Federal Pacific Stab-Lok
The name inspectors flag on sight. Breakers that do not trip when they should are the known problem, and a Stab-Lok panel is one of the fastest ways to stall a sale, a refinance or an insurance renewal.
Pelican replaces the whole service panel, pulls the permit, runs the load calculation, coordinates the shutdown with Edison and meets the inspector. Licensed C-10 out of Newport Beach.
CSLB #1133193C-10 licensed, bonded and insured
An electrician takes the cover off and looks at what is behind it. The brand and the age of the panel. The service size at the meter. Whether the bus bar is scorched, whether breakers have been doubled up on slots built for one wire, whether the grounding and bonding are right, and how much room is left for anything you plan to add.
All of it gets written down before anyone talks about work. If the panel is sound, the assessment says so and that is the end of it. If it is not, you get what is wrong and what it takes to fix in writing, and you decide on your own schedule.
Nothing is charged for the visit. Nothing gets scheduled at the door either. You keep the written assessment whether you do the work or not.
A bad brand name is only one of them. Most homeowners who book an inspection have one of the other four, and the written assessment is how you find out which one is yours.
Every slot has a breaker in it, so the last few circuits got doubled up on breakers built for one wire each. That is the workaround an inspector writes up, and it is also why you cannot add a circuit for the thing you actually want to add.
A car charger, a heat pump, a pool heater, an induction range, a casita out back. Each one lands on a service that was sized for a house nobody was going to plug a car into. The panel is usually the last part of the house to get updated and the first part to run out.
A renewal questionnaire asking what brand is on the wall. An inspection report during escrow. A buyer asking for the panel to be handled before closing. Once it is in writing it stops being a someday job and starts having a date on it.
Warmth at the cover. A buzz that is new. The same breaker tripping with nothing unusual running. Lights that dim when the air conditioning starts. A burnt smell near the panel. None of those are normal, and all of them are worth a licensed electrician looking at.
Plenty of Orange County homes are still on the service they were built with, before central air and two cars in the garage. The wire and the breakers can be perfectly sound and the service still be too small for the way the house gets used now.
If one of these names is on your panel, you already know most of what the assessment will say. These are the four that stop home sales, fail inspections and worry insurers in Orange County.
The name inspectors flag on sight. Breakers that do not trip when they should are the known problem, and a Stab-Lok panel is one of the fastest ways to stall a sale, a refinance or an insurance renewal.
The bus bar corrodes and breakers weld themselves to it. The handle still reads on, the breaker still looks fine, and the circuit behind it has no protection left. Common in Orange County homes built through the 1960s and 70s.
Obsolete, and the parts market for it is thin and expensive. There is no GFCI or AFCI breaker to put in one, which modern code requires in kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms, so any real update means a new panel anyway.
A known breaker failure problem, and most of them went in during the 1980s. That puts them at or past the working life of a service panel even without the failure history attached to the brand.
Filed with your city before the work starts. You do not chase anything.
What you run now and what you are adding, so the service is sized once and sized right.
The disconnect and reconnect are scheduled with the utility so the outage lands in one planned window.
Headroom for an EV charger, a heat pump, a pool or a generator tie-in later.
Cheapest to add while the panel is open. It goes on the same estimate so you can see the number.
We book it and we are there for it. A signed permit is what makes the work count at resale.
In writing, on the estimate, not a line on a website.
Every photo on this page is a Pelican Coast job in Orange County. Nothing here came from a stock library.
Austin has been doing this work for 25 years and holds a C-10 licence under CSLB #1133193. Pelican Coast Electric runs out of Newport Beach, and the crew wears the name and the licence number on the shirt, which is why the reviews below use first names.
The part most residential shops in Orange County cannot match is the other half of the business. Pelican does standby generators, and medium and high voltage and transformer work. A panel on a large coastal home is rarely just a panel, and that is the work where it shows.
Estimates are free, on site, and nothing is attached to one.
I just got an EV charger outlet installed in my garage and my electrical box was refurbished. The staff at PCE are very friendly, pricing is very fair and the team works fast. I highly recommend PCE!Tim Walters, Orange County
Pelican Coast upgraded my electric panel and installed my wall connector. Charging my EV at home is so convenient. Austin is very knowledgeable and went out of his way to make sure we are completely satisfied.
