A service upgrade goes through the wall. It replaces the panel like a panel upgrade does, and then keeps going: the meter base outside, often the mast or the underground cable, and the connection back to the utility. It is the job that actually raises how much power the house can draw.
Where the extra work is
Everything a panel upgrade does, plus the equipment on the outside wall. The meter base has an amperage rating like everything else in the chain, and a 100A base cannot stay when the service behind it goes to 200A.
Then there is the supply itself. Overhead, that means the mast and the drop from the pole. Underground, it means the cable in the trench. Whether either needs replacing is the single biggest variable in what one of these costs.
The utility is involved
This is what makes it a scheduled job rather than a booking. The meter has to be pulled and the service disconnected by the utility before an electrician can touch the base, and reconnected afterwards, and that coordination sets the timeline more than the electrical work does.
It also means the date is not entirely in anyone's gift. A contractor who promises you a specific day before the utility has confirmed is promising something they do not control.
When you actually need one
Raising service size is the planned reason. The found reasons are a meter base that is cracked, rusted through, or pulling off the wall, and a service cable with insulation that has gone brittle — cloth-wrapped rather than smooth plastic is the visible tell.
A house being fed by a service that is physically deteriorating is a different kind of problem from one that has simply run out of capacity, and it does not wait for a convenient moment.
How to spot it in your house
- Find the meter on your exterior wall and look at the box behind it: rust streaks, a cracked rim, or a gap where the cable enters all matter.
- Follow the cable up to the roofline if it is overhead. A mast that leans, or has pulled away from the fascia, is a service problem.
- Look at the insulation on the conductors entering the panel. Frayed cloth rather than smooth plastic dates the service and usually means it comes with the panel.
The next question
See what a service upgrade includesRelated terms
- Panel upgradeReplacing the breaker panel inside your home, the box the circuits land in, usually with the main breaker at the same time.
- Service sizeThe total amount of electricity your house can draw from the grid at once, measured in amps. Most Ontario homes are 100A or 200A.
- Meter baseThe weatherproof housing on the outside of your house that the utility meter plugs into, between the incoming service cable and your panel.
- Service mastThe pipe carrying the overhead service line from the utility pole down to your meter. It is the part most often damaged in a storm.