Electrical panel upgrades in New Orleans
A panel upgrade is the one job where the oldest part of your house meets everything you have plugged into it. Done right, it is invisible for the next thirty years. Done cheaply, it is the reason the rest of the house is unsafe.
- On-site time
- One day for most panel swaps
- Permit & utility
- Handled by us, 1–3 weeks lead
- Estimate
- Free, on site
When a panel actually needs replacing
Not every old panel is a hazard, and not every electrician will tell you that. These are the cases where replacement is the honest answer rather than the profitable one:
- Federal Pacific Stab-Lok. Common in New Orleans homes built or updated between the 1950s and the early 1980s. The failure mode is specific and well documented: the breaker does not always trip on an overload. A breaker that will not trip is not a breaker.
- Zinsco and Sylvania-Zinsco. The bus bar corrodes and the breaker connection loosens, which produces heat inside the panel where nobody is looking.
- Fuse boxes. Still out there in Uptown and Mid-City doubles. Usually 60 amps, usually with pennies behind at least one fuse at some point in its life.
- A panel that has been flooded or rained on. Water leaves corrosion on the bus and inside the breakers. It does not dry out and go back to normal.
- You are out of room and out of amps. A 100-amp service with a full panel cannot take a central air replacement, a tankless water heater, or an EV charger without a load calculation first.
Signs to stop and call
Buzzing or crackling from the panel. A breaker that trips and will not stay reset. Scorch marks or a burnt smell at the panel door. Warm breakers. Lights that dim hard when the air conditioner starts. Any of those, stop using the circuit and call the same day — that is what the emergency line is for.
What the job actually involves
A service upgrade is not just swapping a box on the wall. The sequence, in the order it happens:
- Load calculation. Square footage, appliances, HVAC, and anything you are planning to add. This is what determines whether you need 150 or 200 amps, and it is the step that gets skipped on a lowball quote.
- Permit. Pulled with the City of New Orleans Department of Safety and Permits before work starts. A panel replacement done without a permit is a problem at resale and a bigger problem with your insurer after a fire.
- Entergy coordination. The meter has to be pulled and the service disconnected, which is Entergy's to do, not ours. Scheduling that release is usually the longest part of the timeline — the electrical work itself is a day.
- Replacement. New panel, new breakers, new grounding electrode conductor and bonding, every circuit re-terminated and labeled properly. Often the mast, weatherhead and meter can go at the same time, because it costs far less to do them in one visit than to come back.
- Inspection and reconnect. City inspection, then Entergy sets the meter and the power comes back on.
Why the timeline is longer than the work
Customers are often surprised that a one-day job takes two or three weeks. The electrical work is a day. The permit and the Entergy disconnect-reconnect window are the rest, and neither is something an electrician can rush by working faster. What we can do is file early, schedule the pull and the inspection in the right order, and not leave you without power in between.
What it costs
What a panel upgrade costs comes down to whether the service entrance conductors, mast and meter can are being replaced too, whether the panel is moving location, and how much of the existing branch wiring is reusable. Homes that turn out to need rewiring behind the panel are the ones at the top end, and we will tell you that at the estimate rather than mid-job.
The estimate is free and it happens on site. A panel cannot be quoted accurately over the phone, and anyone who does is either guessing or planning to revise it later.
Recent work
Every photo below is a TK Electric job in the New Orleans area, not stock photography.
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Common questions
How much does an electrical panel upgrade cost in New Orleans?
The price depends on whether the mast, weatherhead and meter can are being replaced, whether the panel is relocating, and the condition of the existing branch circuits. TK Electric quotes on site, for free.
How long does a panel upgrade take?
The electrical work is typically one day. The full timeline is usually one to three weeks, because it includes pulling the permit with the City of New Orleans and scheduling the Entergy disconnect and reconnect, neither of which an electrician controls.
Do I need a permit to replace an electrical panel in New Orleans?
Yes. A panel replacement requires a permit through the City of New Orleans Department of Safety and Permits and a subsequent inspection. TK Electric pulls the permit as part of the job. Unpermitted panel work causes problems at resale and with insurance claims.
Is a Federal Pacific panel really dangerous?
The documented issue with Federal Pacific Stab-Lok panels is that the breakers do not reliably trip under overload conditions, which is the one thing a breaker exists to do. Replacement is the standard recommendation. Zinsco panels have a related problem where the bus connection degrades and generates heat.
Will my power be off during the upgrade?
Yes, for the working portion of the day, because the service has to be disconnected at the meter. We schedule the Entergy pull and the city inspection so the outage is a single planned window rather than several.
Do I need 200 amps?
Not automatically. It comes out of the load calculation: square footage, HVAC, water heater, range, and anything you plan to add such as an EV charger. Plenty of homes are fine at 150. Selling every customer 200 amps regardless is a sales practice, not an engineering one.