HomeServicesPanel Upgrades
Electrical Panel Upgrades in Hendricks County
100 amp to 200 amp service changes, fuse box replacements, panel repairs and grounding for homes in Avon, Danville, Plainfield, Brownsburg and the counties around them. Permitted, inspected and labeled before we leave.
The panel is the one part of the house everything else depends on
Every circuit in your home starts at the panel. When it is undersized, worn out or one of the brands known to fail, nothing downstream is really safe, and nothing new can be added. Panel work is the job we get called for most in Hendricks County, and it is the one where doing it right matters most.
Most of the houses built here between the mid-1990s and 2015 came with a 150 or 200 amp panel and gas heat, which was plenty at the time. The trouble starts when a Level 2 EV charger, a hot tub, an electric range and a basement finish all land in the same decade. Older houses around the Danville square and in the 1960s and 70s parts of Plainfield and Mooresville often still have 100 amp services, and some still have fuse boxes.
Signs the panel needs attention
- Breakers trip and will not reset, or trip with nothing unusual running
- The panel cover is warm, hums, or smells like hot plastic
- Scorch marks, rust or moisture inside the panel
- Lights dim across the house when the AC or dryer starts
- A fuse box, or a Federal Pacific, Zinsco, Sylvania or Challenger panel
- No open slots left and you need another circuit
- A 100 amp service and plans for an EV charger, hot tub or electric heat
- Two-prong outlets and no ground in the panel
What a 200 amp service upgrade includes
- Load evaluation. We do the real load calculation for your house and the loads you plan to add, so the new service is sized for the next twenty years, not just today.
- Permit and utility coordination. We pull the permit with the town or county and schedule the disconnect and reconnect with your utility so the power is off for as short a window as possible.
- Remove the old panel or fuse box. Including the meter base and service entrance cable when they are undersized or damaged, which is common on older 100 amp services.
- Install the new panel. A 200 amp main breaker panel with room to grow, new breakers sized to each circuit, and AFCI and GFCI protection where the current code calls for it.
- Grounding and bonding. Ground rods, the water pipe bond and the gas bond brought up to current code. This is the step that gets skipped on cheap jobs and caught by inspectors.
- Label every circuit. A clear, accurate directory on the panel door. It sounds small until you need to shut off the right breaker at midnight.
- Inspection. We meet the inspector and handle any questions. The job is not done until it passes.
Panel repair, when a full replacement is not needed
Not every panel problem is a replacement. A single failed breaker, a loose neutral, a double-tapped breaker from a previous handyman job, or a corroded lug can all be repaired if the panel itself is sound and a brand still in production. We tell you which situation you are in after we open the cover, and we do not sell a 200 amp upgrade to someone who needs a forty-dollar breaker.
Federal Pacific, Zinsco and fuse boxes
Federal Pacific Stab-Lok and Zinsco panels have a documented history of breakers that fail to trip under a fault, and insurers in Indiana increasingly flag them at the time of sale. Fuse boxes are not dangerous by design, but they are almost always 60 or 100 amp services with no room for modern loads, and oversized fuses are common. If your home inspection or insurance carrier has flagged the panel, we replace these regularly and can time the work around a closing.
Panel upgrades before an EV charger, hot tub or generator
A lot of panel work starts with a different project. A Level 2 EV charger wants a 40 to 60 amp circuit. A hot tub needs a dedicated 50 amp GFCI circuit. A standby generator needs a transfer switch that ties in at the service. When the panel cannot take it, we quote the two jobs together so you see the whole cost up front and only lose power once.
Where we do this work
Panel upgrades take us all over the coverage area, but the calls cluster in the older neighborhoods: Danville's historic district and the courthouse square blocks, the 1970s and 80s ranches on the east side of Plainfield, and the pre-1990 homes around downtown Mooresville. Newer subdivisions in Avon and Brownsburg more often need a subpanel or load management rather than a full service change.
Panel upgrade questions
Usually, yes. A service upgrade replaces the panel, the main breaker, and often the meter base and service cable. The branch circuits running through the house stay as they are unless they are damaged or the inspection turns up something that has to be corrected. Knob-and-tube or aluminum branch wiring is a separate conversation, and we will tell you if we see it.
Most residential service changes are a single day, with the power off for roughly four to eight hours in the middle of it. We coordinate the utility disconnect and reconnect for the same day so you are not waiting on a second visit.
The size of the new service, whether the meter base and service entrance cable have to be replaced, whether the panel moves, how much grounding has to be brought up to code, and the permit and utility fees in your town. We quote after looking at the panel and the meter, and the number you get is the number you pay.
Federal energy-efficiency credits have covered panel upgrades in some years when the upgrade is done alongside qualifying equipment such as a heat pump or EV charger. The rules change, so check with your tax preparer for the year the work is done. We provide an itemized invoice that shows the panel work separately so it is easy to claim if you qualify.
Related work and nearby towns
Send a photo of your panel. We will tell you what you have.
Text a picture of the panel with the cover on and the label on the main breaker, or use the form and we will call the same day.
(317) 681-2616