Emergency panel replacement and service restoration.

What we mean by emergency panel work

Most panel replacements are scheduled jobs. You notice your breakers are getting old, you call us during the week, we set a date, we pull a permit, we do the swap. That's the normal path and it's the cheapest way to do it.

Emergency panel work is different. It's the call we get when the panel itself has failed, when the main breaker won't reset, when you can hear buzzing through the dead front, when the bus bar is visibly burned, or when the cover is hot to the touch. At that point you have a fire risk and you can't wait for a Tuesday appointment.

We dispatch a truck, assess what's happening, and decide on the spot whether the right move is a full overnight replacement or a temporary safe shutdown until parts are available the next morning. Most of the time we can complete the swap that night.

The panel brands we replace most often

Two of these are infamous and the rest are just old. If you live in a Spokane house built before 1990, there's a real chance one of these is on your wall right now.

• Federal Pacific Stab-Lok. The most well-documented residential panel failure in the country. Breakers that don't trip when they should. We replace these every week.
• Zinsco and Sylvania-Zinsco. Bus bar corrosion, breakers that fuse to the bus, melted aluminum. Same story as FPE, just a different brand name.
• Pushmatic. Less dangerous than the above two, but parts are nearly impossible to find. When a Pushmatic breaker fails, replacement is the only option.
• Bulldog and ITE. Old enough that the original breakers are no longer made. Capacity is usually inadequate for modern loads.
• Pre-1980 GE and Square D. Often still functional but undersized at 60A or 100A. We upsize to 200A as part of the replacement.

What an overnight panel swap actually looks like

When we say emergency panel replacement, here's the real timeline. Our truck arrives, the lead electrician confirms the failure mode, we get on the phone with Avista to schedule the disconnect (usually within 60 to 90 minutes for an emergency). Avista pulls the meter. We remove the old panel, install the new one, transfer all circuits, label everything, test for proper grounding and bonding. Avista comes back, sets the meter, and we power up. Total time on a typical 200A residential swap is four to six hours. You'll have power back the same night.

What we install and why

For residential we install Square D QO and Eaton CH panels. Both are well-stocked locally, both have available AFCI and dual-function breakers, and both have a long parts pipeline so anything you need ten years from now will still exist. For commercial we install whatever the spec calls for, usually Square D or Siemens, with the appropriate bus rating for the service.

Every replacement includes full grounding and bonding to current code, proper torque on every lug (we use a calibrated torque wrench, not feel), updated GFCI and AFCI protection where required, and clear circuit labeling so the next electrician who opens this panel doesn't have to guess.