Electrician in Montebello

What we do in Montebello

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

Panel upgrades in Montebello

Main panel and service upgrades for Montebello's 1940s-1960s houses, with the emailed city application, the Monday-to-Thursday inspection and SCE's meter request lined up in order.

More on panel upgradesCall (844) 430-7681

EV charger installation in Montebello

Level 2 chargers for Montebello driveways and garages, starting with a load calculation, because many services in the city date from before 1970 and may need an upgrade first.

More on EV charger installationCall (844) 430-7681

Electrical repair & troubleshooting in Montebello

Tracing tripping breakers, warm outlets and dead circuits in Montebello houses and apartments where more people and appliances now share the original wiring.

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

Rewiring in Montebello

Room-by-room or whole-house rewiring for Montebello's prewar and postwar houses, including grounded circuits where the original wiring has no ground.

More on rewiringCall (844) 430-7681

Lighting & ceiling fans in Montebello

Kitchen, recessed, exterior and security lighting and ceiling fans for Montebello homes, and LED updates for storefronts along Whittier and Beverly Boulevards.

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

Outlets, GFCI & new circuits in Montebello

Grounded and GFCI-protected outlets in place of two-prong ones, plus new 240-volt circuits for dryers, heat pumps and ranges in houses wired long before them.

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

Mobilehome electrical in Montebello

Repairs, added circuits and pedestal or panel work for residents and owners in Montebello's mobile home parks, with the inspecting agency confirmed under state park rules first.

More on mobilehome electricalCall (844) 430-7681

Commercial electrical in Montebello

Tenant improvements, equipment circuits, lighting and three-phase work, where the building has it or needs it, for shops and light-industrial buildings in south Montebello, plus house panels and meter banks for apartment owners.

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 Montebello

Infinity Electrical does panel and service upgrades, EV charger circuits, rewiring, troubleshooting and commercial work in the City of Montebello. Electrical permits there are issued by the city's own Building & Safety Division, not by Los Angeles County, and Southern California Edison owns the lines and meter and normally supplies the power, because Montebello has not joined Clean Power Alliance.

Montebello is an old city by Los Angeles County standards. According to the city's history page, the townsite started in 1899 under the name Newmark, after the family that developed it; the name Montebello, Italian for beautiful hills, came later. Around the turn of the century the area was known for flowers, vegetables, berries and fruit. Then, in 1917, Standard Oil struck oil on the Anita Baldwin property in the hills, and Montebello incorporated on October 16, 1920, the 35th of the present cities in the county.

Most of the houses came later. The city's housing element, using a 2010 Census table, puts about 69% of Montebello's housing units before 1970, with the biggest share from the 1950s and large shares from the 1940s and 1960s. Those houses were wired for the kitchens and appliances of their day. Before a household adds air conditioning, a heat pump, an induction range or a car charger, a licensed electrician such as Infinity Electrical Inc. (CSLB #1100231) can check whether the meter, panel and grounding are ready for it.

What's common in Montebello homes

Montebello's 2014-2021 housing element, adopted in 2020 and using state Department of Finance figures, counted 19,969 housing units in 2017: 9,821 single-family detached houses, 1,612 attached homes, 2,464 units in buildings of two to four, 5,806 in buildings of five or more, and 266 mobile homes. The 2020 Census counted 20,308 housing units and found about 55.6% of occupied homes rented, and the Census Bureau's 2020-2024 estimates put the owner-occupied share at 45.9%.

• 1940s to 1960s houses. By the housing element's 2010 table, 18.3% of Montebello's homes were built in the 1940s, 22.3% in the 1950s and 20.3% in the 1960s, with another 8.3% from 1939 or earlier. A house from those decades may still have a small original service, a fuse box or a panel brand that inspectors flag; the guide to Federal Pacific and Zinsco panels explains why those are usually replaced. A panel upgrade is often the first step before any large new load.
• Apartments and duplexes. More than four in ten Montebello homes are in buildings of two or more units, and more than half of households rent. For owners and managers, that means meter banks, house panels, laundry circuits and tenant-unit repairs; for tenants, the property owner normally arranges electrical work.
• Crowded houses, older circuits. The housing element reported that 11.6% of units had no heating source in the 2010 Census and noted overcrowding among both renters and owners. Space heaters and extra appliances on circuits that were never meant for them are a common reason breakers trip; the post on a breaker that keeps tripping explains what that can mean.
• Mobile homes. The housing element counts 266 mobile homes in the city and lists mobile home parks as a conditionally permitted use in Montebello's R-3 and R-4 zones; park listings put several on South Maple Avenue and South Greenwood Avenue. California's Department of Housing and Community Development is the designated enforcement agency for mobilehome parks unless a local agency has been approved, so who inspects park work is worth confirming first.
• The industrial south side. Public workshops for the housing element pointed to residential streets mixed with industrial uses on Maple Avenue and elsewhere in the southern part of the city, where Montebello's manufacturing zones sit near Commerce. Warehouses and shops there need equipment circuits, lighting and panel work, and three-phase service where the building has it or needs it; the article on leasing a shop that needs three-phase power covers what to check before signing.
• Retail along the 60 and Whittier Boulevard. The regional mall that opened in 1985 as Montebello Town Center, now Mershops Shops at Montebello, sits mainly inside the city limits. Whittier Boulevard and Beverly Boulevard carry much of the city's smaller retail, restaurants and offices, where tenant improvements and lighting updates are common.

