Solar, batteries and EV chargers are electrical work before they are anything else. Sunbridge Solar keeps that work in-house across Portland and SW Washington — the panel upgrades, service upgrades, dedicated circuits and backup wiring that these systems depend on.
One thing worth being plain about up front, because it saves everyone a phone call: we are a solar company with electricians, not a general electrical contractor. If you need an outlet added in a bedroom or a bathroom circuit traced, we are not the right call and we will tell you so. Everything below is work we do every week.
What We Take On
- Electrical panel and service upgrades — including the 100-amp to 200-amp upgrades older Portland housing usually needs
- EV charger circuits — Level 2 chargers in attached and detached garages, including long runs
- Battery and backup wiring — critical-loads subpanels and the transfer equipment that makes storage work during an outage
- Solar interconnection — the tie-in, disconnects, metering coordination and inspection sequence
- Service and repair on existing arrays — inverter replacement, string faults, monitoring, and removal and reinstallation for roofing work
Electrical Panel and Service Upgrades
This is the single most common reason a solar or EV project costs more than the homeowner expected, and it is entirely predictable if someone looks first.
A solar array needs a breaker at your main panel, and there are limits on how much backfeed a panel can accept relative to its busbar rating. Add a heat pump and an EV charger to a 100-amp service — still common in Portland housing built before the 1980s — and the arithmetic runs out quickly.
What decides it is a load calculation, not a guess. We run one before quoting, and where the numbers are tight we look at the cheaper routes first:
- Load-management devices that prevent two large loads drawing at once
- A supply-side connection, which sidesteps the busbar limit entirely on some layouts
- A smart panel where it genuinely earns its cost
Sometimes the answer really is a service upgrade, and then we quote it up front rather than discovering it on installation day. An installer who reaches straight for a bigger service without showing you the calculation is not necessarily doing you a favour.
EV Charger Circuits
A Level 2 charger is typically a 40 to 60-amp dedicated circuit, which is a serious addition to a household. The work is straightforward when the service supports it: capacity check, circuit, mount, and inspection.
The details that matter are placement and distance. A charger on the far side of a detached garage needs conductors sized for the run, and it is far cheaper to install while other work is already open — alongside a solar install, or during a panel upgrade — than as a standalone visit later. If a second vehicle is likely, say so early; planning for it costs almost nothing now and a great deal afterwards.
Battery and Backup Wiring
Storage is where wiring decisions become visible to you during an outage. Grid-tied solar shuts down when the grid does, by code, so line crews are safe. A battery changes that only if the system is built for it.
The practical work is a critical-loads subpanel: deciding what stays alive — refrigerator, furnace fan, well pump, a few outlets, the router — and wiring those circuits so a sensibly sized battery can carry them. Trying to back up the whole house is how people end up with a battery twice the size they needed. We would rather have that conversation at design time than after installation.
Repairs and Service on Existing Systems
We service arrays regardless of who installed them. Inverters typically reach end of life around ten to fifteen years while the panels are still under performance warranty, so a system from 2012 often needs an inverter rather than replacement. String faults, tripped breakers, dead monitoring and corroded connections are all diagnosable, and we give you a written account of what we found and what we would leave alone.
Permits and Inspections
Electrical work of this kind is permitted and inspected, and we handle both. We confirm which jurisdiction reviews your specific address before quoting a schedule — in the Portland metro that is not always the city whose name is on your mail — then pull the permit, meet the inspector and coordinate the utility sign-off.
On a solar project the last step is permission to operate from your utility. The system stays switched off until it arrives, and we quote timelines to that date rather than to the day the crew leaves.
Where We Work
Portland and the surrounding metro, out to the Willamette Valley, plus SW Washington from our base in Washougal. Details by area on the Portland page, the Vancouver page, or the full service-area list.
Related services: residential solar, home battery backup and EV charger installation.
Get a Quote
Call 360-313-7190 or request a free quote. Tell us what is planned — solar, a charger, a battery, or all three — and we will check what your service can carry before anyone quotes a price.
Electrical Service FAQs
Do you do general residential electrical work?
No. We are a solar company with electricians on staff, so we handle panel and service upgrades, EV charger circuits, battery and backup wiring, solar interconnection and repairs to existing systems. For general work like adding outlets or troubleshooting household circuits, you want a general electrical contractor.
Do I need a 200-amp panel to install solar?
Not always. What matters is a load calculation and the backfeed limit for your panel’s busbar rating. Plenty of 100-amp services accept a solar system, and where the numbers are tight, load management or a supply-side connection can avoid a full upgrade. We run the calculation before quoting.
Can you install an EV charger without upgrading my service?
Often, yes. A Level 2 charger is usually a 40 to 60-amp circuit, and whether your existing service carries it depends on your other loads. If an upgrade is genuinely needed we say so up front, and it is much cheaper done alongside other work than as a separate visit.
Will you service a solar system another company installed?
Yes. We diagnose and repair arrays regardless of who installed them — inverter replacement, string faults, monitoring, and panel removal and reinstallation for roof work. You get a written report of what we found and what does not need spending on.
Do you pull the permits?
Yes, and we confirm which jurisdiction reviews your address first, which in this metro is not always the city on your mailing address. We handle the permit, the inspection and the utility sign-off, including permission to operate on solar projects.