Electrician in Arcadia

What we do in Arcadia

Everything we do in Arcadia, with what each job usually involves here. The photos are from our own jobs.

Panel upgrades in Arcadia

Service upgrades for Arcadia's 1940s and 1950s houses and for larger remodels, beginning with a load calculation, then the city electrical permit and SCE's meter work coordinated so they fit together.

More on panel upgradesCall (844) 430-7681

EV charger installation in Arcadia

Garage and driveway chargers sized from a load calculation on the existing panel, with the city's ARC-022 EV charging checklist used for the permit and load management considered before any upgrade.

More on EV charger installationCall (844) 430-7681

Electrical repair & troubleshooting in Arcadia

Tracking down breakers that trip, dead outlets and lights that dim when a heavy appliance starts, in houses whose wiring has been extended through several remodels.

More on electrical repair & troubleshootingCall (844) 430-7681

Rewiring in Arcadia

Replacing ungrounded two-wire circuits and patched wiring in postwar ranch houses, room by room or during a kitchen or bath remodel.

More on rewiringCall (844) 430-7681

Lighting & ceiling fans in Arcadia

LED fixtures, ceiling fans and exterior and landscape lighting for larger foothill lots, chosen with any association design rules in mind.

More on lighting & ceiling fansCall (844) 430-7681

Outlets, GFCI & new circuits in Arcadia

Grounded and GFCI-protected outlets for kitchens, baths, garages and patios, plus new dedicated circuits for home offices and laundry rooms.

More on outlets, GFCI & new circuitsCall (844) 430-7681

Generator hookups & battery backup in Arcadia

Generator inlets, transfer switches, interlocks and battery backup wiring for homes in the foothill fire zone and elsewhere in the city that want chosen circuits powered through an outage or shutoff.

More on generator hookups & battery backupCall (844) 430-7681

Commercial electrical in Arcadia

Tenant improvements, lighting and panel work for shops and offices on Baldwin Avenue, Duarte Road, First Avenue and Live Oak Avenue, and three-phase circuits for the light industrial buildings in the southern part of the city.

More on commercial electricalCall (844) 430-7681

Also: subpanels, dedicated circuits, 240-volt outlets for dryers and ranges, exterior and security lighting, hard-wired smoke alarms, and small repairs of every kind.

Working in Arcadia

Arcadia began as Lucky Baldwin's town. Baldwin bought Rancho Santa Anita in 1875, opened his Hotel Oakwood in 1889 and saw the city incorporated on August 5, 1903, serving as its first mayor. Between the world wars much of the land held chicken ranches, and after World War II many of those ranches were cut into home lots: the population grew more than two and a half times between 1940 and 1950. The city now covers about 11 square miles at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains and counted 56,681 residents in 2020.

That postwar subdivision is still visible in the housing. Table H-1 of Arcadia's 2021–2029 housing element puts 23.0 percent of homes in the 1950s alone, with another 13.9 percent from the 1940s and 15.1 percent from the 1960s, while fewer than one home in ten dates from 2000 or later. A ranch house wired in 1952 was built for a far smaller list of appliances than it carries now, and many have been enlarged or remodeled more than once since, sometimes with the electrical service left as it was.

Every Arcadia job with Infinity Electrical Inc. (CSLB #1100231) starts with a visit to look at the service, the panel and how the property is used today, and the written estimate comes after that. Customer assistance is available in English and Spanish.

What's common in Arcadia homes

Single-family homes make up about 70 percent of Arcadia's 21,289 housing units in the housing element, with the rest in multifamily buildings; owners occupy a little under six in ten homes, and the element puts the city's median home value 88.2 percent above the Los Angeles County median.

