Electrician in Santa Monica

What we do in Santa Monica

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

Panel upgrades in Santa Monica

Replacing undersized unit and house panels in older apartment buildings, and service upgrades for houses, with the city inspection and SCE's review and meter set coordinated in the right order.

More on panel upgradesCall (844) 430-7681

EV charger installation in Santa Monica

Chargers in apartment and condo garages, where the question is usually what the building's service can carry and how the circuit reaches the resident's assigned space.

More on EV charger installationCall (844) 430-7681

Electrical repair & troubleshooting in Santa Monica

Corroded outdoor boxes and meter enclosures near the beach, tripping breakers in older units, and faults on shared laundry and common-area circuits.

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

Rewiring in Santa Monica

Unit-by-unit rewiring in occupied buildings, and updating older wiring in Ocean Park's early-1900s houses and pre-war bungalows with as little change to the outside as possible.

More on rewiringCall (844) 430-7681

Lighting & ceiling fans in Santa Monica

Corrosion-resistant exterior and walkway lighting near the coast, common-area lighting for apartment buildings, and recessed and kitchen lighting in remodels.

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

Outlets, GFCI & new circuits in Santa Monica

Grounded and GFCI-protected outlets in place of two-prong originals, and 240-volt circuits for heat pumps, dryers and induction ranges in older units.

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

Commercial electrical in Santa Monica

Lighting, dedicated and three-phase circuits and tenant improvements for shops, restaurants and offices on Main Street, Montana Avenue, Wilshire Boulevard and downtown, plus meter banks for building 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 Santa Monica

Santa Monica is a renters' city with a lot of older multifamily buildings. At the end of 2019, 27,381 units were under the city's rent control, slightly more than half of all housing in the city and just over two-thirds of its apartments and condos. So much of the electrical work here is in buildings, not single houses: meter banks, the house panel for common areas, unit panels, and garages where residents now want to charge a car.

The rest is a mix that changes block by block, from larger houses north of Montana Avenue and Craftsman bungalows between Wilshire and Montana to the 1940s one-story houses of Sunset Park and the early-1900s Craftsman and Victorian houses and mid-century apartments of Ocean Park, a few blocks from the sand. Infinity Electrical Inc. (CSLB #1100231) looks at the job first and puts the price in writing after that.

What's common in Santa Monica homes

Older apartment buildings, condos and houses close to the ocean each bring their own electrical problems here, and many buildings combine all three.

• Rent-controlled and older apartment buildings. Meter banks, a house panel for laundry and common lighting, and small unit panels that were sized long before chargers, heat pumps and induction ranges. Work can be planned unit by unit to keep outages short for tenants.
• Buildings in the seismic retrofit program. The city's 2017 ordinance requires owners of vulnerable building types, including wood soft-story apartments, to evaluate and, where needed, retrofit them, and a 2016 city list counted as many as 2,000 potentially vulnerable buildings. Retrofit work already opens up the building, so it is a sensible time to look at the electrical too.
• Historic districts and older houses. Santa Monica has historic districts such as the Third Street Neighborhood in Ocean Park, with bungalows from 1903 to 1915, the Bay Street Craftsman cluster and the 11th Street bungalows. Exterior alterations there generally need a Certificate of Appropriateness, so we check before moving a meter or panel on a street-facing wall.
• Salt air near the beach. Along Ocean Avenue, in Ocean Park and on the blocks near the pier, salt air is hardest on screws, joints between different metals and aluminum terminations. Rusty meter enclosures and outdoor boxes are worth having an electrician look at, and replacement parts should be rated for the exposure.

Permits and power in Santa Monica

Santa Monica (ZIP codes 90401 to 90405) is an independent city, bordered on three sides by the City of Los Angeles, and that line matters more than the mailing address. Part of 90402, including Santa Monica Canyon and a few streets north of San Vicente Boulevard, carries a Santa Monica address but is in the City of Los Angeles, where LADBS issues permits and LADWP is the utility. Inside the city limits, Santa Monica issues the permit and Southern California Edison owns the lines and the meter.

Permits come from the city's Building and Safety Division. The Permit Services Center at 1685 Main Street sees people by appointment, and applications, fees and plan review go through the city online. The city is moving to a new permitting system, so we confirm the current application process when we apply. For most electrical jobs the permit is a short step; inspections are scheduled once the work is done.

Power is delivered by SCE, but Santa Monica is a Clean Power Alliance member and the city chose CPA's 100% Green Power level as its default, so most bills show CPA as the supplier. That changes the supply charges, not the electrical work: SCE still owns the meter and the service lines. For a panel upgrade, the request goes in on SCE's online project portal; an assigned SCE representative reviews it, with a site visit where needed, the city inspects the new equipment, and SCE then sets the meter and energizes. Moving SCE equipment is requested from SCE by phone. Most repairs, lighting, and a charger that fits on the existing panel don't involve SCE at all.

Electrification rules. In September 2024 the city's Ordinance 2790 repealed its all-electric requirement for new buildings and replaced it with electric-ready rules for new construction; the single-family electric-ready rule does not apply to additions or alterations. If a project in an existing building is large enough to raise the question, we check which rules apply before quoting.

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

Around Santa Monica

Every neighbor Santa Monica shares a land border with is part of the City of Los Angeles: Pacific Palisades to the north, Brentwood to the northeast, West Los Angeles to the east, Mar Vista to the southeast and Venice to the south. There, LADBS issues permits and LADWP supplies and delivers the power, so a panel upgrade a few blocks away follows LADWP's process, not SCE's, and Clean Power Alliance plays no part. Santa Monica Canyon, despite its 90402 Santa Monica address, is on the Los Angeles side too.

• Pacific Palisades
• Brentwood
• West Los Angeles
• Mar Vista
• Venice

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