Electrical Panel Upgrade Cost: 100, 150, and 200 Amp

How the electrical panel upgrade cost calculator works

Electrical panel upgrade cost is four numbers stacked. The panel is one purchase, breakers price per breaker, the permit comes off a published schedule, and the crew bills by the hour. The calculator adds all four and shows the hardware and permit subtotal separately, because that is what you pay before anyone swings a screwdriver.

Crew hours are yours to set. No published production rate for a residential service change cleared our sourcing bar, so this page asserts none.

What a panel costs by amperage

Listed prices for bare main breaker load centers at two named suppliers on August 28, 2026: Sutherlands, a lumber and hardware chain that publishes a separate shelf price at each store, and Elliott Electric Supply, a contractor distributor. Value packs that bundle breakers are excluded.

Two rows there earn a contractor’s attention. First, the channel spread on one part number: Eaton BRP12B100 listed at $109.99 to $122.99 across seven Sutherlands stores and at $180.67 at Elliott the same day. Same maker, same catalog number, half again the money.

Second, the 150 amp row is a thin catalog line at both suppliers, and the Eaton 150 amp panels list ABOVE their own 200 amp equivalents.

SimplyWise Cost Estimator prices material and labor together from a photo in about 6 seconds.

The labor half of electrical panel upgrade cost

BLS measures this trade directly. In the May 2025 national release, 47-2111 Electricians covers 757,220 jobs at a $30.38 hourly median and a $34.37 hourly mean. That spread is the default wage band.

Those are wages, not the rate you bill. Billed labor carries payroll burden, insurance, the truck, the license, and margin. Our contractor hourly labor rates by trade table publishes the same two figures and explains the gap. Set your own rate and the band collapses to one number.

The permit, and the parts the calculator skips

Permit money is published, and it is not small next to the panel. Everett, Washington charges a flat $100 for a residential “Service/Panel change or alteration”. Portland, Oregon prices the same work off amperage: $212.00 at 200 amps and $298.00 from 201 to 400 amps, plus $21.00 per branch circuit and a 12 percent Oregon state surcharge. Plan review is billed separately in both cities.

The lesson is structural, not numeric: one of these two cities charges a flat fee and the other tiers by amperage and adds a surcharge, and the figure that matters is on your own schedule.

The meter socket, the mast, the service conductors, the grounding work, the utility disconnect, and drywall repair are real money and none of them is in the calculator.

Run the panel estimate in this order

1. Count the circuits you are actually moving

   Breakers price per breaker, and on a big job the count drives more of the hardware line than the panel does.

2. Pull your own city’s fee schedule before you quote

   The two cities checked here published $100 flat and $212.00 amperage tiered.

3. Price the panel at your own counter

   One Eaton catalog number listed at $109.99 at a retail chain and $180.67 at a distributor the same day.

4. Add your hours, then your overhead

   The calculator stops at wages. Burden, insurance, vehicles, and margin sit on top before the customer sees a price.