Multifamily & Apartment Building Electrical Contractor in Santa Clara County House Panel to Unit Panel to Parking

A single-family job is one service, one panel, one customer. A multifamily building is a layered system: a main service feeds a house or landlord panel for common-area loads (corridor and exterior lighting, elevators, laundry, fire and life-safety, EV management) while each dwelling unit runs from its own sub-panel, often through a meter bank or multi-meter stack. Sizing is governed by the NEC 220.84 optional multifamily method, which applies demand factors across the dwelling units and adds the house load on top. The service-disconnect grouping follows NEC 230.71 and 230.72. And the work is frequently done in an occupied building, which makes scheduling, tenant notice, and phasing part of the electrical scope rather than an afterthought. We carry all of that under one contract and a dedicated point of contact.

For new multifamily, the 2025 CALGreen code (Title 24 Part 11) requires EV-ready provisions at parking for permits submitted on or after Jan 1, 2026, so it is in force now. Where assigned parking is provided at or above the dwelling-unit count, at least one low power Level 2 EV charging receptacle (minimum 208/240V on a 20A branch circuit) goes in at an assigned space for each dwelling unit, on a dedicated branch circuit from that unit's panel unless the project builder or designer determines that is infeasible and the local enforcing agency concurs. Where the dwelling units outnumber the assigned spaces, every assigned space gets one. Separately, 25% of unassigned or common-use spaces not already provided with those receptacles require installed Level 2 EV chargers (208/240V, 30A minimum). Because each of those receptacles ties back to a unit panel, the mandate drives the per-unit feeder and load calculation, which is exactly where under-scoped bids fall short. Automatic load management (ALMS) is typically needed to comply without oversizing the service. We verify the exact CALGreen section, the EV Capable versus EV Ready tiers, and any local upward amendments against the ordinance adopted by the authority having jurisdiction over your project, and we handle that on the permit package.

Occupied-building work is its own discipline. We start with a site assessment, then build a phasing plan around the residents: written notice, scheduled outage windows, and temporary power where a unit or common system cannot go dark. With Cali Rollin Electric you get a dedicated point of contact, backed by our full crew, who plans the sequence, coordinates with the property manager, and is on the phone if something needs to change mid-job. One overloaded panel or one damaged feeder in a multifamily building can affect several families at once, so the safety and continuity planning is part of the electrical scope, not a separate conversation.

It depends on the building condition, the load you are adding, and how much downtime the residents can absorb. A complete replacement is cleaner and often the better long-term value when the service is being upsized anyway, for electrification load, EV-ready capacity, or an obsolete service. A phased approach keeps an occupied building energized while work moves through it section by section, which can be the right call when residents cannot all lose power at once or when the budget is spread across cycles. We lay the trade-offs out in writing after the site assessment so the decision is made on real numbers, not a default. There are no placeholder prices on our quotes. The number follows the walk.

Yes. Federal Pacific (FPE), Zinsco, Pushmatic, Challenger, and Sylvania panels are known-hazardous or discontinued equipment. Parts are hard or impossible to source, and they are commonly flagged at sale, refinance, or inspection. In a multifamily setting that can mean house panels, per-unit sub-panels, or both. We replace them with current-code equipment sized under the NEC 220.84 multifamily method, sequence the work to keep the building livable, and note any related code bring-up the plans missed in the cover letter. Property insurers increasingly flag these panels on an apartment portfolio, so the replacement documentation matters as much as the install.

Multifamily services commonly land in the 600A to 1000A-and-up range, but the right number comes from the NEC 220.84 optional multifamily load calculation, not a rule of thumb. That method applies demand factors across the dwelling units (when each has electric cooking and electric space heating or AC), adds the house load per Part III, and accounts for the feeders the building actually carries. On top of that we build in CALGreen EV-ready capacity and the electrification load coming from BAAQMD appliance replacement rules, so the service is sized for where the building is heading. Meter banks and the service-disconnect grouping (NEC 230.71 and 230.72) are part of the same design. We state the amperage on the bid.

Cali Rollin Electric pulls the electrical permit directly, as the C-10 electrical contractor of record, with whichever authority has jurisdiction over the property. Larger jurisdictions in Santa Clara County route multifamily electrical through a standard plan review with a multifamily submittal checklist, and not all multifamily work qualifies for an online or over-the-counter permit. Service-change work is permit-first: the serving utility has to approve the ampacity and location of the new service equipment before final, and the meter reconnect is coordinated after city inspection. Santa Clara County sits across three utility territories (PG&E for most of the county including San Jose, Silicon Valley Power for the City of Santa Clara, and City of Palo Alto Utilities for Palo Alto), and we identify the serving utility up front because the equipment rules and sequencing differ. Permit and inspection on commercial and multifamily scope runs $750 to $2,500 or more depending on jurisdiction and job valuation; each jurisdiction computes the electrical fee on a different basis (San Jose bills inspection time, the County charges a percentage of the building permit fee, and most other cities go by device count or floor area), so the actual fee is rolled into the quote after the jurisdiction is confirmed.

Yes, as distinct service lines. Electric sub-metering and load disaggregation are governed by Title 24 Part 6 section 130.5. Section 130.5(a) requires a permanently installed metering system on each service or feeder at every service size, and section 130.5(b) requires the distribution system to be designed so energy use can be monitored by load type, with the required granularity scaling across four service bands (50 kVA or less, more than 50 to 250 kVA, more than 250 to 1000 kVA, more than 1000 kVA). EV charging stations and renewable power sources have to be separated at every band, including 50 kVA or less. On an existing building the trigger is narrower: 130.5(a) attaches to new or replacement service equipment, and the 130.5(b) load separation only to an entirely new or complete replacement of the power distribution system. CTEP-approved submeter tenant billing is a separate, sound state requirement we can scope alongside it. Note that SB 7 submetering is a water requirement, not an electric one. We keep the two precisely distinct so the bid is accurate. For lighting, Title 24 Part 6 section 160.5 requires occupancy or vacancy sensing on at least one luminaire in bathrooms, garages, laundry, utility, and walk-in closet spaces, with common-use areas complying under section 160.5(b) through (e). Corridors, garages, laundry rooms, walkways, and exterior all fall in scope.

They get their own plan before anything is de-energized. Fire-pump power (NEC Article 695), emergency systems that have to restore power in 10 seconds or less (Article 700), legally required standby within 60 seconds (Article 701), and optional standby (Article 702) are dedicated, separately routed circuits, and in an occupied building they cannot simply go dark with the rest of the service. Depending on the building that means a temporary feed for the fire pump and emergency lighting, a written outage window coordinated with the fire alarm vendor and the property manager, and re-verification of elevator recall and smoke control once the new gear is energized. We scope the life-safety continuity explicitly on the bid rather than treating it as a field problem on cutover day.

It depends entirely on the serving utility. In Silicon Valley Power territory (the City of Santa Clara), the SVP EV Charging Station Incentive is currently available for commercial and multifamily sites at up to $150,000 per site, with equity increases that stack on top. Funding can draw down without notice, so we confirm remaining funds and the reservation requirements before that number goes anywhere near a bid. Elsewhere in the county the picture is thinner right now: the PG&E no-cost multifamily EV charger program is fully subscribed and is not accepting new applications, so we will not build a bid around it. Outside SVP territory we price the EV-ready and charging work on its own merits and check any city or community-choice program against the live program page at estimate rather than promising an amount we cannot verify.