Services
Residential electrical work, explained properly
Six services cover most of what homeowners actually call about. Each guide explains what the job involves, what moves the price, when a permit is required, and how to tell a complete quote from a cheap one — before you speak to anyone.
- Electrical Panel UpgradeReplace an undersized or obsolete service panel with a 200-amp system that can carry modern loads.$2,200 – $4,800Permit required
- Emergency ElectricianSame-day response for burning smells, dead circuits, sparking outlets, and partial power loss.$150 – $450 for the call-out and diagnosisUsually no permit
- EV Charger InstallationLevel 2 home charging installed on a dedicated 240-volt circuit, permitted and inspected.$700 – $2,200 installedPermit required
- Whole House Generator InstallationStandby generators with automatic transfer switches, sized and permitted for Illinois weather.$6,500 – $16,000 installedPermit required
- Whole House RewiringReplacing knob-and-tube, cloth-insulated, or aluminium branch wiring throughout the home.$8,000 – $30,000+Permit required
- Home Automation & Smart Home WiringSmart switches, structured wiring, networked lighting, and the neutral wires they all need.$450 – $6,000 depending on scopeUsually no permit
Looking for local pricing?
Cost, permit authority and code requirements vary by municipality. We currently cover 16 towns.
How these fit together
Most of these six depend on one of the others
They are listed separately because that is how people search for them, but they are not independent. Knowing the dependencies is what stops you buying the wrong one.
Capacity comes before anything you add
An EV charger, a standby generator and a finished basement are all new load. On a 60 or 100-amp service there may be no room for them, so the service upgrade is not an upsell — it is the precondition. Ask for both to be quoted together rather than discovering the second one afterwards.
A full panel is not an undersized one
These get conflated constantly and they cost very differently. If every breaker position is occupied but the service is healthy, a sub-panel adds positions for roughly $900 to $2,000. Replacing the service is $2,200 to $4,800. Both are sometimes right. Only one of them is usually necessary.
Rewiring and remediation are different jobs
Aluminium branch wiring fails at the connections, not along the runs, so remediating the terminations runs $2,500 to $8,000. A whole-house rewire starts around $8,000 and reaches $30,000. The second gets quoted for the first more often than any other substitution in this trade.
Smart switches are a wiring question
Almost every smart switch needs a neutral conductor in the box. Homes wired before the mid-1980s frequently ran switch loops without one, which turns an afternoon of swapping devices into a wiring job. Worth having someone open one box and look before you buy a houseful.
True of all six
What every job on this page has in common
- The licence is municipal, not state. Illinois licenses electrical contractors through your village or city, so there is no single state register to check. Verification runs through the building department — every town page here names its own.
- Anything that adds a circuit needs a permit. Replacing service equipment or adding a circuit means a permit and an inspection. Repairs to existing devices generally do not. A contractor offering to skip the permit is offering a liability, not a discount.
- The utility sets the calendar, not the electrician. Any job that pulls the meter needs a disconnect appointment. On most service work that, plus permit review, is what decides the date — which is why a two-week timeline is normal and same-day is not.
- Prices here are Illinois figures. National cost guides consistently under-estimate this market, because labour rates sit above the national median and most municipalities require an inspection on service work.
What we are, in one paragraph
KilowattBros is a free matching service. We do not perform electrical work, price it, or supervise it — every job on this page is carried out by an independent licensed and insured contractor. Homeowners pay nothing. The contractor pays us only when a request becomes booked work, which is why sending you somebody who cannot do the job would cost us rather than earn us.
How the matching actually worksNot sure which one you need?
Describe what is happening and we will match you with a licensed electrician who can tell you. Free, and no obligation.
KilowattBros is a free matching service. All electrical work is performed by independent, licensed contractors.