Mark Tran, Orange CountyGreat job by Austin and the team. Good attitude and quality mindset! Panel upgrade, new breakers, whole home surge protector and installation of the level 2 EV charger.
Tyler Blake, Orange CountyI manage a building in Newport Beach and had a great experience. Austin arrived right on time and got straight to work. Their pricing was better than another local company. We will definitely be using them again.
Kristine Tran, Newport BeachAustin was incredibly professional. My electricity went out due to a faulty breaker, and even though it was after hours, Austin picked up my call. He made time to come out the next morning and worked with my insurance.
Steven Li, Orange CountyThanks for installing the Generac generator. They were informative, on time, courteous, knowledgeable, hard working and a pleasure to do business with. I would highly recommend for your electrical needs.
Brenda Williams, Orange CountyAfter a horrible experience with another company, I went with Pelican Coast. Joshua came out and fixed the issue in under an hour. Very professional and polite. I will definitely be using them for any future jobs.
Rachel Dostart, Orange CountyChallenging technical situation, well analyzed and thoroughly addressed. Excellent service, very professional, prompt, and courteous. Reasonable pricing.
Andrew Durkovic, Orange CountyI called Austin out of desperation on a Sunday. He came next day promptly, traced the wiring and fixed it. He returned and fixed everything. Austin is the best and has a great personality to boot.
Arnold Reznick, Corona del MarSend the form or call. We hold an inspection slot for your address and confirm the window with you.
A licensed electrician takes the cover off, checks the panel, the service and the meter, and walks you through what is in there while the cover is still off.
The assessment lands in writing, including a price if the panel needs replacing. Nothing is charged, and nothing is booked unless you say so.
Newport Beach is home. These are the cities the crew covers day to day.
Open the door and read the label. Federal Pacific, Zinsco, Sylvania, Pushmatic, Bulldog and Challenger are replacements rather than repairs. So is anything on a 60 or 100 amp service in a house that now runs air conditioning, a car charger or an induction range.
The other signals are breakers that trip with nothing unusual running, a panel with no empty slots left, warmth or a burnt smell at the cover, and lights that dim when the AC starts. If any of those are familiar, the visit is free and it settles the question.
The service size, the meter location, the length of the run and the condition of what is behind the wall all move the number, which is why a price quoted over the phone is a price that changes on site.
You get a written estimate after the inspection, and qualifying homes get $1,000 off a complete panel replacement. Nothing is charged before you have seen the number.
One planned window on install day. We schedule the disconnect and reconnect with Southern California Edison so the outage is booked rather than improvised, and we tell you the window before the day.
Most residential panel swaps are a single day on site. If your job is going to run longer than that, you hear it in the estimate, not on the day.
We do. Every panel upgrade we run is permitted and inspected, and we file it, schedule the inspection and meet the inspector.
Unpermitted panel work is the thing that surfaces at resale, when a buyer's inspector asks for a final and there is not one. It is not worth the few days it saves.
For most Orange County homes, yes, and that is the point of doing the load calculation rather than assuming. We count what you run now and what you have told us you are adding, then size the service against both.
If a home genuinely needs more than 200 amps, you hear that during the assessment, with the reason, before anything is ordered.
The workmanship, for as long as you own the home. Anything that traces back to how we installed it is ours to put right at no cost.
The panel and the breakers carry the manufacturer's own warranty separately, and both are written on your estimate rather than implied.
Yes, and doing it while the panel is open is the cheapest time to do either. Standby generators are Pelican's specialty, so the transfer switch and the panel get designed together rather than retrofitted later.
Ask during the assessment and it goes on the same estimate as a separate line, so you can see what each piece costs.
The day to day radius is Newport Beach, Newport Coast, Corona del Mar, Balboa Island, Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Santa Ana Heights, Fountain Valley, Laguna Beach, Tustin, Westminster and Seal Beach.
Generator and larger service work reaches further than that, so if you are just outside the list it is worth asking.
A licensed electrician comes out, takes the cover off, and tells you what you have. The assessment is written, the visit is free, and sometimes the answer is that your panel is fine.