Licensed Electrical Services in Victoria, BC — Panel Upgrades, EV Chargers & More

Your electrical panel is the heart of your home’s power system. And if your Victoria home was built before 1990, there’s a good chance that heart is working overtime.

Older homes on the Saanich Peninsula, in Oak Bay, and throughout Greater Victoria were wired for a simpler era — one without heat pumps, EV chargers, home offices running multiple monitors, or the modern appliances we now consider essential. Many of these homes still have 60 or 100-amp panels that were never designed to carry today’s electrical loads. The result? Breakers that trip for no obvious reason, circuits that can’t support new equipment, and in some cases, a genuine safety hazard hiding behind your breaker box door.

A 200-amp panel upgrade isn’t just an electrical job. It’s the foundation that makes everything else possible.

British Columbia is one of the fastest-growing EV markets in North America, and Greater Victoria is leading the way. If you’ve recently bought an electric vehicle — or you’re planning to — the first question most owners ask is: can I charge it properly at home?

The answer is almost always yes. But a standard 120-volt household outlet (Level 1 charging) will give you roughly three to five kilometres of range per hour. For most daily drivers, that’s not enough. A Level 2 home charger, running on a dedicated 240-volt circuit, delivers 30 to 50 kilometres of range per hour — meaning most vehicles charge fully overnight, every night, without a second thought.

We install a wide range of CSA-approved Level 2 chargers, including Wallbox, ChargePoint, Tesla and others. One important note for 2026: as of March 2025, Tesla products — including the Tesla Wall Connector — are no longer eligible for CleanBC Go Electric rebates. We’ll recommend a qualifying charger that works just as well (often better) and keeps your rebate eligibility intact.

Many EV charger installations also require a 200-amp panel upgrade, particularly in older Victoria homes. Our electricians assess your panel capacity during the free estimate and handle the upgrade in the same visit if needed — so you’re not coordinating two separate contractors and two separate schedules.

A heat pump installation is as much an electrical job as it is an HVAC job — and that’s where many homeowners run into trouble when they hire companies that only do one or the other.

Every heat pump requires a dedicated electrical circuit. Depending on your system and your existing panel, it may also require a new disconnect switch, a breaker upgrade, or a full 200-amp service upgrade. If the electrician and the HVAC installer aren’t communicating, work gets done out of order, inspections get delayed, and you end up managing the gap between two separate contractors.

When Pacific Heat Pumps installs your heat pump, our licensed electricians handle every piece of electrical work in-house — the dedicated circuit, the disconnect, the panel capacity assessment, and any upgrades needed to bring your home up to what the system requires. Our HVAC technicians and electricians work as one crew, on one schedule. No handoffs. No gaps. No “you’ll need to call someone else for that.”

It’s a simpler experience, and it means your installation is done right the first time.

Beyond panel upgrades and EV chargers, our licensed electricians handle a full range of residential electrical work throughout Greater Victoria and the Gulf Islands.

Aluminum to Copper Rewiring. Homes built between the mid-1960s and early 1970s were often wired with aluminum, which carries a higher fire risk at connection points than copper. We assess and rewire using modern copper throughout.

Lighting Installation. Pot lights, exterior lighting, feature lighting, and smart lighting systems — we handle it cleanly, with no mess left behind.

Code Compliance Inspections. If you’ve purchased an older home, or you’re preparing one for sale, a code compliance inspection identifies any electrical issues before they become a negotiating problem or a safety one.

Safety Inspections for Home Purchases. Buying a home in Oak Bay, Fairfield, or elsewhere in Greater Victoria? A dedicated electrical safety inspection gives you a clear picture of what’s there before you sign.

Hot Tub Wiring. Hot tub installations require a dedicated 240-volt circuit with a disconnect and specific breaker sizing. We do this regularly and pull the permits to do it properly.

Generator Electrical Connections. A standby generator needs a transfer switch properly wired to your panel — this isn’t optional, and it isn’t DIY territory. We install the electrical connections for every generator we commission. See our Generac Generator page for full details.