Home/01Services·Phoenix AZ
Five house jobs, each priced after the load calc.
EV charger installation in Phoenix, panel upgrades, whole house rewiring, lighting and fans, and electrical troubleshooting. Every section below gives the scope, the materials by size, what Phoenix heat changes, and exactly what moves the number on your written quote.
S01/Level 2 charger install Phoenix
EV charger installation, sized from your actual service.
Charger on the garage wall, conduit on the surface, permit pulled. Most single-day installs are done before the afternoon heat.
A Level 2 charger is a continuous load on a dedicated 240 V circuit. The charger itself decides how much it can draw; the circuit has to be sized at 125% of that. So a 32 A charger wants a 40 A breaker, a 48 A charger wants 60 A, and a NEMA 14-50 receptacle goes on a 50 A circuit. Those are the easy numbers. The hard one is whether the service feeding the house has that much left over on a 115°F afternoon with both AC units running.
That is what the load calculation answers. We count the square footage, the range, the dryer, the water heater, the AC tonnage, the pool pump, then add the charger. If a 100 amp service carries it, you get a circuit. If it does not, there are honest options before a panel: a smaller charger setting, or a load management device that pauses charging while the AC is pulling hard. A panel upgrade is the last answer, not the first.
Hardwired or plug-in? We lean hardwired. A wall unit wired straight in has no receptacle to wear out, and a cheap 14-50 receptacle cycled every night at 40 A is a known source of melted faces. If you want a plug so the charger can move with you, we fit an industrial-grade receptacle and GFCI protection as current code asks for in a garage.
Phoenix heat note. When the run goes through the attic, conductors sit in air well past 140°F in July. Ampacity drops with heat, so the wire size gets checked against the attic, not the garage. Where we can, we keep the run on the garage wall in conduit and out of the attic entirely.
| Charger draw | Breaker | Conductor | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24 A | 30 A 2-pole | 10 AWG Cu | Tight service, plug-in hybrid, short daily miles |
| 32 A | 40 A 2-pole | 8 AWG Cu | Most Phoenix garages on a 100 to 150 A service |
| 40 A (14-50) | 50 A 2-pole | 6 AWG Cu | Receptacle install, portable charger |
| 48 A | 60 A 2-pole | 6 AWG Cu | 200 A service with headroom, long commutes |
| Conductor sizes are a starting point. Long runs and attic heat can push a size up. The final size is on the quote. | |||
- Copper THHN in EMT or PVC conduit on exposed garage walls.
- Breaker matched to your panel brand, not a "classified" substitute where the label says otherwise.
- Industrial-grade 14-50 receptacle when a plug is chosen.
- Strut or one-hole straps every few feet on stucco and block, anchored, not glued.
- Sell a panel upgrade the load calculation does not call for.
- Hang a 48 A charger on a service that has 30 A to spare.
- Install a charger you supply without its listing paperwork.
- Route the circuit through the attic when the garage wall will carry it.
S02/Panel upgrade Phoenix
Panel upgrade and electrical panel replacement.
A lot of Phoenix houses built in the 1970s and 80s run on 100 amps. That was fine for one AC unit and a gas range. It is tight once you add a charger and a heat pump.
A 200 amp panel upgrade replaces the meter-main or the main panel, the service entrance conductors and, depending on the house, the grounding electrode system. On most Phoenix houses the meter and main breaker are a combination unit on the outside wall, so the job happens there, with the old can coming off the stucco and a new one going on in the same footprint or close to it.
The utility has to cut power at the transformer or pull the meter, and put it back after the city inspection. We book that with them. You do not have to chase anyone. The house is without power for part of one day; we tell you the window in advance so the fridge and anything medical can be planned around it.
Replacement without an upgrade is the other half of this service. Some older panel brands have a history of breakers that do not trip when they should. If your panel is one of them, or the bus bars are pitted and scorched, it gets swapped at the same amperage. Not every house needs 200 A. We say which yours needs, and the load calc is how we know.
