The electrical decisions that make or break an ADU budget
ADUs are one of the biggest construction markets in Los Angeles right now, and the electrical scope is where budgets quietly blow up. The main service question decides most of it.
Garage conversions
The most common ADU in the Valley. The existing garage circuit is nowhere near enough, so the real work is a properly sized subpanel fed from the main house, new circuits for kitchen and laundry loads, and bringing the space to current code: receptacle spacing, AFCI and GFCI protection, and hardwired smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.
New build ADUs
Full rough-in and trim-out like any new construction, plus the coordination questions: trenching for the feeder, whether the run supports the panel the unit needs, and metering.
The load calculation comes first
Whether your existing service can carry the ADU is a math question, and I answer it before you commit to a design. An older 100 amp main service often cannot carry a second dwelling with electric cooking, laundry, mini splits, and an EV charger. Sometimes load management solves it. Sometimes the honest answer is a main service upgrade, and you want that number in the project budget on day one, not discovered at rough inspection.
I wire ADUs from plans for owner builders and for GCs, and I coordinate the inspections so the schedule holds.