Electrical panel upgrade in Hillsboro, OR

A panel upgrade replaces your existing service with a higher-capacity panel, typically 200 amps, with new breakers and grounding to current code. On a newer Hillsboro home, we first check whether you actually need a full upgrade or whether a subpanel and a couple of dedicated circuits will carry the new load. We run the math before we recommend anything.

If you are in the downtown core and your home predates the growth boom, we read the service and equipment honestly and lay out whether replacement is warranted.

Most Hillsboro homes near Orenco Station, South Hillsboro, and Tanasbourne were built with underground service rather than an overhead drop, so the meter and the main panel usually sit on an exterior wall with the feed coming up from a pad or vault. That is generally cleaner to work on than a 1920s roof mast, but it does not automatically mean spare capacity. A builder sizes a panel for the house it sold, not the heat pump, charger, and shop you add years later, so we still open it, read the loads, and check for open slots before we call it ready.

Hillsboro's electricity comes from Portland General Electric across the city, so if an upgrade means a heavier service, the meter disconnect and reconnect are arranged with PGE and timed to the city inspection. In the older downtown core, where some homes still run overhead services and smaller panels, that coordination looks more like it does in an older city. Either way, scheduling the utility around the work is part of what we handle.