The two things that drive it are distance from the panel and whether your service has any capacity left. In Encino the second one decides most jobs, because a lot of homes here are still on 100 amps with air conditioning and a pool already connected. Where there's headroom, a garage-wall install near the panel is straightforward. Where there isn't, the honest answer is that you need a service upgrade first — and we'll tell you that before you buy a charger. The assessment visit is free.

Sometimes — but it's genuinely a calculation rather than a yes or no. A 100-amp service in a small Encino home with gas heat, gas cooking and no pool can often carry a charger, especially at a reduced amperage setting. The same 100 amps in a house with central air conditioning, a pool pump and an electric dryer usually can't. What matters is the calculated existing load against the service rating, not the number on the main breaker. If your home is still on 60 amps — and some older Encino properties are — the answer is almost always no.

Often yes, and it's the option most installers don't mention. Most Level 2 chargers can be configured to draw less than their maximum, so a 48-amp unit can be set to 32 or even 24 amps. You charge more slowly, but for a household driving normal Encino distances an overnight charge at 24 amps is usually still a full battery by morning. It can be the difference between a straightforward install and a service upgrade. We'll tell you whether it works for your actual driving pattern rather than defaulting to the bigger job.

A load calculation works out how much of your service is genuinely being used, based on the size of the home and the fixed appliances connected to it, rather than guessing from the panel rating. It matters more in Encino than in newer parts of the Valley because the housing stock here is old enough that the original service was sized for a completely different set of appliances. The calculation is what tells us whether a charger fits, whether it fits at a reduced amperage, or whether the service has to come first. It's also what the permit requires.

Yes, and it's most of what we do here. Older Encino properties often have a detached garage set back from the house, sometimes with a feeder that was never sized for anything beyond a light and an outlet. That usually means a new circuit run from the main panel, and on longer runs a subpanel at the garage makes more sense than one long conductor. Where the existing garage feeder is undersized we replace it rather than working around it.

Yes. Adding a dedicated 240-volt circuit is permitted electrical work. Encino is part of the City of Los Angeles, so the permit goes through the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety — and if the job also needs a service upgrade, LADWP has to be scheduled for the disconnect and reconnect. We file the permit, book the utility where required, and see the job through inspection.

Yes. Multi-unit and commercial charging is a different job from a single home charger, because the questions become how many spaces, how the load is shared across them, and how usage is metered or billed back. For the Ventura Boulevard offices and medical suites that usually means a small number of shared spaces on a managed circuit. Tell us the building type and the number of spaces you're planning for and we'll scope it properly.

We install throughout Encino (91316 and 91436), covering South of the Boulevard, Amestoy Estates, Royal Oaks, Encino Village, Rancho Estates and the Encino Hills, plus the Ventura Boulevard corridor. We also serve neighbouring Tarzana, Sherman Oaks, Reseda and Woodland Hills, where we're based. Coverage is subject to scheduling and scope of work.