Permits and power in Montebello

The City of Montebello (ZIP code 90640 (a ZIP shared with parts of unincorporated East Los Angeles, Commerce, Pico Rivera and Rosemead)) covers about 8.3 square miles east of downtown Los Angeles, according to the Census Bureau. Monterey Park, unincorporated South San Gabriel and Rosemead lie to the north, Pico Rivera to the east, Commerce to the south, and unincorporated East Los Angeles to the west. The Pomona Freeway (the 60) crosses the north side of the city, and the 5, the 605 and the 710 all run close by.

Montebello, East LA or Commerce? Every Montebello address uses ZIP 90640, but that ZIP does not stop at the city limit: it also reaches into unincorporated East Los Angeles and parts of Commerce, Pico Rivera and Rosemead. A house with a Montebello mailing address can therefore sit in unincorporated county territory, where building permits come from Los Angeles County Public Works through its East Los Angeles office on East 3rd Street, not from Montebello City Hall. The power supplier can differ too, since unincorporated Los Angeles County is a Clean Power Alliance member and the City of Montebello is not. Checking the parcel's jurisdiction first settles both questions.

How a Montebello permit works. The city's Building & Safety Division, part of the Planning and Community Development Department, issues building, electrical, plumbing, mechanical and grading permits and does plan checking and inspections. Its page asks owners to contact the division before starting any project to find out whether a permit is needed, says complete applications are to be submitted by email, and warns that incomplete applications may delay processing. The counter takes walk-ins Monday through Thursday and is closed on Fridays.

Inspections run on a four-day week. Montebello inspections are requested through the city's online Building Inspection Form, and the division says they are only conducted on city workdays, Monday through Thursday. That matters for a service change: a panel swap that needs a city inspection before Edison reconnects the meter has to be planned around a Monday-to-Thursday inspection window. The permit, the inspection request and the utility side are coordinated as part of the job, and the schedule is set with that window in mind.

Edison since 1923. A 1923 Railroad Commission decision records that Montebello, newly incorporated, granted Southern California Edison a 35-year franchise by its Ordinance No. 77, and notes that Edison had already served the territory for years under county franchises, with no other utility there. Edison is still the wires company today. Montebello does not appear on Clean Power Alliance's published list of member communities, so most Montebello bills show SCE for the energy as well. For a panel upgrade or a meter spot on an existing service, SCE lists the request in its Building, Renovation and Planning Projects page; removing or relocating SCE equipment is arranged by phone.

Oil wells and the Montebello Hills. The hills that gave the city its name are also an oil field. The Montebello Hills Specific Plan, filed with the state in 2008, describes a site of about 487 acres near North Montebello Boulevard and Paramount Boulevard that was still in petroleum production, with about 1,200 homes planned on roughly 166 acres and much of the rest kept as open space. For an electrician, the practical point is that any new housing built under that plan sits beside some of the city's oldest industry, with electrical systems decades newer than the 1940s-1960s houses elsewhere in Montebello.

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

Around Montebello

Montebello's neighbours split by permit office and by power supplier. Unincorporated East Los Angeles, to the west, takes its building permits from Los Angeles County Public Works, and unincorporated county areas such as East LA and South San Gabriel are in Clean Power Alliance territory. Pico Rivera runs its own building division and its own community choice program, PRIME, with SCE still delivering the power. Monterey Park, to the north, and Commerce, to the south, are separate cities in SCE territory and are not on CPA's member list. A little farther out, Alhambra, Whittier and Downey are Clean Power Alliance cities with their own building departments.

• East Los Angeles
• Monterey Park
• Pico Rivera
• Commerce
• Rosemead
• South San Gabriel
• Alhambra

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