A lot of San Jose homes were wired for a 1965 kind of life: a range, a water heater, a TV, and not much else. Then you go to add a Level 2 EV charger, a heat pump, an induction range, or solar with a battery, and the electrician says the words nobody wants to hear: "your panel's full." An electrical panel upgrade is the quiet prerequisite behind half the projects Bay Area homeowners actually want to do. Here's how it works, what it costs, and why the smart time to do it is while the walls are already open.
- Many older San Jose homes have 100A service, which runs short once you add EV charging, a heat pump, induction, or solar-plus-storage.
- A typical 100A-to-200A upgrade runs about $3,000–$8,000, more if the meter moves or underground service needs trenching.
- The job runs through PG&E: your electrician submits a service change with a load calculation, and PG&E coordinates the shutoff and reconnection.
- The federal 25C tax credit that covered up to $600 of a panel upgrade expired at the end of 2025, so don't count on it for 2026 work.
Why so many Bay Area panels need an upgrade
The tech-forward version of a home runs on electricity, and it adds up fast. A Level 2 EV charger can draw as much as an entire small house. A heat pump for heating and cooling, a heat pump water heater, and an induction range each want their own substantial circuits. Add rooftop solar with battery storage and you need room on the busbar for that too. A 100-amp panel that was comfortable for decades simply can't hold all of it, and current California energy code now expects new and heavily renovated homes to be built solar- and electric-ready with a 200A-minimum service.
An electrician settles the question with a load calculation: a standardized tally of everything the house will draw. That's what tells you whether your existing panel has headroom, needs a subpanel, or needs a full upgrade to 200A or more.
What it costs in San Jose
A straightforward 100A-to-200A panel upgrade in the Bay Area generally runs about $3,000 to $8,000. What moves the number is rarely the panel itself; it's the surrounding work. If the service entrance or meter has to relocate, if the panel is being moved to a new wall, or if the home has underground service that requires trenching across a yard or driveway, the cost can climb into the low five figures. A 400A service for a large all-electric home is more again. This is why a real quote follows a site visit, not a phone call.
How the PG&E process works
An upgrade that changes your service size isn't just an in-house electrical job; it involves the utility, because PG&E owns the connection to the grid. The sequence generally looks like this:
- Your licensed electrician runs the load calculation and pulls a City of San Jose electrical permit.
- They submit a service change request to PG&E, describing the new panel size, its location, and any new major loads such as an EV charger or heat pump.
- PG&E assigns a rep and issues its scope, then coordinates a date to disconnect power so the panel can be swapped safely.
- On the day, PG&E pulls the meter, the electrician installs the new panel, the city inspects, and PG&E reconnects.
The moving part homeowners underestimate is scheduling. Coordinating the city inspection and PG&E's disconnect and reconnect windows takes lead time, which is one more reason to fold a panel upgrade into a larger project rather than treating it as a rush job.
Do it while the walls are open
Here's the money-saving point. During a kitchen remodel, an addition, or a whole-home renovation, walls are already open and an electrician is already on site running new circuits. That's the ideal moment to upgrade the panel and rough in the heavy circuits you'll want later, the EV charger in the garage, the future heat pump, the induction range, even if you're not installing all of them today. Running a dedicated circuit through an open wall is cheap; fishing it through finished drywall a year later is not. Planning the electrical capacity once, up front, is almost always cheaper than upgrading twice.
A note on the 25C tax credit
You'll still see blogs promising a federal tax credit for your panel upgrade. Be careful: the 25C Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit, which offered 30% of the cost up to $600 for a qualifying 200A-or-greater panel tied to a heat pump or similar upgrade, expired on December 31, 2025. It is not available for panel work performed in 2026. If you completed a qualifying upgrade in 2025, you may still be able to claim it on that year's return. Tax rules change, and this is not tax advice, so confirm your situation with a tax professional before you count on any credit.
How we handle it
We coordinate the licensed electrical work, the load calculation, the San Jose permit, and the PG&E service change as one managed piece of your project, so you're not chasing the utility yourself. And when you're remodeling, we plan the panel and the heavy circuits around what you'll actually want in five years, not just today. See how we run a job on our process page.