Drexel Hill, PA Electrician for Twins, Panel Upgrades and Rewiring
Panel upgrades, fuse box replacement, knob and tube rewiring, repairs, lighting and emergency service across Drexel Hill, Upper Darby Township and Delaware County, with a flat price you approve before we start.
- ●HIC License PA197924
- ●15+ Years Experience
- ●OSHA 30 Certified Technicians
- ●Fully Insured
- ●Same Day Service Available
- ●Upfront Flat Pricing
TotalPower Electrical Services is a licensed electrical contractor serving Drexel Hill, PA and Upper Darby Township with panel upgrades, fuse box replacement, knob and tube rewiring, repairs, lighting and emergency service. The company holds HIC License PA197924, employs OSHA 30 certified technicians, has 15 plus years of experience, and quotes flat pricing before work begins.
Drexel Hill is built almost entirely from stone and brick twins and rows put up between the 1920s and the 1940s, and after fifteen years we know the layout before we walk through the door. Panel in the basement near the front, full basement with open joists, plaster over lath upstairs, and a decent chance of knob and tube still live on the second floor or in the attic.
Our crews run daily just over the city line as licensed electricians in Philadelphia, where the row housing in West and Southwest Philly is close kin to what stands here. Every circuit gets tested. Every permit goes through Upper Darby. You see the price in writing before anything gets opened up.
What Electrical Service Work Covers and the Signs of Bad Wiring in a House
Electrical service work runs from the utility connection at your meter to the last device on the last circuit. That covers the service entrance, meter socket, main panel or fuse box, the grounding and bonding system, every branch circuit, and all the outlets, switches and fixtures they feed. A licensed electrician traces what is actually live before quoting a rewire, because guessing at scope in a hundred year old twin is how estimates double halfway through.
An investor called us about a Drexel Hill twin he had just picked up. Previous owner had run a subpanel into a converted third floor unit off a 30 amp breaker, no permit, no ground, splices sitting loose above the ceiling. It had been like that for years and it passed nobody’s inspection. Correcting it cost less than he expected, but only because we found all of it before starting rather than partway through.
Call an electrician if you notice any of the following:
- A fuse box still in service, especially with oversized or mismatched fuses
- Live knob and tube or cloth insulated wiring on upper floors or in the attic
- A 60 or 100 amp service in a house with modern appliances
- Breakers that trip under normal load, or fuses that blow repeatedly
- Lights that dim when the dryer, AC compressor or dishwasher starts
- Outlets or switch plates that feel warm, or show scorch marks
- A burning plastic smell with no obvious source
- Two prong ungrounded outlets, or extension cords used as permanent wiring
- Subpanels or added circuits from a previous owner with no permit record
- A Federal Pacific Stab-Lok or Zinsco panel, both known for breakers that fail to trip
Our Electrical Services in Drexel Hill, PA
One crew, one point of contact, and nothing handed off to a subcontractor you never met.
Electrical Panel Upgrades and Service Changes
Moving a 60 or 100 amp service up to 200 amps is the job we run most often in Drexel Hill. We handle the load calculation, meter socket, service entrance cable, new load center and PECO coordination, the same way our residential electrical work runs region wide.
Fuse Box Replacement
Plenty of Drexel Hill basements still have one. Breakers trip and reset, fuses get replaced with whatever is in the drawer, and an oversized fuse removes the protection entirely. We swap the box, upgrade the grounding and pull the permit.
Knob and Tube Replacement
We map every circuit that is genuinely live, replace it with modern grounded cable, and document the work rather than abandoning wiring in place. Insurers and mortgage underwriters usually want proof of removal. Handled through our rewiring and circuit installation.
Whole Home Rewiring in Twins and Rows
Full basements with open joists make the first floor straightforward. Above that it is plaster, so we plan the route through closet backs and existing chases and keep openings small. Party wall work gets coordinated with the neighbor when a shared wall is involved.
Electrical Repairs and Troubleshooting
Dead outlets, half-working circuits, GFCI devices tripping without cause, breakers that buzz. We trace faults with meters and thermal imaging rather than guesswork. Most single-fault electrical fault tracing and repairs finish in one visit.
Rental Property and Code Correction Work
Drexel Hill has a large rental and investor segment, and unpermitted work from previous owners is the usual sticking point at inspection. We correct violations, upgrade panels between tenants, and document everything for your file. Includes smart switch and low voltage installation where units need it.
Lighting Installation and Upgrades
Recessed LED cans, under cabinet runs, porch and exterior lighting, dimmer conversions and fixture swaps. Plaster ceilings need the right housing and a careful cut, and old ceiling boxes often need rebuilding before they will carry a modern fixture. See our lighting and fixture installation.
Generator Installation and Hookups
Whole home standby units with an automatic transfer switch, or a portable generator inlet with a code compliant interlock kit. Narrow lots here complicate placement, since generators need clearance from windows and property lines. Details on generator and transfer switch work.
