Electrical Service Upgrades

Residential and Commercial Electrical Service Upgrades

If you have overloaded circuits, that is not a reason to upgrade your service. Installing a new service to eliminate this problem will most likely end in disappointment. Overloaded circuits that blow fuses or trip circuit breakers are typically an indication that there is a problem with the branch circuit and not the service.

In most cases, the service should be upgraded to 200 amps. The cost difference between a 150-amp and 200-amp service is minimal, and in this day and age, when we have so many demanding electrical appliances, it makes good sense. There are cases where a larger service is required as well.

Common Electrical Service Upgrades

• Adding central air conditioning and/or electric heating
• Adding an addition to the home
• Adding a pool or spa
• Updating an old fuse panel

What to Expect During a Service Upgrade

Expect your power to be out for about six hours on the day the job is done, or longer if it is more involved. You may experience circuit breakers tripping. The reason for this is that on some old services, especially fuses, the circuits were overprotected by the previous owner to eliminate blowing circuits. Electrical service upgrades have helped some customers by lowering their energy bills, most likely after another factor affecting energy use was repaired.

When we do the service upgrade, we install the proper circuit breakers according to the wire size. If this occurs, you may need to have some new circuits installed to alleviate this problem.



Bretco Electric Company has completed hundreds of service upgrades across the Winston-Salem area. An electrical service upgrade can be expensive but necessary to bring your addition up to code. Overloading a small panel with add-on circuit boxes can be dangerous. If this applies to your service panel, give Bretco a call and make sure your smoke detector is in working order.