Meter, mast and panel
Panel & Service Upgrades
Panel replacement, meter and mast repair, whole-home surge protection. Free estimates on meter and panel work.
Chapter 01
When the panel, or the meter outside, is what needs replacing
Most panel calls start with a symptom, not a plan. A breaker that trips again as soon as you reset it, lights that dim when the dryer or the oven kicks on, a panel with no spare spaces left for the circuit you want to add, or a meter and mast on the outside wall that have taken a beating from weather or a ladder. Thunder Electric’s service upgrade work covers three things: meter and mast repair, panel replacement, and a whole home surge protector.
The meter and the mast are the part of your service you can see from the yard. The meter sits on the wall, and the mast is the pipe that carries the wires up from it. When either one is bent, loose or damaged, that is a repair job in its own right. The panel is the box inside where the power gets divided into circuits, and replacing it is a bigger job than changing a breaker, because every circuit in the house hangs off it.
A whole home surge protector is the third item on the list. It is fitted at the panel, so a surge that arrives on the service meets it at the front door instead of at every plug. It is a fair question to ask whenever a panel is being replaced anyway. One rule that never changes: do not take the cover off your panel yourself. Even with the main breaker switched off, parts inside can stay live. Leave the cover on and call the office.
A residential breaker panel freshly wired by Thunder Electric, conductors dressed neatly down both sides
The free estimate visit, from the first call to the day of the work
Meter and panel replacements are on the short list of work Thunder estimates for free. On a job this size, the estimator comes on site to lay eyes on it and put an estimated cost together for you, rather than pricing a panel over the phone from a description. Estimates are free for qualifying scope and upon request. A trip fee is charged for a no call/no show estimate appointment, so call the office if your day changes.
The shop publishes how the money works. Thunder asks for at least a 50% deposit of the total estimated job, paid by the date the work is scheduled. Nobody charges you on site. An invoice comes by mail and email, usually within 1-2 weeks after the work is finished. Card payments carry a 3% processing fee, and a check or cash works too.
Financing is available through Wisetack for anything over $500, on projects up to $25,000, with terms from 3 to 60 months. Checking your options does not affect your credit score, and everything is subject to credit approval. The financing page has the full terms and the disclosure, so read it before you decide.
Chapter 03
A second opinion before a 7k panel
“I’ve been having problems with my electric for years. Other businesses told me I’d have to replace my entire panel and that would have cost 7k. Charlie came out and looked at my electric and fixed it in less than an hour. He was amazing! Thunder electric is my go to company now!” That is Annalacia Glossen, in a five star Google review from August 2026.
It is one customer’s experience, not a promise that every panel problem is a quick fix. Sometimes the honest answer is that the panel does need to come out, and then that is the job Thunder will estimate. The point of the visit is that someone looks at the actual equipment before a number gets set. If another outfit has told you the whole panel has to go and the figure feels high, a second look on site is a reasonable thing to ask for.
On a different kind of job, a customer named Maggie L wrote that Thunder’s bid for electrical work through a whole-house renovation came in literally 7k less than another bid she got for the same work. That was a renovation, not a panel change. It points the same direction, though: get the estimate in writing from someone who has seen the job, and compare.
Thunder Electric, Inc. is licensed, bonded and insured: WA L&I Electrical Contractor THUNDEI004S4. Free estimates on meter and panel replacements. Call (509) 575-8362.