Electrical scope
How many circuits the new kitchen needs, and whether your panel has room
A kitchen concentrates many appliance circuits in one room, and electrical scope is easy to leave out of a first quote. It can arrive later as a change order, because once the walls open the job can stop being a matter of reusing what is there and become one of bringing the room up to what your inspector enforces.
Circuits, devices and whether the panel can take them
Derived new circuits
9
Needing 10 breaker spaces, against 4 free.
Panel verdict An older breaker panel may physically accept the circuits, but some older panels may not have replacement breakers available; have the brand identified before you plan around it.
- Confirm the panel brand and whether replacement breakers are still listed for it.
- The kitchen needs 10 breaker spaces and 4 are free. You are 6 short.
- Headroom is under the 15% of the 100-amp service that this tool uses as its own flag line for a possible service upgrade (projected demand about 88 amps, headroom about 13 amps; the exact figures are in the panel above). A service upgrade involves the utility and their calendar, not just your electrician.
- Island receptacle requirements vary by code edition and local amendment; ask your inspector before the counter is fabricated, because the answer can put a hole in it.
The circuit schedule this kitchen derives
| Circuit | Poles | Rating | Why it exists |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small-appliance branch circuit 1 | 1 | 20 A | Serves the countertop receptacles. These are the circuits a toaster and a kettle fight over. |
| Small-appliance branch circuit 2 | 1 | 20 A | Serves the countertop receptacles. These are the circuits a toaster and a kettle fight over. |
| Electric range | 2 | 50 A | A 240-volt appliance takes two breaker spaces; the cable type is set by your electrician and code. |
| Dishwasher | 1 | 15 A | Runs on its own circuit so a motor start does not trip the counters. |
| Garbage disposal | 1 | 15 A | Runs on its own circuit so a motor start does not trip the counters. |
| Refrigerator | 1 | 15 A | Runs on its own circuit so a motor start does not trip the counters. |
| Microwave | 1 | 15 A | Runs on its own circuit so a motor start does not trip the counters. |
| Lighting circuit 1 | 1 | 15 A | Kitchen lighting is kept off the small-appliance circuits so a tripped breaker does not leave you in the dark. |
| Lighting circuit 2 | 1 | 15 A | Kitchen lighting is kept off the small-appliance circuits so a tripped breaker does not leave you in the dark. |
Take this schedule to your electrician and ask which of these already exist, which can be reused, and which are new home runs. The answer to that question drives the electrical price.
What an hour of this work is worth, and why the quotes differ
This page derives scope rather than price, because the price of a circuit is set by your local market and the scope is set by your kitchen. The part of it this site takes from a federal source is what the person pulling the wire is paid; the BLS table cell it comes from is below.
Hourly median wage, Electricians (SOC 47-2111), all industries, United States — series OEUN000000000000047211108, year 2025, period A01 ("Annual"), value 30.38 in the API response
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (national, 2025 annual) — BLS public API, series OEUN000000000000047211108; original retrieval recorded 2026-08-06; that copy was not retained; checked against our saved copy of 2026-10-05.
What it means for your kitchen That is a wage paid to an electrician, not a rate charged to you: the gap between the two covers payroll tax, insurance, the van, the licence, the unbillable hours and the profit, and on the labour page it is an editable multiplier of ours rather than anything the agency published.
Why electrical quotes can differ widely
Of the six trades in this site’s wage table, electricians have the widest pay spread — 69.9% from the twenty-fifth percentile to the seventy-fifth, nationally, in 2025. Two electrical quotes for the identical circuit schedule above can therefore differ substantially without either bidder being unreasonable; the useful question is how many circuits are new home runs rather than why one number is bigger.
What the wage series says nothing about
It covers the person, not the parts and not the paperwork. A panel, breakers, AFCI and GFCI devices, wire, boxes and a permit are all priced separately, and in a kitchen with a service upgrade the utility appears on the invoice as well, at a figure the electrician does not set. When an electrical quote surprises you, check that list as well as the hourly rate.
It also says nothing about how long any of this takes, which is the other half of a labour number. The hours behind a circuit are our own estimate and are disclosed as one:
When the panel becomes the project
Spaces as well as amps
A service upgrade is not only about amps: a panel can also run out of physical breaker spaces, and a kitchen can add several at once — this page’s own example needs 10. Tandem breakers recover some spaces in panels that permit them; a subpanel recovers more; a full replacement brings the utility into the schedule.
Older panels
Some older panels may not have replacement breakers available; have the brand identified before you plan around it. If your panel is one of them, that is a house cost the kitchen happened to uncover, and it belongs in the schedule before rough-in rather than discovered during it.
The utility is on the critical path
A service upgrade needs a utility appointment for the disconnect and reconnect, booked on the utility’s calendar rather than your contractor’s. Ask your utility for its lead time when the decision is made.
Sources for this page
Three national wage series for electricians (25th percentile, median, 75th percentile). Nothing on this page cites a code provision. Receptacle spacing, counter-circuit count, island receptacles and lighting circuits are controls you set; which appliances get a dedicated circuit, and the breaker ratings shown, are fixed assumptions of ours, listed above. The methodology page lists the rules.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (national, 2025 annual)Median hourly wage, electricians — the midpoint of the band quoted above.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (national, 2025 annual)Twenty-fifth percentile hourly wage, electricians — the bottom of the spread cited in this section.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (national, 2025 annual)Seventy-fifth percentile hourly wage, electricians — the top of that spread.