Electrical Panel Upgrades in Menlo Park, CA

Both, in sequence. PG&E owns the service drop and the meter, so they handle the disconnect and reconnect, while the electrical permit and inspection go through the City of Menlo Park's Community Development Department. Fox Electric coordinates the PG&E window and pulls the city permit for you, so you're not chasing two agencies yourself.

That depends on the actual connected load, which we confirm with a load calculation before quoting. A large Sharon Heights or Stanford Hills home running solar, battery storage, two EV chargers, and a heat pump often justifies a 320-amp service, but plenty of homes land comfortably at 200. We size it so your solar interconnection and future loads are plug-and-play with PG&E, not a second project.

Yes, and those original fuse boxes are exactly the ones worth replacing. We swap the fuse box for a modern breaker panel sized to your real needs, and we check whether the older branch wiring behind it needs attention at the same time. Many downtown and Felton Gables cottages of that era hide cloth-insulated wiring that's smart to address while the panel is open.

Not always, and we'll tell you honestly. Sometimes a single overloaded circuit or a load-management device solves it without a full upgrade. But if a 1950s Willows ranch is still on its original 100-amp service and you're adding modern loads, a 200-amp upgrade usually pays off so you stop chasing trips. We run the numbers before recommending the bigger job.

The outage window depends on the approved work, PG&E scheduling and the required Menlo Park inspections. Confirm the disconnect and reconnect arrangements before the installation date, including what happens if work or inspection takes longer than planned.

Only if the calculation also carries the reach code's future loads: an electric range and dryer where the current ones are gas, one Level 2 EV charger, and a PV system sized under the Energy Code, plus a reserved 240 V heat pump water heater circuit. On a 1960s Sharon Heights house that usually means 200 A. Where the existing service cannot support everything, the city allows reserving as much as practicable and still requires the raceways.

Ask Menlo Park's permit team whether the current electrification fee waiver covers the proposed scope. Describe any gas-to-electric equipment conversion alongside the panel work. A stand-alone service change should not automatically be treated as eligible.