• Postwar ranch-lot houses. Homes from the 1940s and 1950s, many on lots carved from former chicken ranches, are the biggest group in the city. Electrically they can still carry an original service, two-wire circuits without a ground and a panel that has been added to over the years, which is where rewiring or a panel upgrade fits.
• Foothill and estate neighbourhoods. The general plan describes lower-density housing toward the northern foothills and calls the neighbourhoods north of Foothill Boulevard established areas where little new development is expected. Larger houses there mean longer runs to garages, pool equipment and landscape lighting, and many sit inside the fire hazard zone described above.
• Homeowners associations with design review. The city recognizes five associations with an Architectural Review Board: Arcadia Highlands, Rancho Santa Anita Property Owners Association, Santa Anita Oaks Association, Rancho Santa Anita Residents Association and Santa Anita Village Association. Where a meter, panel, charger or exterior fixture will be visible, it is worth checking that association's rules alongside the city permit.
• Rebuilt and replaced homes. Arcadia's high land values have encouraged rebuilding: Anita Baldwin's 50-room Anoakia mansion, built in 1913, was approved for demolition in 1999, and the estate was cleared in 2000 for 31 luxury home sites. A larger new or remodeled house usually needs a bigger service planned from the start, coordinated with SCE.
• Apartments and condominiums. About 30 percent of the housing is multifamily, much of it in buildings of five or more units, concentrated in the west and downtown according to the general plan. Shared meter banks, tenant subpanels and parking-area lighting are typical work in buildings like these.
• Commercial corridors. The general plan treats Baldwin Avenue and Duarte Road as an established commercial district, calls for First Avenue downtown to become a mixed-use street near the Metro A Line station that opened in 2016, and describes Live Oak Avenue as a one-mile corridor of retail, light industrial, apartments and low-rise offices. Light industry sits along the railroad between Santa Anita Avenue and Second Avenue and at the city's southern edge near the San Gabriel River.

Permits and power in Arcadia

Arcadia (ZIP codes 91006, 91007, 91066 and 91077) runs its own building department. The Building Services Division of Development Services, at City Hall on West Huntington Drive, issues permits, reviews plans and sends out inspectors. Its EDGE portal (ePermitting and Development Gateway) takes permit applications, electronic plan submittals and inspection requests, and the counter is the other option.

Electrical work has its own permit. The division's FAQ says separate permits are required for electrical, plumbing and mechanical work, and the city's forms page lists a combined electrical, mechanical and plumbing application along with an Electric Vehicle Charging Checklist (ARC-022). The same FAQ notes that swapping an existing light fixture, switch or receptacle for a new one does not need a permit. A contractor pulling an Arcadia permit also needs a City of Arcadia business license; on our jobs the application and inspection requests are coordinated along with the work.

Edison delivers, Clean Power Alliance buys. Arcadia sits on the board of Clean Power Alliance, the community choice program that purchases electricity for the homes and businesses in the city that are enrolled in it, which is the default. According to CPA, Southern California Edison still delivers that power, maintains the lines, sends the single monthly bill and handles outages. Anything touching the meter, such as a panel upgrade or a larger service, goes through SCE's Building, Renovation and Project Planning Portal and is lined up with the city inspection. A new circuit, a light fixture or a charger the existing panel can carry stays on the customer side of the meter and does not involve SCE.

Fire zone and shutoffs. The northern part of Arcadia, with steep hillsides and brush, is designated a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone in the city's general plan environmental report. The city's February 2025 newsletter puts that zone above Orange Grove Avenue and Sycamore Avenue, says the local map dates from 2011 while CAL FIRE updates the statewide maps, and recalls the Eaton Fire moving toward the city; because the maps were being revised, the current official map is the one to check for a specific address. The Building Services forms page includes a sheet on construction requirements in the Wildland-Urban Interface fire area. In October 2020 the city also told residents that SCE may shut off power to neighbourhoods during high wildfire risk, and pointed them to SCE's shutoff map.

For foothill households that want lights, refrigeration and medical or work equipment to keep running through an outage, the safe routes are a generator connected through a transfer switch or a listed interlock, or a battery backup system wired to chosen circuits. A portable generator runs outdoors only, well away from windows, doors and vents, and never plugged into a wall outlet. Infinity Electrical installs the inlet, transfer equipment and battery wiring; the generator itself comes from the homeowner's own supplier. Our checklist for the days before a shutoff and the transfer switch and interlock comparison explain the options.

The permits and utilities guide explains the whole picture for the three counties we serve.

Around Arcadia

Arcadia's general plan lists Monrovia to the east and northeast, Sierra Madre and the Angeles National Forest to the north, Pasadena to the northwest, Temple City to the southwest and unincorporated county land to the west and southeast. Pasadena is the one neighbour with a different utility: Pasadena Water and Power, owned by the city, supplies its electricity and Pasadena issues its own permits. Sierra Madre, Monrovia and Temple City are separate cities and, like Arcadia, Clean Power Alliance members with SCE delivering the power, so the permit there comes through that city rather than Arcadia. East Pasadena, whose eastern edge is Arcadia's city limit at Michillinda Avenue, and Mayflower Village, where some 91006 addresses read Arcadia, are unincorporated, so Los Angeles County Public Works issues permits. We confirm the jurisdiction from the parcel before writing an estimate. Farther south, our El Monte page covers another San Gabriel Valley city with its own building department.

• Pasadena
• East Pasadena
• Sierra Madre
• Monrovia
• Temple City
• Mayflower Village

See the full list of areas we cover across Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties.