern 200-amp panel sized for how homes are actually used now: air conditioning running five months a year, an EV in the garage, a spa on the patio. In Clark County the work requires a permit and inspection, and most swaps are done in a single day.

Key facts

  • Tripping breakers are a message. A panel that can't carry the load protects you by shutting off. Constant trips mean it's at its limit.
  • Some old panels are a known hazard. Zinsco and Federal Pacific panels have widely documented failure histories. If you have one, replacement is the fix, not repair.
  • 100 amps was fine in 1975. Central AC, an EV charger, and a modern kitchen were not part of that math.
  • Permits are required. Clark County treats a panel change as permitted work with inspection. We pull the permit and meet the inspector.
  • Power is off for part of the day. Plan for several hours without electricity while the swap happens.
  • The panel is the foundation. EV chargers, hot tubs, and additions all start with whether your panel can carry them.

Signs your panel is due

Panels rarely fail all at once. They tell you first. The signals worth taking seriously:

  • Breakers that trip repeatedly on the same circuits, especially when the AC and another large load run together.
  • Warmth, buzzing, or a burnt smell at the panel. A breaker box should be silent and cool. Heat means resistance, and resistance at a connection point is how fires start.
  • Flickering or dimming lights when an appliance kicks on — the panel is straining to feed everything at once.
  • Fuses instead of breakers, or a panel with no main shutoff.
  • Rust or corrosion on the panel or the cabinet. In garages and exterior walls this is more common than people expect.
  • No open slots when you want to add a circuit — a full panel is a panel at the end of its useful life.

The panels that shouldn't stay in service

Two brands come up constantly in Las Vegas homes built or remodeled from the 1960s through the early 1980s:

  • Federal Pacific (FPE) Stab-Lok. These panels have a widely documented history of breakers failing to trip under fault conditions — which is the one job a breaker exists to do.
  • Zinsco / Sylvania-Zinsco. Known for bus bar corrosion and breakers that can appear off while the circuit is still energized.

Insurance companies know these names too. Some carriers decline coverage or require replacement before writing a policy. If a home inspector flagged your panel during a sale, this is why.

A breaker that won't trip isn't a breaker. It's a copper bar with a false sense of security.

Not sure what's in your garage? Call (702) 625-9814 and describe the label — we'll tell you in two minutes whether it's on the watch list.

100 amps vs. 200 amps: what actually changes

Amperage is the ceiling on how much electricity your home can use at once. A 100-amp panel was the standard when the biggest load in the house was an electric range. Stack a modern Las Vegas summer on top — central air running for hours, a pool pump, a garage refrigerator, and then an EV charger pulling steadily all night — and the ceiling gets low fast.

A 200-amp panel doubles that headroom. It's what new construction gets by default, and it's the sensible target for any upgrade, because the labor is the same whether you install a small panel or a right-sized one.

Thinking about an EV or a spa? Do the panel first. A Level 2 EV charger typically wants a 40–60 amp circuit of its own; a 240V hot tub wants 50–60 amps. On a 100-amp panel, either one can consume most of your remaining capacity. We install hot tub circuits and EV chargers, and we size the panel work so the next project doesn't hit a wall.

What a panel upgrade involves

A panel swap is straightforward for a licensed crew, but there are more moving parts than the finished product suggests:

  • Load calculation. Before anything is ordered, we calculate what your home actually draws so the new panel and service are sized to code, not to guesswork.
  • Utility coordination. The meter has to be pulled and power disconnected at the service before the panel comes off the wall. We handle the scheduling.
  • The swap itself. New panel, new main breaker, new grounding and bonding brought up to current code, every circuit landed on a new breaker, and every connection torqued to spec.
  • Labeling. Every breaker labeled to the room and load it serves. Small thing; you'll appreciate it for twenty years.
  • Inspection. A Clark County inspector reviews the work before it's closed out.

