Your electrical panel matters more than your outlets

People call about a dead outlet and end up talking about the panel. That is not an upsell — the panel is where most of the risk in an old apartment lives, and it is the thing nobody looks at until the lights flicker when the microwave runs.

Three signs the panel is at its limit

Breakers that trip when two appliances run at once. A warm panel door, or a faint smell of hot plastic near it. Fuses instead of breakers, or a panel rated at 60 A serving an apartment with an electric range and a window unit in every room. Any one of these is worth a look; two together is worth a call this week.

What an upgrade includes

A 200 A panel replacement on our board is $1,890 fixed. That covers the new panel with AFCI/GFCI breakers where the code asks for them, labeling every circuit, the DOB inspection report filed the same day, and the power back on before we leave. If the service cable from the street needs to change as well, that is a separate line and we tell you on the walkthrough, not after.

What it does not fix

A new panel does not rewire the apartment. Old cloth-insulated cable in the walls stays old. If the walls are opening for a renovation anyway, rewiring at the same time is far cheaper than doing it later, and we will price both so you can decide with the numbers in front of you.

One more thing: an EV charger, a heat pump or an induction range all want their own circuit. Ask about the panel before you buy the appliance, not after it arrives.