That will be a major undertaking and very expensive. In addition to the service change, every circuit has to be extended to the new panel.

A much easier and more economical solution is to frame around the panel, allowing plenty of working space, and put a child-proof door over it. Even easier: hang a (removable) picture or poster over it.

Thanks. I agree. The whole house will need to be re-wired (it is a 1950s home). We are willing to do that so will need to factor everything into the cost, including relocating the meter, mast, and main panel.

When you say "very expensive", what is your sense of the cost?

There are too many factors (with location being a big one) to even hazard a guess. Better to call around and get some local quotes.

Is this your house or just one that you are thinking of buying?

Yes, definitely will need to get some quotes. My rough estimate is $15-20K for a 1700sf ranch (although I do not know enough about the cost of the meter/panel/extensions). It is for a home we are living.

Have you considered other options?, such as using a different room for the child? I wouldn't put a child in a room with an electric panel; reason: children become inquisitive teenagers. I know, I was one!

Unfortunately no other options. Beside the inquisitiveness of kids, my wife is concerned -rightly or wrongly - about possible EMI issues with the electrical line being so close and the electrical panel actually being in the room. In the past, the room was used as a business office.

There's nothing to fear from the low-frequency, non-ionizing, mostly-cancelled fields produced by 60 Hz AC. But I'm not going there any more. My previous excursions into that territory haven't exactly been nice sunny Mediterranean vacations.

So I guess you're going to be doing what amounts to a brand new electrical installation like you'd get for a brand new house, all up to current code, except that the walls and ceilings aren't open, and old wiring and devices are in the way. That makes for a lot more work. The electrician has to cut out the old receptacle and switch boxes, decommission the old wiring, and fish all the new cable.

Call a few local contractors and tell them what you've told us.

Good luck.

If it were me, I'd install a lock on the breaker box and call it good. If you want to do a little more, install a picture to hide the box. Further, unless this child is incredibly young and doesn't understand consequences, you should be also able to explain that he should not mess around with this. If there are no open breaker slots in the panel, I don't see how a kid could do anything other than flip a breaker, unless he's really good with a screwdriver. And if that's the case, you've got a whole lot of other things to worry about.

The idea of re-wiring a house and moving the panel, meter, and mast because there is a breaker panel in a kid's room is, to me, incredible overkill. With the money you would spend on this, you could probably build an additional bedroom for the kid instead.

Assuming you have just the main panel, all of the wires in the house are connected to that panel, including typical 220v loads such as stove, dryer and air conditioner. The typical method for installing a new main panel is to leave the old panel in place and backfeed it from the new main. Since you do not want the old panel in the room, all of the runs for the house will have to go to the new main panel, including the 220v lines. You would probably have to bring everything up to current code. The cost will depend on the type of house you have and access to existing wiring. A dirty and disruptive process. You asked for a number. A WAG starts at $8,000.