REPLACING OUTDATED ELECTRICAL PANELS IN YOUR COMMUNITIES:
A Practical Roadmap
Don Holly, Jr., Fullerton Electric Co.
For many HOA boards and community managers, electrical panels have historically fallen into the category of “out of sight, out of mind.” If the lights were on and there were no complaints, panels rarely made it onto the maintenance or replacement priority list. That has changed quickly in the last few years.
Across California, certain electrical panels like Zinsco, Federal Pacifi c (Stab-Lok), Challenger, Sylvania, and some Murray equipment—are now widely considered uninsurable due to well- documented failure rates and fi res resulting from those failures. Insurance carriers are no longer willing to provide coverage to properties with these types of older electrical panels. What used to be framed as a recommendation, has frequently become a condition for association insurance coverage. Associations that fail to act face non-renewals, cancellations, or being pushed into far more expensive and restrictive insurance policies.
This article is intended to help community managers and board leaders understand the current insurance, local building department permitting and inspection concerns, and electrical landscape. Most importantly, our experience replacing more than 200 panels in an occupied Orange County community association provides an outline for a fi ve-step process that can be used to address large-scale electrical panel replacements in multifamily communities such as condominiums.
Why Panel Replacement Is More Complex Than it Appears
At fi rst glance, replacing an electrical panel sounds
straightforward. In practice, especially in HOA communities, it is anything but straightforward. Most of these panels were installed decades ago under older electrical codes with electrical load assumptions that no longer refl ect modern living. Today’s homes support electric vehicles, remote work equipment, higher appliance usage, solar systems, and battery storage. State Building Codes have evolved accordingly, and replacement circuit breaker panels must meet current standards, not the standards that existed when the buildings were constructed. Panel replacements involve multiple layers of coordination including utility companies, cities, homeowners, and insurance agencies. Replacing electrical panels across an entire community is no small feat and it should not be treated as such. Community associations need to partner with a trusted, experienced, and qualifi ed electrical contractor to ensure effective and effi cient project completion.
Phase 1: Auditing
The fi rst step in any successful electrical project is a thorough, property-wide audit. On our project, this involved physically identifying and documenting every panel across the community.
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