Electrician in West Covina

What we do in West Covina

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

Panel upgrades in West Covina

Service upgrades for West Covina's 1950s tract houses, starting with a load calculation, then the city permit and Edison's part of the job coordinated in order.

More on panel upgradesCall (844) 430-7681

EV charger installation in West Covina

Home chargers for driveways and attached garages, beginning with a load calculation to see whether a mid-century service can carry the charger or needs load management or an upgrade, and the city's EV charging checklist for the permit.

More on EV charger installationCall (844) 430-7681

Electrical repair & troubleshooting in West Covina

Tracking down tripping breakers, warm outlets and dead circuits in full West Covina households, where more people and appliances share circuits than the house was wired for.

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

Rewiring in West Covina

Replacing ungrounded two-wire circuits and patched-together wiring in the older homes on the western and northern sides of the city, toward Baldwin Park and Covina.

More on rewiringCall (844) 430-7681

Lighting & ceiling fans in West Covina

LED fixtures, ceiling fans and exterior and landscape lighting for the larger hillside lots near Walnut, and interior and parking-area lighting for shops and offices.

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

Outlets, GFCI & new circuits in West Covina

Grounded and GFCI-protected outlets in place of old two-prong ones, plus dedicated circuits for kitchens, laundry rooms, window units and home offices.

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

Mobilehome electrical in West Covina

Repairs, added circuits and pedestal or panel work for residents and owners in West Covina's two mobile home parks, with the inspecting agency confirmed first.

More on mobilehome electricalCall (844) 430-7681

Commercial electrical in West Covina

Tenant improvements, lighting, dedicated circuits and panel work for stores along the I-10 retail corridor, offices around The Lakes and downtown, and businesses along the arterial streets, including three-phase work where the building has or needs it.

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 West Covina

Most of West Covina was built in a single decade. The city's own history pages record 4,499 residents in the 1950 census and 50,645 in 1960, after walnut groves on the old Rancho La Puente land gave way to tract after tract of postwar houses. The city calls itself the fastest-growing city in America during those years, and its growth history notes how far services lagged behind: schools ran double sessions, and home telephone service could take a year or more to arrive after a tract was finished.

Those houses are now well past retirement age for their original wiring. West Covina's 2021–2029 housing element finds that more than two-thirds of the city's homes were built before 1980, with few structures older than the 1940s. A house wired in 1955 was planned around a refrigerator, a range and a few lamps, not central air, a home office, an induction cooktop and an electric car in the driveway.

Infinity Electrical Inc. (CSLB #1100231) starts West Covina jobs by looking at the service, the panel and how the house is used today, then plans the work and coordinates the city permit and Edison's part where they apply. Customer assistance is available in English and Spanish.

What's common in West Covina homes

West Covina is mostly a city of single-family houses: the housing element puts single-family homes at 74.1 percent of the housing stock, well above the 61.7 percent for the Southern California region, and finds that nearly two-thirds of homes are owner-occupied, with about 3.35 people per household.

• The 1950s tracts. The city's first residential subdivision, Sunkist Village on the western side, was laid out in 1941, and the big wave followed after the war. The housing element places the older, smaller-lot homes in the western and northern parts of the city, next to Baldwin Park and Covina. Houses of that era can still have small services, ungrounded two-wire circuits and panels that have been added onto more than once, which is where rewiring or a panel upgrade comes in.
• Hillside homes to the south and east. The eastern and southern parts of West Covina, next to Walnut, include hillside neighbourhoods developed from former ranches and large estates, with larger houses on larger lots, according to the housing element. Bigger homes and long runs to garages, pool equipment and outdoor lighting mean more load on the service and more circuits to trace when something trips.
• Full houses and renters. Using 2014–2018 census survey data, the housing element finds that 15.1 percent of renter households and 4.1 percent of owner households have more than one person per room. More people means more chargers, space heaters and window units sharing circuits that were laid out for a smaller family.
• Added units. The housing element sets a goal of 328 ADU building permits over the planning period, and the city keeps a separate page on ADU and junior ADU rules. A new unit or a converted garage usually needs its own circuits, and sometimes a subpanel or a larger service, so we check what the existing panel can carry before anything is designed.
• Mobilehome parks. The housing element says West Covina's manufactured housing is in two mobile home parks, covered by the city's 1984 mobile home rent control ordinance. Park electrical systems can be inspected by a different agency than the city, so we confirm that before work starts.
• Shopping, offices and the freeway. The housing element describes large regional retail centers on both sides of the San Bernardino Freeway (I-10) and commercial districts along the arterial streets. The city's history lists The Lakes office building, the Auto Plaza and the Sportsplex, with The Heights Shopping Center, among its redevelopment projects, and Wikipedia describes Plaza West Covina as a two-level mall with about 185 shops and restaurants. The Downtown Plan allows mixed residential and commercial development on about 70 of downtown's 250 acres.

Permits and power in West Covina

West Covina (ZIP codes 91790 to 91793) has been its own city since 1923, when residents incorporated to stop neighbouring Covina from putting a sewage farm on the land. That means its own building department: the Building Division of the Community Development Department reviews plans, issues permits and inspects work, from its office at City Hall on West Garvey Avenue South.

Applying for an electrical permit. The city's permits page sends applications through its online permitting system, and the Building Division says it no longer accepts applications by email; plans go through its One Stop Building Permit Center portal, with in-person applications at the counter Monday through Thursday. The division's submittal instructions treat electrical plans as their own plan type, submitted as a separate project from building plans. The permits page also lists a mechanical, electrical and plumbing questionnaire and an EV charging checklist, and inspections are requested by phone. The application and the phone-requested inspections are coordinated as part of the job.

Edison owns the meter. Southern California Edison owns the lines and the meter that serve West Covina homes and businesses, so a panel replacement or a service upgrade involves Edison as well as the city, and we coordinate Edison's part of the job with the city inspection. A new circuit, a fixture or a charger that fits on the panel a house already has stays on the customer side of the meter, and most smaller West Covina jobs involve only the city inspection.

Solar has its own route. West Covina handles residential solar permits through SolarAPP+, an automated online review, with a separate checklist sent to the Building Division. Infinity Electrical does not install solar; if a roof already has panels, the panel upgrade, charger or circuit work we do is planned around that system.

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

Around West Covina

The city line matters more than the ZIP code around West Covina. Covina, which borders it to the northeast, has been a separate city since 1901; Baldwin Park and Irwindale lie to the northwest, La Puente to the southwest, the City of Industry to the south and Walnut to the southeast, and each of those cities sets its own permit process. Valinda, to the southwest, and the Walnut Islands, to the east, are unincorporated county land, so permits there come from Los Angeles County rather than a city. We confirm from the parcel which office issues the permit before we write an estimate. Farther afield, our El Monte and Pomona pages cover two other San Gabriel and Pomona Valley cities with their own building departments.

• Covina
• Baldwin Park
• Irwindale
• La Puente
• Valinda
• City of Industry
• Walnut

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