Permits and inspection in Clark County

A panel change in the Las Vegas valley is permitted work, full stop. The permit isn't bureaucratic decoration — it's what makes the inspection happen, and the inspection is what documents that the most important electrical device in your house was installed correctly. That paper trail matters when you sell the home and when your insurer asks.

We pull the permit under our license, schedule the inspection, and meet the inspector. If you want to understand the process in more detail, our Las Vegas electrical permit and code guide walks through it.

What drives the cost

There is no single price for a panel upgrade, and any company that quotes one over the phone without questions is guessing. What moves the number:

  • Service size. Staying at the same amperage with a new panel costs less than upsizing the service to 200 amps.
  • The condition of what's behind the panel. Undersized grounding, aluminum branch wiring, or double-tapped breakers get corrected during the swap, not papered over.
  • Panel location. An accessible garage panel is a simpler day than an exterior panel baked by forty summers.
  • Code-required additions. Current code requires arc-fault and ground-fault protection in more places than the code your house was built under. Some of that lands in the new panel.

What we promise: a written, itemized price before work starts, and no surprise line items after.

How long it takes

  • Straight panel swap: typically one working day, with power off for a good part of it.
  • Service upgrade to 200 amps: usually still one day on site, with schedule set around utility disconnect and reconnect.
  • Permit and inspection: we handle the timeline; inspection follows the install.

Plan for the power outage the way you'd plan for a short outage in a storm: fridge closed, devices charged, garage door released once so you know how to open it by hand.

Why homeowners call A-Team

  • Licensed and insured Nevada electrical contractor — NSCB #93397.
  • Load calculations, not rules of thumb. The panel is sized to your home's real demand.
  • Permits pulled and inspections met by us, not left as homework for you.
  • Straight answers. If your panel is fine and the problem is one circuit, we'll say so.
  • 24/7 emergency service when a panel problem can't wait for business hours.

Areas we serve

Panel upgrades and replacements across the Las Vegas valley: Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Summerlin, Spring Valley, Enterprise, Paradise, Boulder City, and the surrounding communities. See the full service area.

Frequently asked questions

How do I know if my electrical panel needs to be replaced?

Repeated breaker trips, warmth or buzzing at the panel, flickering lights under load, rust, fuses instead of breakers, or a Federal Pacific or Zinsco label are all reasons to have it evaluated. An inspection settles it: we check the bus, the breakers, the connections, and the load, then tell you whether the panel is a problem or a scapegoat.

Is a 100-amp panel enough for a modern home?

Sometimes — a smaller home with gas appliances and no EV can live comfortably on 100 amps. The trouble starts when central AC, electric cooking, a spa, or a car charger stack up. A load calculation gives the real answer for your house rather than a generic one.

Do I need a permit to replace an electrical panel in Las Vegas?

Yes. Panel replacement in Clark County requires a permit and passes through inspection. We pull the permit under our license and meet the inspector, and the closed permit becomes part of the home's record — which helps at resale and with insurance.

How long will my power be off during the upgrade?

Plan on several hours. The exact window depends on utility disconnect scheduling and what we find behind the old panel. We confirm the plan with you before the day starts so it isn't a surprise.

Can you upgrade my panel so I can add an EV charger or hot tub?

That's one of the most common reasons we do this work. We size the new panel and service around the load you're planning — charger, spa, addition — so the follow-on project is a circuit run instead of a second panel job.

My insurance company flagged my panel. What now?

Carriers commonly flag Federal Pacific, Zinsco, and fuse boxes. We inspect it, confirm what you actually have, and if replacement is warranted we handle the swap, the permit, and the inspection paperwork your insurer wants to see.

Get your panel sorted this week

Free estimate, upfront pricing, and a licensed crew that pulls the permit and meets the inspector.

Call (702) 625-9814 Request a Free Estimate

Licensed & insured · NSCB #93397 · Bonded to $500,000 · Serving the Las Vegas valley

Safety note: This page is general information about electrical panels, not a substitute for an on-site evaluation. Panel interiors remain energized even with the main breaker off — never open the panel cover yourself.