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Electrical Panel Surge Protection
Interlocks and transfer switches are what make a generator legal and safe. Missouri storm season decides this one. A generator earns its cost in the week the neighborhood is dark.
Electrical Panel Surge Protection in O’Fallon and across St. Charles, St. Louis, Lincoln and Warren counties.
One electrician, start to finish. Seventeen years in the trade and four running his own shop out of O’Fallon.
5.0 from 94 Google reviews · BBB A+ since 2022
What this work actually involves
The transfer switch is installed so the generator can never back-feed the utility, which is the part that protects line workers.
A number follows a measurement here, never a guess. You get told what the reading was and what it means before any work is agreed, including on the days when the answer is one loose connection.
Permitted and inspected where the address requires it, labeled at the panel, and done by the person who diagnosed it rather than handed down a chain.
When people call about this
- Outages more than once a year
- A well pump the house depends on
- A sump pump and a finished basement
- Portable generator cords through a window
Why people choose Clint for it
There is no dispatcher taking a description for someone else to act on, and no commission riding on what the visit totals. The person who measures it is the person who fixes it.
Seventeen years in the trade and four running Infinity Electric out of O’Fallon, with 5.0 from 94 Google reviews and BBB accreditation since 2022.
Where this is done
O’Fallon and the surrounding St. Charles County suburbs, out through St. Louis County and St. Louis City, and into Lincoln and Warren counties. Roughly a fifty mile radius.
See the full service area, or the rest of our backup power work.
Surge protection that actually works
Whole-home surge protection installs at the panel, where it can clamp what arrives on the service conductors. A power strip protects one device from what is already inside the house.
Both have a place. Layered protection, panel plus point-of-use for sensitive electronics, is what survives a Missouri storm season intact.
The transfer arrangement is the safety-critical part
Whatever the source, the transfer has to make feeding the utility physically impossible. That is a transfer switch or a listed interlock, and it is what protects the crews working to restore your street.
A cord into a dryer outlet does not do that, and it is the single most dangerous thing homeowners improvise during an outage.
Panels: full, overloaded, or obsolete
Three different problems get called the same thing. A full panel has no space left but adequate service. An overloaded service cannot carry the house. An obsolete panel has a known defect or no available parts. Each has a different and very differently priced answer.
The load calculation and a look at the bus with the cover off decide which one you have. A sub-panel solves the first for a fraction of the third.
Why the diagnosis comes before the quote
A symptom has several possible causes with very different prices, and the only thing that separates them is a measurement. Quoting the expensive one covers the risk; quoting the cheap one and finding the expensive one mid-job is worse.
So the reading happens first, you are told what it says, and then the work is scoped to it. Where the honest answer is the small repair, that is the answer you get, even when the larger job pays better.
What makes this harder in older housing stock
Across this metro the recurring complications are predictable: no equipment ground, aluminum branch wiring from the mid-seventies, knob-and-tube buried in blown-in insulation, panels that have been added to several times, and splices in places the code has not allowed for decades.
Those turn a simple job into a decision about scope. The decision gets put to you with the reading behind it rather than made quietly and billed.
“Clint came out installed me a large 200 amp panel put some new dedicated lines in my basement and garage he did great clean work all inspections passed he was thorough and knowledgeable. I will have him back out again.”
Jason Holtzman · Google review
How the visit goes
- The call
What you need to keep running and how often the power goes out where you are.
- The measurement
The loads you named, added up honestly, and the panel’s capacity to feed a transfer switch or interlock.
- The finding
A size and a configuration, with the cost difference between keeping the essentials on and running the whole house made plain.
- The work
Unit sited, circuit run, transfer switch or interlock installed so back-feeding is impossible, inspected, then a walkthrough of starting and transferring with you present.
What the job includes
- Load selection: what has to run, what can wait
- Generator or inlet sized to the chosen loads
- Transfer switch or interlock so back-feeding is impossible
- Pad or mounting, and the circuit to it
- Permit and inspection where required
- A walkthrough of starting and transferring, in person
What it does not
- Gas piping, which is the plumber’s trade
- Concrete pads beyond a prefabricated base
- Generator servicing contracts
If the fix belongs to another trade, you get the name of one rather than a price from this one. Finished work is in the gallery. To book, pick a day.
Related backup power work
Electrical Panel Surge Protection across the metro
The same job is not the same job in every part of this metro. Same trade across five jurisdictions out of O’Fallon, with a different inspection process in each.
Lincoln County
Lincoln County is rural service: longer drops, well pumps and septic loads that city panels never carry, and outages that make backup power a practical purchase rather than a luxury.
Warren County
It is the far end of a roughly fifty mile radius, so visits get grouped rather than squeezed in. That affects the date, not the price.
St. Charles County
The subdivisions here were wired correctly for what houses drew at the time. A charger, a heat pump and a finished lower level later, the arithmetic no longer works out.
See which towns fall inside the radius on the service areas page.
Questions worth asking first.
Is a transfer switch required?
Yes, for any permanent standby system. It stops the generator back-feeding the utility, which is what protects the line workers restoring your street.
Can I use a generator cord into a dryer outlet?
No. That back-feeds the utility and endangers the crews working your line. A transfer switch or a listed interlock is what makes that physically impossible.
Battery or generator?
A battery is silent and instant for a limited number of hours; a generator runs as long as it has fuel. How long your power usually stays out decides it.
What do your reviews say?
5.0 from 94 Google reviews, and A+ accreditation with the BBB held since 2022. The reviews are on the reviews page with links to where each was posted.
Who actually shows up?
Clint Ehman. Infinity Electric is owner-operated, so the person who answers the phone is the person who measures your panel and pulls the permit. There is no dispatcher and no commissioned salesman.
Describe the symptom, not the diagnosis.
That is usually enough to say what the visit involves before anyone is booked. Electrical Panel Surge Protection in O’Fallon and across the metro.
Mon-Thu 8-5 · Fri 8-4 · Sat 10-3. A written note works too.