EV Charger Installation
Level 2 chargers on a dedicated 40 to 60 amp circuit, hardwired or on a NEMA 14-50 receptacle. Many Drexel Hill homes park on the street or in a rear alley garage, so we look at where the car actually sits before quoting anything.
Emergency Electrical Service
Partial power loss, a burning smell, water in the panel, storm damage to the service mast. Those do not wait until Monday. Call 267-312-8232 for emergency electricians on call, and we will tell you what to shut off while we are on the way.
Why Drexel Hill and Upper Darby Property Owners Choose TotalPower
You get a flat price before the work starts. We diagnose, we quote, you approve. No clock running while somebody hunts for the fault, and no surprise change orders once the plaster is open.
Permits go through Upper Darby Township. Drexel Hill is not its own municipality, so applications and inspections run through the township offices rather than anywhere local to the neighborhood. Knowing the right office before filing keeps a panel job on schedule instead of losing a week to a bounced application.
Old house work gets scoped honestly. Some contractors quote a full rewire on sight of any knob and tube. Others ignore what is behind the walls entirely. We map the live circuits, tell you what genuinely needs replacing and what can stay, and price both so the decision is yours to make.
Every technician on the truck holds OSHA 30 certification. On service changes and commercial electrical contracting alike, the difference between a safe outcome and a bad one comes down to procedure rather than speed.
Documentation comes standard. We photograph terminations, panel interiors and finished installs, which matters for landlords facing inspection, for insurers and for anyone selling a house with older wiring. Browse work we have finished recently before deciding whether to call.
Same day slots stay open on weekdays for repair calls. If the schedule is genuinely full, we say so rather than leaving you waiting on a truck that is not coming.
Our Process, From First Call to Final Inspection
-
Call or message with the details
Give us the address, the symptom, and whether you have a fuse box or a breaker panel. If it is a rental, tell us that up front, because inspection deadlines change how we sequence the work.
-
On site diagnosis and circuit mapping
We test circuits, open the panel, check grounding and bonding, and trace what is actually live on old wiring. On rewires that mapping is the entire basis of an accurate quote. You get a written flat price, and nothing gets touched until you approve it.
-
Permit and scheduling
Panel upgrades, service changes, fuse box replacement, new circuits and rewiring get filed with Upper Darby Township and scheduled with the inspector. Repairs that need no permit usually get handled during the same visit.
-
The work, done to code
Drop cloths down, circuits labeled, terminations torqued to spec, wall openings kept small and grouped for your patcher. On multi-day jobs we keep the house livable and restore essential circuits before leaving each evening.
-
Inspection, walkthrough and paperwork
The inspector signs off, we walk you through what changed, and you keep the permit records and photos for your files, your insurer or your tenant file. Then you call us directly if anything acts up later.
How Much Does an Electrician Cost in Drexel Hill, PA
Four things move the price: the size of the service, the condition and type of existing wiring, how hard the runs are to reach, and whether PECO has to disconnect and reconnect. Full basements make first floor work cheaper here than in slab built homes, while plaster on the upper floors pushes rewire costs the other way.
The ranges below reflect recent work in Drexel Hill and the surrounding Delaware County communities. Your written quote might land outside them, and we will explain exactly why if it does. We do not quote low to get in the door and revise upward later.
| Job | Typical range | What moves the price |
|---|---|---|
| Service call and diagnosis | $150 to $350 | Number of circuits involved, access, time of day |
| Outlet, switch or fixture replacement | $150 to $400 | Box condition, whether a ground and neutral are present |
| Dedicated circuit added | $400 to $1,000 | Distance from panel, plaster patching, spare panel space |
| Fuse box replaced with breaker panel | $1,800 to $4,200 | Service size, grounding upgrade, meter and mast condition |
| 60 or 100 to 200 amp panel upgrade | $1,900 to $4,600 | Meter location, mast condition, permit and inspection |
| Partial knob and tube replacement | $3,000 to $9,000 | Number of live circuits, floor access, wall finish |
| Whole home rewire, twin or row | $11,000 to $26,000+ | Square footage, live old wiring volume, patching scope |
| Rental code correction work | Quoted per scope | Violation list, unpermitted work found, unit count |
| Level 2 EV charger install | $800 to $2,500 | Parking location, run length, whether the service supports it |
Estimates for planned projects are free. Diagnostic calls carry a service fee that we tell you before dispatch, and it gets credited toward the repair if you move forward the same day. Compare our service and panel upgrade options if you are weighing a targeted repair against a full upgrade.
Areas We Serve Around Drexel Hill and Delaware County
We cover Drexel Hill end to end, from the blocks off Burmont Road and Lansdowne Avenue out to Garrett Road, State Road, Shadeland Avenue and Township Line Road, across zip code 19026. All of it sits inside Upper Darby Township, and we work the rest of the township too, including Upper Darby proper, Highland Park, Stonehurst and Primos.
Nearby we take calls in Havertown, Clifton Heights, Lansdowne, Aldan, Collingdale, Springfield, Broomall, Media and the rest of Delaware County. Philadelphia is where the company started, so we still run daily in West Philadelphia, Southwest Philadelphia, Center City, South Philly and Northwest Philadelphia, plus Roxborough, Germantown, Kensington and Fishtown.
