If this is just a stand-alone house changing out the service (service entrance cable, meter socket, main panel) should not cost anywhere near $3500. Parts should be around $750 and labor about the same... unless there is something out of the ordinary about your set-up.

There will be very little cost different between 200 and 150 A service. The meter socket, main panel and cable will be may be $100 difference... label is all the same. No question I would go with 200A service. Even if you don't need 200A service based on your loads, you will have a larger panel with more breaker slots and more flexibility.

Pulling new wire depends on the size of the house and type of construction (i.e. time and complexity). $3000 sounds pretty good.

Jeff

pebbles, my redo of 1899 60 amp was about $4000.00 I went from 60 to 200 amp. After adding heatpump and other stuff my CB is full. I did have all runs done at 20 amp and 12 or larger wire. My best advice is "go big or go home"! You won't regret over sizing.

In many parts of the country a 200A service is between 1500 and 2K, but since you are in Chicago all bets are off. On the other hand, 3K for pulling in new circuits would be cheap in most places, except if you are in Chicago everything is in pipe, so it's just a matter of pulling in fresh wire. Are you getting any additions to the existing system?

First, thanks so much for the replies this is a huge help.

The only additions to the existing system will be outlets and recessed lighting, otherwise it should be fine, all nominal stuff for the most part that has pretty low draw. No new A/C or Heating stuff which is the big stuff, mostly just correcting the mess that they have made.

You would die there is an extension cord that they drilled a hole THROUGH the brick exterior to add a light and the plug is for an outlet in the laundry room. The homeowner was SO proud of himself. I wanted to fall over and die. There was 8 gauge wire in the box, just a disaster. I'll post a pic so you all can see the state of disarray.

The quote on dropping the new service was from my RE agent, but her guy in my experience has always been very expensive for other things, so I'm glad to hear that he was also pretty high on that.

I think this is all just pretty daunting, we've done a lot of electric doing cans, swapping outlets, light fixtures, but this was SO scary, just makes me wonder if we could expose this - what is there that we cannot catch during the inspection.

There may well be a/c in the future, or for resale value, definitely go the 200 amp. I have 100 amp in my 26 year old house which is considered a minimum, but here in 110 volt land I wonder if 100 amp is even adequate.

All - here's the picture. It seems like this 3k price is basically as good as it gets to drop 200amp service. Here's a pic in case you're intersted.

Thanks so much for your advice, it was quite helpful.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Breaker Box