100, 150 or 200 Amp Service: Which Does Your Home Need?

Most older homes in Brampton were built with 100 amp service. That can still be enough for a smaller home with gas heating and no big electrical additions planned.

If you are adding an EV charger, a hot tub, a heat pump, an induction range or a basement suite, 200 amps is usually the right size. A 150 amp service sits in the middle. Whether it covers your plans depends on a load calculation, not a rule of thumb.

For reference, a 100 to 200 amp upgrade in Ontario runs about $2,800 to $5,000 in 2026, including the ESA permit and inspection. Our 2026 panel upgrade cost guide breaks that number down.

Your electrical panel takes the power coming in from the street and splits it into circuits for your lights, outlets and big appliances. The service size, in amps, is the most power your home can draw through that connection at once.

A 200 amp service gives you roughly double the capacity of a 100 amp service. It does not raise your hydro bill by itself. You only pay for the electricity you use. What changes is how much can run at the same time without overloading the system.

A few items take most of the room in a panel:

A Level 2 EV charger draws 30 to 50 amps on its own, on a new 240V circuit. See our EV charger installation page for what that job involves.

Most full-size hot tubs need a dedicated 240V, 50 amp circuit. Our hot tub electrical page explains the hookup.

Stoves, dryers, saunas, welders and hot water tanks each need their own dedicated 240V circuit. Details are on our 240V appliance circuits page.

Those numbers are circuit sizes, not what your home uses every minute. That is why the right service size comes from a load calculation, which looks at everything in the house together. ESA puts it simply on its EV charging page: electric vehicles can use a lot of power, so make sure your panel can handle the extra load.

For a smaller home with gas heating and no plans for an EV charger, hot tub or addition, replacing an old panel with a new 100 amp panel may be enough. You keep the same service size and get a safe, modern panel.

Sometimes the problem is the panel, not the size. A breaker that trips every week, a Federal Pioneer panel or an old fuse box can all be fixed with a panel replacement. A bigger service only helps if you actually need more capacity.

A 150 amp service is the middle option. It can make sense when a load calculation shows 100 amps is too small for your plans, but your home will never need the full 200.

Electricians size a home's service using the load calculation rules in the Canadian Electrical Code, which Ontario adopts as the Ontario Electrical Safety Code. ESA's bulletin on maximum circuit loading and demand factors covers how those calculations work.

The physical work is similar for any increase: a new panel, a new meter base if needed, and possibly a new service cable from the street. Because of that, Superior Power Electric's advice is to size for what you expect in the next several years. A home that may add two EVs, a hot tub and a workshop needs 200 amps.

We do not publish a fixed price for 150 amp service, because it depends on what your existing meter base and service cable can handle. We price it after seeing your setup.

A service upgrade usually means replacing the breaker panel, upgrading the meter base if needed, and sometimes upgrading the service entrance cable.

In Ontario, almost all electrical work must be reported to the Electrical Safety Authority with a notification of work, often called a permit. ESA says it should be filed before the work starts, and it creates a permanent record of the work on your home. You can read ESA's explanation on its notifications and inspections page.

Your utility is part of it too. In Brampton that is Alectra Utilities. On Alectra's service request page, the steps include an ESA inspection, after which ESA sends Alectra a connection authorization, and Alectra then makes the final connection to the grid. Your electrician coordinates these steps with ESA and the utility.

These are Superior Power Electric's published ranges for 2026. Every price includes the ESA permit and inspection.

A 100 to 200 amp upgrade in Ontario runs $2,800 to $5,000. In Brampton most 100 to 200 amp jobs land between $2,500 and $4,500, as shown in our Brampton panel upgrade cost guide.

Older Bramalea and Heart Lake homes often need the meter base replaced with the panel, which adds $600 to $1,400.

A fuse box to breaker panel conversion runs $2,200 to $3,800, and a sub-panel for a basement suite, garage or workshop runs $900 to $1,800.

If a quote leaves out the permit, treat that as a red flag. Our electrical permit guide explains why.

The quickest way to a real answer is a look at your panel and a conversation about your plans. At a $49 on-site assessment, a licensed electrician checks your current panel and usage, asks what you plan to add, and recommends the right service size with a written quote. The $49 is credited to the job if you go ahead.

If you would rather start from home, send clear photos of your panel and meter for a free remote estimate. Learn more on our panel upgrades page, or book your assessment.