200A Panel Upgrade on a Highland Park Craftsman

The owners of this 1962 Highland Park Craftsman had just purchased the home and immediately wanted to address the Federal Pacific Stab-Lok panel, a well-documented fire risk that has prompted lawsuits and insurance non-renewals across Tennessee. The original 100-amp FPE panel had 24 spaces, several of which were filled with tandem breakers in ways that violated code, and several individual breakers showed heat stress on the bus bar from years of failed-trip events.

We installed a new Square D QO200 200-amp main breaker panel with 40 spaces, giving the homeowners room for their planned EV charger circuit (50A), a mini-split circuit (30A), and a future heat-pump water heater. All existing circuits were carefully reconnected, labeled, and tested. We also added a Type 2 whole-home surge protector at the new panel for an extra layer of protection from East Tennessee thunderstorms.

The job ran one full day with about six hours of planned outage. We coordinated with KUB for the service disconnect the evening before, and power was restored by 4pm on installation day. The homeowners now have a clean, documented, code-compliant electrical system with plenty of room to grow, and their insurance carrier removed the Federal Pacific surcharge from their policy within a week of receiving our documentation.