Licensed Electrician & LED Lighting in Los Angeles

Electrical Panel Upgrades: What Is Actually Involved

A panel upgrade is the most common electrical project in older Los Angeles homes. Many houses built before 1990 still run on 100-amp or 125-amp panels — adequate for the appliances of that era, but undersized for today's electric vehicle chargers, central air conditioning, tankless water heaters, and induction cooktops. When a homeowner adds a high-draw appliance and the panel cannot support the additional load, an upgrade to 200-amp service is the solution.

The job involves replacing the main breaker panel, the meter socket, and often the service entrance cable that connects your home to the utility transformer on the pole. In Los Angeles, LADWP owns the meter and the line from the transformer — your electrician coordinates with LADWP to schedule a meter pull, performs the upgrade, and then LADWP reconnects after the LADBS inspector signs off. The entire process typically takes one to two business days of on-site work, plus permit processing and LADWP scheduling.

Jorge performs an NEC Article 220 demand calculation before every panel upgrade to verify the new panel size is correct for your home's total connected load. This calculation accounts for general lighting and receptacle loads, fixed appliances like ranges and dryers, HVAC systems, and any planned additions like an EV charger or ADU subpanel. The result tells us whether 200 amps is sufficient or whether the project needs a 320-amp or 400-amp service — common in larger homes or properties with multiple dwelling units.

EV Charger Installation: Circuit Requirements and Code

Installing a Level 2 EV charger requires a dedicated 240-volt circuit from your electrical panel to the charging location. The circuit size depends on the charger's amperage: a 48-amp Tesla Wall Connector needs a 60-amp breaker with 6 AWG copper wire, while a 40-amp charger like a ChargePoint Home Flex runs on a 50-amp breaker with 6 AWG wire. The charger must be the only device on its circuit — no sharing with dryer outlets, workshop tools, or other appliances.

NEC Article 625 governs EV charger installations. Key requirements include GFCI protection for the circuit (NEC 625.54), a dedicated branch circuit (NEC 625.40), and proper conductor sizing based on continuous load rules — the circuit breaker must be rated at 125% of the charger's maximum current draw. For outdoor installations, the charger or outlet must be in a weatherproof enclosure, and a disconnect switch may be required depending on the charger's location relative to the panel.

Wire routing is where most of the labor and cost variation comes from. A panel on the garage wall with a charger mounting point three feet away is a short, straightforward run. A panel on the opposite side of the house from a detached garage might require 80 to 120 feet of conduit through the attic, along the exterior, and underground — and at that distance, your electrician may need to upsize the wire from 6 AWG to 4 AWG to compensate for voltage drop over the longer run. Jorge assesses the routing during the written quote visit so there are no surprises on installation day.

Residential Rewiring: When and Why Older Homes Need It

Los Angeles has thousands of homes built between the 1920s and 1970s that still contain original wiring — knob-and-tube in the oldest houses, and aluminum branch circuits in homes from the late 1960s and early 1970s. Both present safety concerns that go beyond code compliance. Knob-and-tube wiring was not designed for grounded circuits or the electrical loads of modern households, and its cloth insulation deteriorates over decades, leaving conductors exposed inside wall cavities. Aluminum branch wiring expands and contracts more than copper at connection points, creating loose connections that overheat and can arc.

A full rewire replaces every branch circuit in the house with new copper conductors, adds AFCI protection on bedroom circuits (required by current NEC), installs GFCI protection in kitchens, bathrooms, garages, and outdoor locations, and brings every outlet to three-prong grounded standard. The work typically requires opening walls at strategic points to pull new wire, but experienced electricians minimize drywall damage by using existing pathways and fishing wire through wall cavities. Jorge coordinates with your drywall contractor on patch locations and timing so the project moves efficiently.

ADU and Garage Conversion Electrical

Accessory dwelling units are one of the most common construction projects in Los Angeles right now, and every ADU requires its own electrical scope — a dedicated subpanel, rough-in wiring for outlets, lighting, and appliances, and separate circuits for kitchen, bathroom, HVAC, and laundry. Most ADUs need a 60-amp or 100-amp subpanel fed from the main house panel, though larger units with electric cooking and HVAC may require a 125-amp feed.

The electrical rough-in happens after framing and before insulation and drywall. Your electrician runs all branch circuits, installs outlet and switch boxes at code-required locations and heights, pre-wires for lighting fixtures, and places dedicated circuits for the range, dishwasher, microwave, garbage disposal, bathroom exhaust fan, and HVAC unit. Smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors must be hardwired with battery backup and interconnected so all alarms sound together. After drywall, the finish phase installs all devices, fixtures, and the panel cover. LED Guys handles the full LADBS inspection sequence — rough inspection, insulation inspection, and final inspection — so your general contractor can keep the project on schedule.

Commercial LED Retrofits and Energy Savings

Commercial LED retrofits replace outdated fluorescent, metal halide, and high-pressure sodium fixtures with energy-efficient LED equivalents. The energy savings are significant: most commercial properties see a 40% to 70% reduction in lighting energy consumption after a retrofit. For a warehouse running 400-watt metal halide high-bay fixtures 12 hours a day, switching to 150-watt LED high-bays cuts each fixture's draw by more than 60% while producing equal or better light output and color rendering.

LED Guys handles every type of commercial retrofit: T8 and T5 fluorescent tube-to-LED conversions in offices, high-bay replacements in warehouses and manufacturing facilities up to 40-foot ceiling heights, parking garage vapor-tight fixtures, exterior wall packs with photocell and motion sensor controls, and parking lot pole lights. Every retrofit includes a lighting plan that matches the new fixtures to the space's required foot-candle levels, ensures proper color temperature consistency across the facility, and eliminates flicker on camera for retail and production environments.

Permits, Inspections, and Code Compliance in Los Angeles

Electrical permits are required in Los Angeles for panel upgrades, new circuits, EV charger installations, rewires, subpanel additions, and any work that alters the permanent wiring of a structure. The permit authority depends on your location: the City of Los Angeles uses LADBS (Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety), while Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena, and other incorporated cities have their own building departments with their own permit processes and inspection schedules.

LED Guys pulls the permit before any work begins, meets the inspector on site for every required inspection, and provides the signed-off permit documentation for your records. Permitted work protects you as a homeowner: it confirms the installation meets current NEC and California Electrical Code standards, it satisfies your homeowner's insurance requirements, and it prevents issues when you sell — unpermitted electrical work is one of the most common red flags in home inspections and can delay or derail a sale. Every LED Guys project is permitted, inspected, and documented.