Electrical Panel Upgrades in Hollis, Maine

About a third of Hollis's homes were built between 1960 and 1979, a larger share than almost any other town in Cumberland or York County. A house of that era usually got a 100-amp service and a panel that looked roomy at the time. Fifty years later, many of those panels are full of tandem breakers and carry an oil burner, a well pump, a water heater, a range, a dryer and a garage. With about 65 percent of the town's homes still heating with oil, every household that trades the boiler for cold-climate heat pumps shifts its heat onto that same service, and a heat-pump water heater or an EV charger pushes it further.

Mobile homes make up nearly 10 percent of the town's housing. Their service typically lands first on a pole- or post-mounted meter with its own disconnect, then feeds a panel inside the home. The feeder and both panels need to be checked before adding heat pumps, and a mobile home's original panel is often so small that replacing it is simpler than squeezing in new breakers. State permit rules split on location: a mobile home sitting inside a park needs a state electrical permit, and one on its own land outside a park does not. Maine's senior electrical inspector has also clarified that on a one- or two-family dwelling a full service upgrade now brings an outdoor emergency disconnect, mounted on the wall or a pedestal no more than 50 feet away and in sight of the house.

A typical Hollis upgrade takes the house to 200 amps, replacing the panel, the meter socket and the service entrance cable, and often the mast too. Houses from the 1960s through the 1980s are also where Federal Pacific, Zinsco and Challenger panels turn up, and replacing one is a common reason to upgrade the whole service at once. Goodnow Electric starts with a load calculation, adds whole-home surge protection if you want it, schedules the utility disconnect and reconnect, and files the state paperwork itself, because Hollis's code office does not issue electrical permits. The owner works each job in person, and estimates are written and cost nothing.