The service
Start from a common job, then replace every figure with your takeoff. Changing panel style or path never overwrites a rate you already typed.
Your crew rates
A $52/h journeyman loaded at 34% is $69.68. Quoting the raw wage on a published per-amp special is how a finished-space 200A underground job that looked fine turns into a two-day loss after the first feeder pull.
Hand the customer a proposal
The price above is for you. This is the page you print or save as a PDF and give to the customer — your details, their details, the scope, the deposit split, and a line for them to sign. Your business details are saved on this device so you only type them once; the customer’s details are never saved.
Everything on the printed page is text you typed or a number this calculator worked out. It contains no warranty, lien, or cancellation wording — those depend on your jurisdiction and your contract, and this tool is not the place to invent them.
Your bid
- Service change
- Path and extras
- Crew hours
- Loaded labor
- Materials + fees
- Travel + equipment
- Overhead
- Total cost
- Profit at this price
- Price per amp of new service
- Effective hourly rate
- Walk-away price
Where the hours go
Where the cost goes
Transparent arithmetic from your own inputs. Starting hours and material rates are common ballpark figures, not an industry standard, an electrical specification, or a building-code determination — replace them with your own takeoff.
Common questions
Why is a “panel swap” quote so much cheaper than a “service upgrade”?
Because they are two different jobs and only one of them touches the utility. A same-amp swap — 100A in, 100A out, the first preset here — is the panel, the breakers, and landing the circuits. The moment the new amperage is higher than the existing service, this calculator adds a service change on top: 6 more hours by default, plus whatever the mast or lateral, meter socket, grounding, temporary power, and utility coordination actually take. That is why a brochure price written for a swap is not a number you can hand a 100A-to-200A customer.
What does going overhead vs. underground actually change?
The cable rate and the dig. An overhead mast run starts at $8 a foot of SE cable plus a $185 mast and weatherhead kit, and no underground hours. An underground lateral drops the mast kit to zero but the cable starts at $14 a foot and the path adds 5 hours on its own. Feeder length is billed at 0.15 hours a foot either way, so a long lateral compounds: more hours per foot, pricier cable, and the trench time on top.
Why does the panel location change the price when the panel is the same?
Access. A garage or basement panel is worked on an open wall. A panel in finished living space adds 3 hours by default for protecting the room, cutting and patching, and working around what is in it — before any of the electrical work differs at all. It is the single easiest thing to miss when quoting from a photo, and the most common reason a finished-space job runs long.
Why do circuits and AFCI breakers get counted one at a time?
Because they are the part that scales with the house, not with the panel. Each circuit landed is 0.35 hours plus a $12 breaker; each AFCI or GFCI is 0.2 hours plus a $48 breaker. A ten-circuit garage panel and a thirty-circuit whole-house panel are the same box on a shelf and very different days of work — and a code cycle that requires AFCI on more circuits moves the breaker cost far more than it moves the labor.
Does this include the permit and the utility fee?
Both are their own inputs, starting at a $185 permit fee and a utility disconnect/reconnect fee you type yourself, because they are set by your jurisdiction and your utility and no calculator can know them. They are pass-through costs that still carry your overhead and margin here, so they land in the price rather than quietly coming out of it. Check both against your actual authority having jurisdiction before you send the bid.
Is my data uploaded anywhere?
No account and no network requests — the calculator runs entirely in your browser. A share link encodes only the inputs you choose into the address bar and is never sent to us, and the optional usage counter records only which features were used and the day, never your amperages, wages, or prices.
What’s the difference between the bid price and the walk-away price?
The bid price already carries your target margin on top of labor, gear, fees, and overhead. The walk-away price is the total cost underneath it — crew hours, the panel and breakers, SE cable, mast or lateral, meter socket, temporary power, permit and utility fees, travel and equipment — the point below which the job stops being profitable at all. Typing a number into “Price you’re considering” shows you the margin, or the loss, before you send it.