Electrical questions and answers

No. The rate we quote at 2am is the rate we quote at 2pm, anywhere in Alabama. Charging a premium for emergencies encourages people to wait, and waiting is how small electrical faults become large ones.

We diagnose the problem, give you one written price for the job, and you approve it before any work starts. If opening a wall or a panel reveals something genuinely different from what we quoted, we stop and requote instead of adding it to the bill.

Quotes on planned work — panels, rewires, generators, EV chargers, lighting projects — are free. Diagnostic work on an existing fault carries a service fee of $89 to $149, which we credit toward the repair if you go ahead with it.

Cash, all major cards, checks and bank transfer. For larger projects we work to a staged schedule agreed in writing before we start, so you are never paying far ahead of the work.

Yes, on any work that needs one — panel and service upgrades, rewires, new circuits and most commercial work. Unpermitted electrical work causes real problems at sale and at insurance claim time, so it is not worth the shortcut.

Most Alabama calls are same-day, and emergencies are usually reached within a couple of hours. Larger scheduled projects like panel upgrades and rewires typically book two to five days out.

Yes. Panel work, rewiring, repairs and service upgrades on mobile and manufactured homes, including the pedestal and feeder, are routine for us.

Send us the report. We will price the corrections line by line, do the work, and provide documentation for the inspector or the carrier.

Most your city emergency calls are reached the same day, and overnight calls are typically on site within a couple of hours depending on weather and how many trucks are already committed. When you call (833) 652-8933 the dispatcher will give you a real arrival window, not a guess.

No. The price we quote at 2am in your city is the same price we quote at 2pm. We would rather you call early than sit in a dark house waiting for morning rates.

It can be. A breaker that trips once may just be an overloaded circuit, but one that trips instantly on reset usually means a short or a ground fault. Leave it off and call (833) 652-8933 — repeatedly resetting a breaker onto a fault is how electrical fires start.

Shut off the breaker feeding that area if you can identify it safely, do not use the circuit, and call us. A burning smell means something is overheating right now, and working equipment is not proof that it is safe.

Keep people and pets away from the affected outlet or panel, do not run extension cords from other circuits, and if there is visible smoke or fire leave the building and call 911 first. Then call (833) 652-8933 and we will talk you through the rest.

Most your city homes land between $1,900 and $3,400 for a 100 to 200 amp upgrade, and $1,300 to $2,200 for a straight breaker box replacement. The spread comes from meter base condition, service mast height and how far the panel sits from the meter. We quote the exact number after looking at it.

Usually four to eight hours for a standard your city panel swap. We schedule the utility disconnect for the morning so you are back on before evening, and we can stage a temporary circuit for a refrigerator or medical equipment if you need it.

Yes, and we pull it. Panel and service work in your city requires a permit and an inspection, and skipping it causes real problems when you sell or file an insurance claim. Permit and inspection coordination is part of our quote.

For most your city homes, yes — including one EV charger, a heat pump and an electric range. If you are planning two chargers, a shop, a pool and an all-electric kitchen, we will run the load calculation and tell you honestly whether 200 amps or 320 amps makes sense.

Their breakers have a documented history of failing to trip when a circuit faults, which means the panel does not do the one job it exists to do. If you have one in your city, replacing it is the single highest-value electrical upgrade in the house.

A straightforward Level 2 install in your city with the panel near the garage usually runs $650 to $1,300. Long runs, trenching to a detached garage or a required panel upgrade push it higher, and we give you the full number before we order parts.

Not always. Many your city homes with 200 amp service have room for a 48 amp charger. If your panel is 100 amps or already loaded, we can often fit a load management device instead of a full upgrade, which is usually the cheaper path.

Most your city installs are done in three to five hours. Trenching, a panel upgrade or a run across the length of the house can turn it into a full day, and we tell you which one you have before we schedule.

Hardwiring lets most chargers run at 48 amps instead of 40 and removes the outlet as a failure point, which matters because 14-50 receptacles are a common source of overheating. If you may move the charger later, the outlet still makes sense.

Yes. We install workplace and customer charging in your city, including multiple units on a shared feeder, bollard protection and network-connected chargers for billing.

A 1,500 to 2,000 square foot your city home typically runs $8,000 to $18,000 including a new panel. Accessibility drives the number more than square footage — a home with an open attic and crawlspace costs far less to rewire than a two-story slab house with plaster walls.

