Surprise Electrical Upgrades and Change Orders

The lowest solar quote isn’t always the cheapest once the work starts. A common pattern: you sign a contract, then a site survey or engineering review “discovers” that your main electrical panel needs an upgrade, a run needs trenching, or the roof needs structural reinforcement. Now there’s a change order, and you’re already committed. Good installers check these things before quoting and put the cost in writing.

Why it happens

Sometimes it’s honest: the electrical work can’t be known for sure until someone looks inside the panel. But leaving it out of the first quote also makes the price look lower than competitors who included it. Once you’ve signed, waited for permits and canceled other quotes, you’re much more likely to accept a change order than to start over.

What work commonly gets left out

• Main panel upgrade (MPU) or service upgrade. Older or smaller panels may not have room or capacity for a solar breaker, and code limits how much solar can back-feed a panel. Adding a battery or EV charger makes this more likely.
• Meter or meter-socket changes required by your utility.
• Trenching for ground mounts or for running wire to a detached garage.
• Structural reinforcement if an engineer finds rafters can’t carry the load.
• Load management devices or smart panels. For battery backup, these can sometimes avoid a full panel upgrade. Ask whether that’s an option.

A worked example

Two quotes for an 8 kW system:

	Quote A	Quote B
Base price	$22,500	$24,000
Main panel upgrade	“Excluded; quoted after site survey”	Included
Trenching / structural	“Not included”	“Included if required”
Price after survey	$22,500 + change order	$24,000

Suppose Quote A’s change order comes in at $3,000. That’s an illustrative figure; real upgrade costs vary a lot by home, utility and region. Quote A now costs $25,500, more than Quote B. And it arrives after you’ve signed. The point isn’t the specific number. It’s that you can only compare quotes that include the same scope of work.

How it shows up in a contract

• “Price subject to change upon site survey or engineering review.”
• “Electrical service upgrades, if required, will be billed separately.”
• “Customer is responsible for any utility-required upgrades.”
• An exclusions list that’s longer than the inclusions list.

Questions to ask

• “Have you looked at my main panel? Does it need an upgrade for this system, and for a battery or EV charger later?”
• “Is a main panel or service upgrade included in this price? If not, what’s your written estimate?”
• “Could a load management device or smart panel avoid an upgrade?”
• “If the price goes up after the site survey, can I cancel and get my deposit back?”
• “Who pays for any utility-required meter changes?”

What to do

Send each installer a clear photo of your main panel label and breakers before they quote, and ask them to confirm in writing what’s included. Use our quote comparison tool to line up inclusions and exclusions. For battery projects, read generator vs battery backup and run the battery calculator. Our guide on how to compare solar quotes covers the rest of the checklist, and solar and EV charging explains how a future charger affects your panel.

If an installer pressured you to accept a large change order with no way out, report it to your state contractor licensing board and your state attorney general. If the change was added to a loan without your clear consent, also file with the CFPB.