Phoenix heat note. A meter-main on a west-facing wall cooks in afternoon sun, and breakers run warmer when the enclosure does. We check terminal torque on the main lugs at handover, because heat cycling loosens connections that were only snug.
| Item | Included |
|---|---|
| Load calculation | Written, attached to the quote. Confirms 200 A is the right answer. |
| Meter-main or panel | 200 A rated, bus space for current circuits plus room to add |
| Service conductors | Replaced to the 200 A rating where the existing ones are undersized |
| Grounding | Electrode and bonding checked, brought to current requirements |
| Branch circuits | Every existing circuit landed, labeled on a typed schedule |
| Utility | Disconnect and reconnect booked by LiveWire |
| Permit and inspection | Pulled and attended by LiveWire, fee itemized |
| Outage | Part of one day, window given in advance |
Adding an EV charger and a heat pump on the same 100 A service. Pool equipment plus a second AC. A panel with no open spaces and tandem breakers already doubled up. A panel brand with a recall history. Any one of these, and the calculation usually lands on an upgrade.
We will not- Quote a 200 A upgrade before the load calc is done.
- Wire a generator transfer we cannot inspect end to end.
- Install a solar array. We will leave space and rating for one.
- Double up tandem breakers in a panel that is not listed for them.
S03/Whole house rewiring Phoenix
Rewiring and circuit modernization, room by room.
Cloth-jacket wiring with no ground is not a cosmetic problem. It is the reason your new microwave keeps tripping the kitchen.
Whole house rewiring in Phoenix rarely means opening every wall. Most single-storey houses here have an attic over every room, so new cable drops down from above into the existing boxes, and the old runs are cut dead and abandoned in place. Drywall work is usually limited to small access holes at top plates and in a few awkward spots, which we patch flat for your painter.
We scope it room by room. Kitchen and baths first, because that is where current code asks for GFCI protection and the old circuits are most overloaded. Bedrooms and living areas get AFCI protection on the new circuits. Aluminum branch wiring from the late 60s and early 70s gets replaced, or at minimum every termination is corrected with connectors listed for aluminum-to-copper. We tell you which we recommend for your house and why.
You do not have to do the whole house at once. Plenty of owners do the kitchen this year and the bedrooms next. The survey tells you which rooms are worst.
Phoenix heat note. Your attic hits 140 degrees in July. Cable in there gets derated, so we size it for August, not for the spec sheet. Attic pulls are booked for early mornings from May to September, because a tired electrician in a 150°F attic makes mistakes.
| Room | Protection | Typical circuit |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen counters | GFCI and AFCI | Two 20 A small-appliance circuits min. |
| Bathrooms | GFCI | 20 A receptacle circuit |
| Laundry | GFCI and AFCI | 20 A dedicated |
| Bedrooms | AFCI | 15 A or 20 A, 12 or 14 AWG Cu |
| Living areas | AFCI | 15 A or 20 A |
| Garage and exterior | GFCI | 20 A |
| Final protection follows the code edition the City of Phoenix enforces at permit time. | ||
- Two-prong receptacles throughout, or three-prong ones with no ground behind them.
- Lights that dim when the AC kicks on.
- Warm or discolored receptacle faces.
- Aluminum branch wiring, silver at the box.
- Fit a three-prong receptacle on an ungrounded circuit without GFCI protection and the required label.
- Leave live abandoned cable in the attic. Old runs are cut dead at both ends.
S04/Recessed lighting and ceiling fans Phoenix
Lighting and ceiling fan installation, on proper boxes.
A ceiling fan weighs 15 to 25 pounds and wobbles while it spins. The plastic box that held your old light was never meant for that.
Ceiling fan installation in Phoenix is mostly patios and bedrooms. Every fan we hang goes on a box listed for fan support, fixed to a joist or a brace bar between joists. On a patio, the fan and its controls are rated for damp or wet locations depending on how exposed the spot is. If there is no switch leg, we run one, so the fan and light are on separate controls rather than a pull chain.