Almost never. We work in sections in your city and keep power on in the parts of the house we are not touching. Most families stay put, with one or two days of limited power in the active zone.

Two-prong ungrounded outlets, a fuse box, cloth-covered wire, warm switch plates, frequent breaker trips, or ceramic knobs visible in the attic all point to it. If you are not sure, we will look at it in your city at no charge and tell you honestly whether you need a full rewire or just a few circuits.

We fish through existing wall cavities and use attics, crawlspaces and closets wherever possible. Some access holes are unavoidable, and we keep them small, in inconspicuous places, and patch them so they disappear under paint.

Yes, and for many your city homeowners that is the smart way to do it. We usually start with the panel and the highest-risk circuits, then work through the rest on a schedule that fits your budget.

It depends on whether you want everything or just the essentials. A 14 to 18 kW unit runs a typical your city home including one air conditioner, the fridge, well pump and lights. Whole-home coverage for a larger house with two AC units usually needs 22 to 26 kW. We measure your actual load rather than guessing from square footage.

The electrical work is usually one to two days in your city once the pad is set and the gas line is run. Coordinating the fuel supply and the utility is what stretches the calendar, so we start that early and give you a real date.

Yes. Running a generator through an extension cord chain is unreliable, and backfeeding through a dryer outlet is dangerous to you and to the utility crews working your line. A transfer switch physically prevents the two sources from ever meeting.

Electrical installation for a whole home system in your city generally runs $5,500 to $12,000 depending on the transfer switch, the distance from the panel and site conditions, plus the cost of the generator itself and any gas work.

They do. The unit exercises itself weekly, but oil, filters, plugs and the starting battery need attention roughly once a year. We handle maintenance for the systems we install in your city and for units other companies put in.

Most your city recessed installs run $140 to $260 per can including the fixture, and the price drops per light as the count goes up because the hard part is getting into the ceiling the first time. Six lights in one room is far cheaper per light than one light in six rooms.

Yes. That means running a new circuit or extending an existing one, cutting in a fan-rated box, and adding a switch. It is a common job in your city bedrooms and takes a few hours.

Almost always a dimmer built for incandescent loads driving an LED. Swapping in an LED-rated dimmer matched to the fixture fixes it. It is a fifteen-minute job that homeowners in your city spend months living with.

We do — security floods, soffit lighting, path and uplighting on low voltage transformers, and dedicated exterior outlets on timers. All of it weather-rated and buried properly so a lawn mower is not a hazard.

Usually. A wobble is nearly always the mounting box rather than the fan. If it was hung on a standard box instead of a fan-rated one, we swap the box and the wobble goes away.

That is how most of our your city commercial work gets done. Nights, early mornings, weekends and holidays, at the same rate. We would rather work at 4am than cost you a day of revenue.

Yes. Three-phase distribution, motor circuits, VFDs, machine hookups, dock equipment and compressor circuits are routine work for our your city commercial crews.

We do this often in your city — restaurants and retail spaces facing a health or fire inspection, and landlords preparing a space for a new tenant. Send us the violation list and we will price the corrections line by line.

Yes. Scheduled maintenance for your city businesses includes thermal panel scans, emergency lighting tests, lighting replacement and a documented punch list, which is much cheaper than emergency calls.

We run 24/7 in your city. A commercial power loss gets priority dispatch, and if we cannot fully repair it the same visit we will get you on temporary power so you can trade.

Most smart switches need a neutral wire, and switch boxes in older your city homes often only have a hot and a switch leg. We either pull a neutral to the box or fit a switch designed to run without one, depending on what the wall allows.

For phones and laptops, no. For cameras, access points, TVs and anything you do not want dropping out, hardwired is the difference between a smart home and a frustrating one. A few strategic ethernet runs in a your city home fix most reliability complaints.

Yes. We hardwire cameras with PoE, upgrade doorbell transformers that cannot carry a video unit, and route cable so nothing is visible or reachable from the ground.

We work with Lutron, Ring, Nest, Ecobee, Kasa, Aqara, UniFi, Hubitat and Home Assistant setups in your city. If you have already picked a platform, we wire to it rather than trying to sell you a different one.

That is the ideal time. Pre-wiring during your city construction costs a fraction of retrofitting later, and we will map out drops, panel locations and conduit paths with your builder before the drywall goes up.