Breaker tripping? We read panels for a living.
Diagnosis before quotes, flat prices on everything predictable, and the permit pulled under our licence rather than left with you. If the answer is that you do not need us yet, that is what you will be told.
- Master licence
- EC-118420
- General liability
- $2M
- Workers comp
- Carried
- Surety bond
- $25,000
Circuit 07 · kitchen small appliance
Tripping under load. Clamp reads 18.4A on a 15A circuit — overloaded, not faulty.
What is it actually doing?
Four symptoms cover most of what we get called for. Pick the one that matches and you will get the likely cause, roughly how long it takes and what it starts at — before you speak to anyone.
A breaker that trips is a breaker working.
Repeated tripping is almost never the breaker itself. It is an overloaded circuit, an appliance failing to ground, or a shared neutral wired across two circuits. The first visit is diagnosis with a clamp meter under real load — we tell you which of the three it is before quoting anything.
Typical visit
1–2 hours
Starts at
$140
The circuit schedule.
Published prices for everything predictable. No hourly clock, no trip charge on top, no difference between a Tuesday morning and a Saturday afternoon.
| # | Job | What it includes | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Diagnostic visitFault traced, cause identified, written finding | Fault traced, cause identified, written finding | $140 |
| 02 | Outlet or switch replacementLike-for-like, tested and torque-checked | Like-for-like, tested and torque-checked | $95 |
| 03 | New dedicated circuitBreaker, run and termination, up to 40ft | Breaker, run and termination, up to 40ft | $420 |
| 04 | EV charger installLevel 2, load calc, permit and inspection | Level 2, load calc, permit and inspection | $980 |
| 05 | Panel upgrade 100A → 200AUtility coordination, permit, inspection card | Utility coordination, permit, inspection card | $2,650 |
| 06 | Whole-home surge protectionPanel-mounted, warranted device | Panel-mounted, warranted device | $540 |
| 07 | Smoke & CO interlinkHardwired, interlinked, per unit | Hardwired, interlinked, per unit | $165 |
| 08 | Knob-and-tube replacementPer room, staged, quoted after survey | Per room, staged, quoted after survey | From $1,900 |
Six panels, six honest verdicts.
Open the cover, read the label, find it here. Two of these genuinely need replacing and we will say why with the panel open in front of you. The other four usually do not.
Federal Pacific Stab-Lok
ReplaceDocumented failure-to-trip rate. Not safely extendable.
Zinsco / Sylvania
ReplaceBus bar corrosion causes breakers to weld closed.
60A service
UpgradeUnder-capacity for any modern kitchen, let alone an EV.
Fuses, not breakers
AssessSafe if intact, but no AFCI and nothing insurable added.
Full panel, no spaces
Sub-panelCheaper than a service upgrade if the main is adequate.
Double-tapped breakers
CorrectTwo conductors on a single-rated lug. Fails inspection.
The permit is ours to pull.
Half of residential electrical work is really a paperwork question wearing a toolbelt. An unpermitted circuit is the thing that stops a sale, voids a claim, or turns up on a survey eight years later. We handle all four steps and the fee is inside the quoted price.
If you have already had work done without one, that is fixable — we can survey it and apply retrospectively in most jurisdictions.
We pull it
Application filed in your jurisdiction under our licence, not yours. Fee is inside the quoted price.
Work is done to code
Current NEC cycle as adopted locally, which is not always the current NEC.
Inspector attends
We meet them on site. You do not need to be there or explain anything.
You get the card
Signed inspection record, which is what your insurer and your buyer's surveyor will ask for.
Eight areas, one van each morning.
Outside these and we will say so on the phone rather than quote a travel charge you did not expect.
Mostly about being told the truth.
“Found a shared neutral two other electricians had missed. Explained it with the panel open so I could see it.”
R. Whitfield
Recurring trip, Cedar Park
“Quoted the panel upgrade flat, pulled the permit, met the inspector. I did nothing except unlock the door.”
A. Osei
100A → 200A, Eastgate
“Turned up at eleven at night for a hot outlet and did not charge a premium for it.”
M. Delacroix
Emergency, Brookline
Asked on nearly every call.
Do I need a permit for this?+
Anything that adds a circuit, alters the panel, or changes the service does. We pull it under our licence, meet the inspector, and hand you the signed card. The fee is inside the quoted price rather than billed after.
Why does my breaker keep tripping?+
A breaker doing its job is not a faulty breaker. Repeated tripping is an overloaded circuit, a failing appliance, or a neutral fault — and swapping the breaker for a larger one is how houses burn down. Diagnosis first, always.
Can you add to my existing panel?+
Often yes. Some brands from the sixties and seventies have known failure modes and cannot be safely added to. We will tell you which you have and show you the bus bar rather than quietly quoting a replacement.
Is the quote fixed?+
Yes for everything on the circuit schedule. Where a job depends on what is inside the wall, you get a survey price and a fixed quote after, before any further work starts.
How fast can you get here?+
Standard work is same-week. Burning smells, hot outlets and open neutrals are taken out of order at any hour, with no after-hours premium.
Tell us what it is doing.
Enough detail to bring the right parts. You get a call back with a time and a price, not a “someone will be in touch”.