Recessed lighting installation means slim LED wafer fixtures in most retrofit jobs. They mount into a round hole from below and need no can, which means less attic time and no insulation clearance problems. In older homes with blown-in insulation we use fixtures rated for insulation contact and airtight, so the AC is not cooling the attic through your ceiling. Layout is drawn on the ceiling before anything is cut.
Exterior lighting covers wall lanterns, soffit downlights, path lights on low-voltage transformers, and motion floods over the driveway. Anything outdoors goes on weather-resistant, GFCI-protected circuits with in-use covers on the receptacles.
Phoenix heat note. Desert sun destroys cheap plastic. Exterior fixtures and covers that face south or west chalk and crack inside two summers. We steer you toward metal or UV-stable fixtures, and LED drivers rated for high ambient temperature in enclosed soffits.
| Fixture | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Interior ceiling fan | Fan-rated box on joist or listed brace, separate fan and light control where wiring allows |
| Patio ceiling fan | Damp or wet rated to the location, fan-rated box, GFCI-protected circuit |
| Recessed retrofit | LED wafer or canless, IC-rated and airtight under insulation |
| Soffit downlight | Wet or damp rated, driver rated for high ambient |
| Exterior receptacle | Weather-resistant, GFCI, in-use cover |
| Dimmers | Matched to the LED fixture's listed dimmer type |
- Hang a fan on a box that is not rated for one, even "just for now".
- Fit indoor fixtures under an open patio cover.
- Run an exterior circuit without GFCI protection.
- Mix dimmers and LED fixtures that are not listed to work together. The flicker is the warning.
Have a fixture already? We install customer-supplied fixtures when they are listed for the location. Warranty on the fixture stays with its maker; see the warranty terms.
S05/Electrical troubleshooting Phoenix
Troubleshooting, repair and whole home surge protection.
Bigger breaker, same wire. That is the fix we get called out to undo most often.
Electrical troubleshooting is a method, not a guess. We start at the symptom and work back to the panel with a meter: voltage at the device, voltage drop under load, insulation resistance where we suspect damage. The fault on a dead circuit is usually a failed connection one or two devices upstream, very often a backstab, where the wire is pushed into a spring clip on the back of a cheap receptacle instead of wrapped under the screw. Those loosen, arc and scorch. We remake every connection we open on the screw terminals.
A breaker that trips is doing its job. The question is why. An overloaded kitchen circuit, a failing appliance, a ground fault in an outdoor box full of water from the sprinklers, or a breaker that has simply worn out. We find which, and fix that thing.
A whole home surge protector installation puts a surge protective device at the panel, on its own breaker, with short straight leads so it actually clamps fast. It protects against spikes coming in on the service and from inside the house when big motors cycle. It does not make a house lightning-proof, and we will not tell you it does. It does take most of the hit off the electronics in your AC, range and charger.
Phoenix heat note. Monsoon season brings our busiest troubleshooting weeks: water in exterior boxes, GFCIs tripping after storms, and surges from utility switching. Outdoor faults get checked for water entry, not just reset.
| Symptom | Common cause | First check |
|---|---|---|
| Dead receptacles in a row | Loose or burnt backstab upstream | Voltage at each device, open the first dead one and the last live one |
| Breaker trips under load | Overloaded circuit or failing appliance | Clamp-on current reading against breaker rating |
| Breaker trips at random | Ground fault or worn breaker | Insulation test on the circuit, breaker condition |
| Warm receptacle face | Loose termination, overloaded device | Thermal check, remake on screw terminals |
| Lights dim with AC start | Voltage drop, loose neutral or tight service | Voltage at panel under AC start, neutral torque |
| GFCI trips after rain | Water in an exterior box | Box gasket, cover type, drainage |
- Swap the breaker for a bigger one to stop a trip.
- Reset and leave without finding the cause.
- Start a repair before you have the written price for it.
- Promise a surge device makes anything immune to lightning.
Not sure which of the five you need? That is what the load calc is for.
Residential work only, Phoenix and Ahwatukee. Prices are never quoted over the phone or on this page; the binding figure is the one on your written quote. Read more about how LiveWire works.