Nationwide · Licensed electricians in 48 states + DC
Call now to check electrician availability in your area
Electrical Panel Upgrade · New Hampshire
A panel upgrade replaces your breaker panel, and often the service entrance, so the home can safely carry more load: an EV charger, heat pump, induction range or addition. It always needs a permit, and usually needs the utility to disconnect and reconnect power.
Ice storms and older New England homes make generators and rewiring common projects.
Across the Northeast, homes deal with cold winters, nor'easters and ice storms. Permit offices, utilities and housing stock differ by city, which affects how electrical panel upgrade is planned and scheduled. These local guides cover the New Hampshire cities where we have written specific notes.
Heat-pump conversions are driving many panel and service upgrades in Manchester, since a cold-climate heat pump adds significant load to an older 60 or 100 amp service. Multi-family buildings often have a separate small service and meter for each unit, so an upgrade may involve the whole meter bank.
Utility: Eversource
Nashua homeowners replacing oil heat with heat pumps, adding air conditioning or installing an EV charger often find that older homes have 60 or 100 amp services with no room left. Multi-family houses near the mills may have several small services side by side.
Utility: Eversource
1. Load calculation
The electrician sizes the service from your existing and planned loads.
2. Permit and utility coordination
The permit is pulled and the utility schedules disconnect and reconnect.
3. Install the panel and service parts
New panel, breakers, grounding and bonding, and service conductors or meter base if needed.
4. Inspection
The local inspector checks the work before or after power is restored, depending on the jurisdiction.
Electricians set their own prices; local permit fees and utility requirements add to these factors.
Permits come from the city or county where the home is. For example: Manchester: Electrical permits in Manchester come from the city's building regulations office; other towns issue their own. Nashua: Electrical permits inside city limits come from the City of Nashua's building department.
Manchester: Eversource. Nashua: Eversource.
If you have 100 amps or less and are adding an EV charger, heat pump or electric range, or your panel is a Federal Pacific, Zinsco or fuse box, ask an electrician for a load calculation.
Usually most of one working day, depending on the scope and how quickly the utility reconnects.
Yes, in essentially every US jurisdiction. The electrician pulls it and schedules the inspection.
Call now and we connect you with a licensed electrician who serves your ZIP code.
