“Thank you to the Sunrise Electrical Contracting team for updating the new main electrical system on my mom's home after the storm damaged the power lines and home equipment this winter… They replaced Main Service Upgrade Overhead, and added a Sub-Panel Install/Replacement Outdoors… the team of Branden, Jimmy, Ian, and Tylor worked long hours during the storm for a few days to get us up and running again before the next storm arrived.”
Leviton smart panel installation in Santa Cruz County
Per-breaker monitoring and remote control — a Leviton smart load center installed and commissioned on your existing service.
A Leviton smart panel is a load center that meters every breaker and reports what it sees to an app. You get a per-circuit picture of where the electricity in your house actually goes — not one number for the whole house at the end of the month, but the dryer, the well pump, the EV charger, and the mystery circuit that turns out to be a bathroom heater somebody leaves on. With Leviton's current second-generation smart breakers and its Whole Home Energy Monitor hub, a circuit can also be switched off and back on from the My Leviton app, or on a schedule. The one automatic load-shedding feature Leviton documents is for backup power: with the hub wired to an automatic transfer switch, it turns off the circuits you have marked nonessential while the backup source is running. Leviton does not describe the panel managing your service capacity or an EV charger on its own. Our half is ordinary load-center work done carefully: the panel set and fed, grounding and bonding to current code, every branch circuit transferred and re-landed, the permit pulled and the inspection coordinated, and then a commissioning step where the panel comes online and every circuit gets named to match what it truly feeds.
Worth being clear about what monitoring does and does not do. A smart panel measures; it does not save. Nothing about learning that the second refrigerator in the garage costs more to run than you assumed makes it draw less — you still have to go unplug it. What per-circuit data is genuinely good for is finding the load nobody knew about, sizing a battery or a solar array against measured numbers instead of nameplate estimates, checking that a circuit you just added is behaving the way it should, and finally settling which breaker feeds what. Remote switching is the other half: killing a hot tub, a shop, or a rental circuit from somewhere else. Those are real conveniences. They are not a reason to replace a healthy panel, and we would rather say so on the page than at the quote.
Two practical things decide whether the retrofit is straightforward in your house, and neither is on a spec sheet. The first is space. A smart load center has its own footprint and its own code-required working clearance in front of it, and older county homes put panels in hallways, shallow closets, and the side of a garage with a water heater crowded in next to them. We measure that before anything is ordered, not after it arrives, because sometimes the honest answer is that the panel has to move — and moving a panel is a different job with a different number on it. The second is breakers. Breakers have to match the panel they sit in for the assembly to keep its listing — that is not a preference — so choosing a panel means choosing that manufacturer's breakers for the life of it, including the ones you buy years from now to add a circuit. That is a normal fact about every panel, Siemens included. It simply carries more weight when the breakers are also where the metering lives.
If you are deciding between this and the other smart panel we install, we install both and we have no favorite to sell you. What we will not do is hand you a feature comparison we cannot stand behind, because those change between firmware versions and product generations and the current truth belongs to the manufacturers rather than to us. What the decision actually turns on, in a real house: how much wall and clearance you have where the panel goes; what each panel does with no internet and no app, which you should have in writing before you buy; and which company you are content to depend on for breakers and firmware years from now. Siemens remains what we install by default on conventional panel work, and for a home that only wants a working panel it is still the right answer. Sunrise holds a CSLB C-10 (Electrical) license, #C10-1097237, and every panel we set carries our 20-year workmanship warranty on the installation.
Exactly what we handle — and the two things you handle.
Sunrise provides
- A load calculation, plus measurements of the panel location and the code-required working clearance the new enclosure needs — taken before anything is ordered, so you find out whether it fits before you have paid for it
- The Leviton smart load center mounted, fed, and terminated per the manufacturer's instructions, with breakers matched to the panel as its listing requires
- Every existing branch circuit moved over and re-landed, and grounding and bonding brought to current code
- A Wi-Fi check at the panel location before anything is ordered — Leviton's hub connects over 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi only, and garage walls and exteriors are where signal is usually weakest
- Commissioning: panel powered up and on the network, every circuit named against what it genuinely feeds and verified at the breaker rather than copied off the old directory
- Permit pulled, inspection coordinated, and PG&E shutdown coordinated where the work touches the service — inside the quote, not added later
- The printed panel label, with circuit names that match the names in the app, so the panel stays readable to somebody who does not have your phone
You provide
- A decision on the panel — the Leviton, the other smart panel we install, or a conventional Siemens load center — or a conversation about the trade-offs before you commit
- A 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi network that reaches the panel location, plus the account the panel should be registered to
- Access to the panel area on the work day, with whatever is stored in front of it moved out — the working clearance has to be clear for the inspection as well as for us
Start to finish, with real times.
