New Course Announcement: Avoiding Main Panel Upgrades

Home electrification is accelerating rapidly, but there’s a bottleneck that’s been frustrating homeowners and professionals alike: the dreaded main panel upgrade. If you’ve worked on the residential side, you know the story all too well. A homeowner wants to install an EV charger, add a heat pump, or integrate solar-plus-storage – only to discover they need a costly, time-consuming panel upgrade that can derail the entire project.

What if we told you that in many cases, these upgrades aren’t actually necessary?

The High Costs of Panel Upgrades

Main panel upgrades have become the default solution whenever additional electrical capacity is needed, but they come with significant downsides:

• High costs that can add $3,000-$5,000+ to project budgets
• Extended timelines due to utility coordination and permitting delays
• Project abandonment when homeowners are surprised by an unexpected upgrade 

Introducing the New “Avoiding Main Panel Upgrades” Course

We’re excited to announce this new course, developed with residential solar companies in mind as they transition into diversified energy services – especially with the residential tax credit sunsetting at the end of 2025. As companies expand from solar-only installations to comprehensive whole-home energy solutions, keeping costs manageable for customers becomes critical. 

This course provides a practical framework that combines proven NEC applications, power-efficient design principles, and smart energy management technologies to help you deliver affordable electrification services without the burden of expensive panel upgrades.

What You’ll Learn

This advanced course covers the complete toolkit for avoiding panel upgrades:

Foundation Knowledge: Even if you don’t have an electrical background, dynamic visual animations will show you exactly how electricity flows through panels, how breakers protect electrical systems, and how the NEC keeps homes and occupants safe.

Load Calculation Mastery: Gain confidence applying NEC 220.83 (calculated load) and NEC 220.87 (measured load) methodologies to accurately assess what your panels can actually handle.

Space Optimization: Learn circuit rewiring strategies, breaker optimization techniques, and sub-panel utilization to create physical space on existing panels.

Power-Efficient Design: Identify opportunities to reduce peak loads through strategic appliance selection and circuit management – often eliminating the need for additional capacity entirely.

Advanced Solar Integration: Master NEC 705.12 backfeed rules, including the 120% rule, main breaker derates, and the “Hawaiian tie-in technique” to maximize solar and storage integration without upgrades.

Smart Technology Solutions: Explore five different Power Control System applications and learn how Energy Management Systems can dynamically optimize power flow while protecting against overloads.

The “Silver Bullet”: Discover how dynamic Power Control Systems can allow solar + storage systems to equal full busbar capacity

Meter Collar Innovation: Learn about this powerful solution for adding distributed energy systems, additional loads like EV chargers, and achieving almost instantaneous whole-home backup.

Who Should Enroll

• Energy consultants and electrification advisors
• Solar and storage system designers
• Residential electricians and contractors
• Residential architects and engineers
• Utility program implementers
• Building performance specialists
• Policy and technical experts

Get Started Today!

By the end of this course, you’ll have both the deep technical understanding and practical framework needed to design electrification projects that maximize client value, reduce implementation time, and dramatically improve project feasibility.

The future of residential solar and electrification is smarter solutions. This course will give you the competitive advantage to deliver those solutions effectively, positioning you and your team as a leader in whole home energy systems.

Enroll in “Avoiding Main Panel Upgrades” today!