What electrical work actually costs in Spokane

Service change, 100 to 200 amp: $7,000 to $10,000

Most land between $8,000 and $8,500.

First, a distinction that costs people money because nobody explains it. A panel change is the panel. A service change is everything from the meter outside all the way through to the panel. They are not the same job and they are not the same price.

If your house still has 100 amp service, it's almost always an old overhead service, which means the whole thing gets upgraded, not just the box in the basement.

Here's the one that catches people: if the meter outside is already 200 amp but the panel inside is 150, you still can't do a panel-only change. That has to be a service upgrade.

What moves the price:

• Overhead versus underground. Going from overhead to underground costs more.
• A service that no longer meets code. The mast may have to go higher, sometimes through the roof, and there are required clearances between service conductors and windows. Placement gets awkward fast.
• Clearance from the gas meter, which affects where things can sit.
• Panels can't be in closets or bathrooms. If yours is, it moves. And once it moves, the next section applies.

More on that job: panel upgrades and service changes in Spokane.

Panel replacement, same amperage: $3,000 to $4,000

This is the straight swap: an old panel out, a new one in, same service size, nothing relocated. Usually it's an old Zinsco or a Federal Pacific Stab-Lok, thirty space or twenty-four space.

What moves it: whether the panel has to move at all. If it's sitting in a closet or a bathroom, it has to be relocated, and then the six-foot rule kicks in. At that point it's sometimes better value to do a full service change instead of paying twice.

Level 2 EV charger, attached garage: $1,200 to $1,300

That's with the charger going in at or near the panel. Running across the garage adds $300 to $500.

What moves it: whether it's a receptacle or hardwired. A 50 amp receptacle has to be on a GFCI breaker, and those cost more than standard ones. A hardwired charger has GFCI protection built into the unit, so it doesn't need one. Surface-mount conduit and distance from the panel do the rest.

Worth knowing before you buy the car: on an older house, adding an EV charger can push the total load past what the existing service can carry, which turns a $1,300 job into a service change. We'd rather tell you that on the phone than after you've bought the vehicle.

And on incentives, plainly: there is no longer a federal tax credit for a home EV charger: Section 30C expired June 30, 2026, and Avista's residential rebate program is closed. If a page tells you otherwise, it hasn't been updated.

More on that job: EV charger installation in Spokane.

Whole-home rewire, 2,000 to 3,000 square feet: around $30,000

This number moves more than anything else we quote, and we want to be honest about that rather than have you anchor on it.

What brings it down: an unfinished basement, a single story, an accessible attic. Anywhere we can get to without opening a wall.

What pushes it up: a finished basement with a finished main floor above it and attic trusses on top. That's the hardest version of this job. Add knob-and-tube throughout and a panel located outside, and you have the most expensive rewire we've seen.

Where the money actually goes might surprise you: it isn't the wire. It's avoiding drywall repair. Sheetrockers are cheaper than electricians, so most of the planning on a rewire is about finding paths that don't turn into patching.

One more thing people ask: we don't pull all the old wiring out. Anything we can reach, we remove. Anything buried where getting to it would mean taking the house apart, we cut loose and de-energize so it can't be brought back to life by accident.

Take this number as the shape of the answer, not a quote. A real one takes a walkthrough.

More on that job: whole-home rewiring in Spokane.

Hot tub circuit: from $1,200

The $1,200 end is the good case: panel right by the back deck, unfinished basement, short run, disconnect and wire. It goes up from there with distance and finished space.

Something to be careful about. Hot tub delivery crews sometimes make their own final connection. Our inspectors ask about it, "who's doing the final connection?", because it matters.

This is a body of water with electricity attached to it. It's the worst possible place to get it wrong. Have a licensed electrician take it all the way through.

Hot tubs and saunas are both typically 50 amp, 240 volt.

Generator transfer switch: $2,000 to $2,200

That's for a manual interlock setup, 30 or 50 amp, including the inlet and the wire in, assuming the panel and inlet are reasonably close together. You supply the portable generator.

What an interlock actually does: it makes it physically impossible for utility power and generator power to be live at the same time. That isn't a convenience feature. It's what keeps your generator from backfeeding the line and putting a lineman at risk. We've been called to houses running generators without one. It's genuinely dangerous.

Automatic standby systems are a different conversation. The transfer switch senses the utility drop, starts the generator, and switches over on its own. The generator has to be sized to your house load; you can't just fit whichever one is on sale. If you've got electric heat and electric cooking, we may recommend a critical-loads panel instead, which backs up the refrigerator, the lights, and some heat rather than the whole house. That's usually the sensible call, and it's a lot less generator.

More on that job: generator installation in Spokane.

Service call: $395

Covers the first half hour on site plus a half hour of travel. Hourly increments after that.

How to spend less of it: send us a photo first. If we can see the panel before we drive out, we can usually bring the right part. We had a call at seven-thirty one night: no power, an old GE panel. Asked for a picture, happened to have the right breaker on the shelf, put the whole panel in the van, pulled the meter, swapped the breaker, done. That's a fraction of what it costs to show up blind, diagnose, leave for parts, and come back.

Why any of this costs what it does

The honest version, because people ask.

The parts are rarely the expensive part. What you're paying for is a licensed electrician who has done the job before, work that passes inspection the first time, and an installation that lasts indefinitely under normal conditions.

Getting licensed takes years. Getting good takes longer: the stretch after the license, when you're learning what's actually behind these walls, is where most of the real education happens. The reason a job goes quickly is that somebody already made the mistakes on a different house.

We'd rather explain the number than pad it.

Solar is quoted per system rather than as a range, and it starts with the same look at your panel. That's on our solar page.