Free inspection and measurements
A tech looks at the existing panel and service, runs the load numbers, measures the space and the code-required working clearance where the new enclosure would go, and asks what you are actually trying to see or control. You get a written report and a real quote, including what a conventional panel would look like instead.
Specification and ordering
We settle the enclosure size and the matching breakers against what the measurements will actually accept — including whether the panel stays where it is or moves — then order the equipment, pull the permit, and coordinate PG&E where the work touches the service.
Install day
Power off, panel mounted and fed, circuits transferred and re-landed one at a time so nothing has to be guessed at later, grounding and bonding brought to current code, and the building-department inspection coordinated. Where the work touches the main service there is a no-power window, and you will know its length before the day rather than on it.
Commissioning, naming, and labeling
The panel comes up on your network and every circuit gets named against what it truly feeds — traced at the breaker, not copied off the old card. We set up whatever monitoring or notifications you want, fill in the paper directory on the door to match, walk you through the app at the panel, and register the workmanship warranty.
Every quote is free. The range depends too much on your home to fake it.
The honest shape of a smart-panel quote is one large line and several small ones. The equipment is the large line: a smart load center and its matching breakers cost considerably more than a conventional panel and a handful of standard breakers, that gap is set by the manufacturer, and no amount of shopping closes it. The small lines are your house, and they are mostly physical — how many circuits have to be moved and re-landed, whether the existing location gives the new enclosure the depth and the working clearance it needs or the panel has to relocate to a wall that will take it, what that wall is made of, and whether the existing conductors are long enough to reach new terminations. Whether the service itself is part of the job depends on where the smart panel goes: if it replaces your main panel, it is a main panel job, with the service work every main panel job carries in this county; if it goes in as a subpanel behind a main breaker that stays, the service is left as it is. We put the conventional Siemens option on the same quote, so you can see what the difference is actually buying you.
“Sunrise Electrical rewired our house, replacing the old knob-and-tube wiring with seamless, safe, and up-to-code wiring at a very reasonable price. They were incredibly efficient, worked cleanly, and addressed all our questions and concerns with care. We can't recommend them highly enough!”
“Branden & his experienced crew installed a Level 2 electric charger together with an extra 240v outlet in our Live Oak garage. They were informed, congenial, & professional and their work was timely and permitted as required by the County. (The cost of the County permit was 53% of the entire project cost — no 5 stars for the County.) I highly recommend Sunrise Electrical!”
6 questions. Real answers.
Pulled from what we actually hear on quotes and on-site. If yours isn't here, ask us — we'll answer in plain English.
Does per-circuit monitoring lower my bill?
Will it fit where my panel is now?
Can I keep my existing breakers?
Does it need internet, and what if the manufacturer stops supporting it?
How do you make sure the circuit names are right?
Leviton or the other smart panel we install — which should I pick?
Here’s the honest path — wherever it leads.
We'd rather you get the right outcome than the Sunrise outcome. Some of this points away from us on purpose.
Outside Santa Cruz County?
Look for a CSLB-licensed C-10 contractor near you and verify at cslb.ca.gov. Two questions worth asking anyone quoting a smart panel: how they will handle the working clearance at your panel location, and who will be making the breakers you buy in ten years. Those two answers tell you most of what you need to know.
Browse our field guidesNot replacing the panel?
If the panel is doing its job and the real problem is a failed breaker, a loose lug, or a burned bus, that is repair work rather than a replacement — a much smaller conversation, and worth having before you shop for an enclosure.
See panel repairWant the measurements first?
A free inspection gets you the load numbers, the clearance measurements at your panel location, and a written quote with the conventional option next to the smart one. You keep the report either way.
Schedule a free inspectionWe do this work everywhere in Santa Cruz County.
From Davenport to Pajaro Dunes, San Lorenzo Valley to Pleasure Point. Same crew, same warranty, same pricing.
Want the numbers before you commit?
Free inspection, the load calculation, the clearance measurements at your panel, and a written quote with the conventional option beside the smart one.