Farther out we handle residential and commercial work in Montgomery County, Chester County and Bucks County. Not sure whether your address falls inside our range? Call and ask. It takes about thirty seconds.
Electrician Drexel Hill PA Frequently Asked Questions
How much does an electrician cost in Drexel Hill, PA?
Most Drexel Hill service calls run between $150 and $350 for diagnosis and a small repair. Panel upgrades usually land between $1,900 and $4,600, and replacing a fuse box with a breaker panel between $1,800 and $4,200. Rewiring costs more because of the plaster. We quote a flat price before starting.
Do I permit through Drexel Hill or Upper Darby Township?
Upper Darby Township. Drexel Hill is a community within the township rather than its own municipality, so electrical permits and inspections go through the township licenses and inspections office. We file the application, coordinate the inspection and hand you the closeout paperwork.
Do I need a permit for electrical work in Upper Darby Township?
Yes, for most work beyond a simple fixture swap. Panel upgrades, fuse box replacement, service changes, new circuits and rewiring all require a permit and inspection under the Pennsylvania Uniform Construction Code. We handle the filing and give you the records when the inspector signs off.
How much does it cost to remove knob and tube wiring?
Partial replacement of a few live circuits typically runs $3,000 to $9,000 in a Drexel Hill home. A full rewire of a twin or row house usually falls between $11,000 and $26,000 depending on square footage and how much original wiring is still energized. We map every live circuit before quoting.
Is knob and tube wiring dangerous?
It can be. The wiring was sound when installed, but it has no ground, its insulation grows brittle after a century, and it overheats when buried in blown-in attic insulation. Undocumented splices into modern cable are the bigger hazard, and we find those in Drexel Hill homes regularly.
Will homeowners insurance cover a house with knob and tube wiring?
Often not. Many carriers decline new policies, refuse renewal, or charge substantially more for homes with live knob and tube, and some require documented removal within a set window. We provide photos and permit records afterward so you can show your carrier exactly what was replaced.
Does a rental property need an electrical inspection?
Upper Darby runs rental licensing and inspection requirements that include electrical items, and unpermitted work from a previous owner is the usual sticking point. Requirements change, so confirm the current process with the township. We correct violations and document the work so it passes on the return visit.
Is a fuse box safe or should I replace it?
A fuse box in good condition with correctly rated fuses is not inherently unsafe, but the risk is what people do when fuses blow. Screwing in an oversized fuse removes the protection entirely and lets the wiring overheat. Most fuse boxes also lack the grounding and capacity a modern home needs.
Can you do same day electrical repairs in Drexel Hill?
Yes. We hold open slots each weekday for same day calls across Drexel Hill, Upper Darby, Havertown and Lansdowne, and we run emergency service for power loss, burning smells and sparking outlets. Call 267-312-8232 early in the day for the best chance at a same day arrival.
Is TotalPower Electrical licensed and insured?
Yes. TotalPower Electrical Services LLC carries HIC License PA197924 and liability insurance, and our technicians hold OSHA 30 certification. We register with the township whenever a permit requires it, and we can send our insurance certificate to your property manager, tenant or attorney before we start.
What are the signs I need an electrical panel upgrade?
A fuse box or a 60 or 100 amp service in a house with modern appliances, a panel with no spare slots, breakers tripping under normal load, or lights dimming when the dryer or AC starts. Rust or scorch marks inside the enclosure mean you should call right away.
How long does an electrical panel upgrade take?
Most 200 amp panel upgrades take one full day, roughly six to nine hours on site. Add time if PECO has to disconnect and reconnect the service drop, or if the meter socket and mast need replacing. Inspection usually follows within a few business days, and your power is back the same day.
How do you rewire a twin or row house?
From the basement up wherever possible. Full basements in Drexel Hill give clean access to first floor circuits through open joists. Above that we work through closet backs and existing chases and keep wall openings small. Shared party walls get handled carefully and coordinated with the neighbor when needed.
Can I do my own electrical work in Pennsylvania?
Homeowners can legally do limited work on a property they own and occupy, but permits and inspections still apply. Anything touching the panel, service entrance or new circuits carries real shock and fire risk and often fails inspection when done without training. Landlords cannot self perform work in rental units.
How do I book an electrician with TotalPower?
Call or text 267-312-8232, email Totalpowerpa@gmail.com, or send the form on our contact page. Tell us your address, the problem, and whether you have a fuse box or breaker panel. We confirm an arrival window, give you a flat price on site, and begin once you approve it.
Talk to a Licensed Electrician in Drexel Hill Today
A fuse box that should have gone twenty years ago, or a rental with an inspection date on the calendar. TotalPower Electrical Services gives you a straight diagnosis and a flat price before anything gets opened up. Fifteen years, HIC License PA197924, OSHA 30 certified crews, and a phone that gets answered!
Call 267-312-8232, email Totalpowerpa@gmail.com, or send over the job details. You can also find us on Google Maps.