Welcome to the PanelWizard

Your Home Electrification Planning Tool

PanelWizard helps you plan your home's transition to an all-electric future without a costly and time-consuming electrical panel upgrade. Upsizing a home's electrical service (details here) can cost from $3,000 to $30,000 and take 3 to 18 months (report here). The tool helps by analyzing your electrical panel capacity and providing a customized upgrade strategy.

This tool is being developed under a grant from the California Energy Commission.

Project Management

Start a new project or open an existing one from a file.

Start a New Project

Create a new electrification project from scratch.

This name will be used for your project file

Open Existing Project

Continue working on a previously saved project file.

Select a PanelWizard project file (.json)

2. Electrification Goals

Which of these are needed to fully electrify your home?

Let's identify which appliances are needed to fully electricfy your home.

To future proof your home, we recommend building a plan that includes ALL of your electrification needs upfront, then you can stage them at your convenience. There's no need to do them all at once, but since electric capacity is limited it's best to plan for all of them upfront.

Replace these natural gas appliances:

Select the natural gas appliances currently at your home.

BTU/h capacity BTUs per hour (Btu/h) is a measure of heating capacity of natural gas heaters and usually appears on the unit. Step increment for this field is 6,000 BTU/h (½ ton units).ⓘ
with a new electric heat pump. A heat pump is a device that transfers heat from one location to another, rather than generating heat directly. It provides both heating and cooling, and is more efficient than a gas heater.ⓘ

Additional considerations:

3. Current Electrical Equipment

Your Current Electrical Panel Size

Please enter your current electrical panel size in amps. This information is required to help us calculate your panel's capacity for electrification.

Enter a value between 10 and 1000 amps

Note! This application assume a 240 volt panel. If you have a 120 volt panel, do not use this tool.

Not sure about your panel size?
To find out, look for the CL number on your meter, see instructions here, or watch this video. Or try using the Kopperfield panel schedule tool - it can help determine your panel size from a photo!


Additional Equipment Information

In a future version of this tool, we may also ask about other useful information including:

  • Your panel type Some panel types are dangerous and need to be replaced, like Federal Pacific, Zinsco, Stablock & Pushmatic. Note: a panel replacement is much easier than upsizing a panel.ⓘ
  • The number of available breaker slots These open slots can be used to add more appliances to your panel.ⓘ
  • Whether tandem breakers are already being used Tandem (or twin, slim or duplex) breakers are two breakers occupying a single breaker slot. This is a common way to save space on a panel.ⓘ
  • If some of the existing breakers can be combined It is often possible to combine lighting circuits since modern LED lights are very low power.ⓘ
  • Whether there's physical space to add a subpanel A subpanel is a smaller electrical panel that is connected to your main panel. It can be used to add more electrical capacity to your home.ⓘ
  • If you have any unused 240 volt outlets (like for an unused electric dryer or cooktop) These unused 240 volt outlets can possibly be used by the new appliances you're adding.ⓘ
  • If you have any existing 240 volt outlets that can be shared using a smart circuit splitter A smart circuit splitter can be used to share a 240 volt outlet between two appliances. This is a common way to avoid upsizing your panel.ⓘ

But for now the panel size is the most important information.

4. Current Load Analysis

Now we need to analyze how much remaining panel capacity you have for electrification. This step is required to proceed.

We can do this two different ways, and you can use either or both methods:

  1. Top-down approach: Use your actual electricity usage data to determine your available panel capacity.
  2. Bottom-up approach: Calculate your available panel capacity by adding up your current electrical loads.

The first approach is easy if you have a smart meter, but it's not always available. The second approach always works, but it's more time-consuming.

4.1 Top-Down Approach

Note: You must complete Step 3 (enter your panel size) before entering capacity values below.

Use your actual electricity usage data to determine your available panel capacity:

  1. Visit the Panel Capacity Calculator
  2. Upload your smart meter data into that tool
  3. Enter your existing panel size (from step 3)
  4. Run the calculator to see your available capacity and enter it below

Enter the available capacity shown by the Panel Capacity Calculator

4.2 Bottom-Up Approach

Note: You must complete Step 3 (enter your panel size) before entering capacity values below.

Calculate your available panel capacity by adding up your current electrical loads:

  1. Visit the Kopperfield Load Calculator
  2. Enter your home's details and electrical equipment
  3. Run the calculator to see your available capacity

Enter the available capacity shown by the calculator

5. Optional Natural Gas Analysis

If you have your home's natural gas usage data for the past year we can do some additional analysis, including:

  • Estimating the impact on your bill of switching from natural gas to electric appliances
  • Estimating the size of a new heat pump for heating your home

Please note these are rough estimates, and you should always consult with a professional to get a more accurate analysis.

Here are the steps to follow:

  1. Download a copy of this spreadsheet which includes instructions.
  2. Enter your monthly natural gas usage data into the spreadsheet.
  3. Answer other questions about your home and natural gas usage.
  4. See the results in the spreadsheet.

6. Select New Electric Appliances

Table of Appliance Options

Based on your electrification goals, the table below shows an example configuration of low power electric appliances available in our database. Feel free to change the product selections using the dropdown menu(s) in the table.

Appliance Type Name Panel Amps (240V) CF Cost Range Details

Calculation Methods

Top-Down Approach (NEC 220.87)

Available Capacity: - amps

Total New Panel Load: 0 amps

Remaining Capacity: 0 amps

Bottom-Up Approach (NEC 220.83)

Available Capacity: - amps

Total New Panel Load (CF-adjusted): 0 amps

Remaining Capacity: 0 amps

Note: CF (Coincidence Factor) is used in the 220.83 method to account for the fact that some appliances are not used at the same time.

Click the "📋 Details" button for any appliance to see comprehensive product information, including all available data from our database.

7. Next Steps

Implementation Strategy

Your roadmap to electrification:

  • Timeline planning: which of these projects do you want to do first?
    • If you're using the bottom-up load calculation (NEC 220.83), you can do it all at once
    • If you're using the top-down load calculation (NEC 220.87), it helps to break up your project into phases and check your new peak load after each phase. For example, you might upgrace your heating system first, then your water heater, then your cooking appliance. Between each project you can take 30 days to recalculate your remaining panel capacity
  • Budget considerations: what is your budget for this project?
    • More efficient appliances might cost a bit more upfront, but they will save you money in the long run
    • Installation costs can vary greatly depending on the complexity of the project and the contractor you hire
  • Incentives and rebates: what incentives and rebates are available for your project?
    • There are many rebates and incentives available for electrification projects
    • Check for Federal, State, Local and utility rebates
    • Find incentives by zip code at SwitchIsOn.org
  • Contractor selection: who will you hire to do the work?
    • Check for contractors who specialize in electrification
    • Check for contractors who have experience with your type of project
    • Find a list of experienced contractors at SwitchIsOn.org
  • Permit requirements: what permits are required for your project?
    • Check with your local government for permit requirements
    • Check with your utility for permit requirements
    • Check with your contractor for permit requirements