Choosing the Right Panel Size for Naples Homes | CoHarbor Electric

The question comes up constantly. Someone’s planning a pool, or they just bought their first EV, or they’re adding a guest suite and the contractor mentioned something about the panel — and now they’re trying to figure out whether they need a bigger one. What size? Does it really matter? Isn’t 100 amps enough?

Short answer: for most Naples homes in 2025, no, 100 amps is not enough. But the longer answer is more useful, because panel sizing isn’t one-size-fits-all and the right choice depends on the house, how it’s used, and what the owners plan to do with it. Getting this wrong — either undersizing and having to come back in two years, or oversizing in ways that don’t make practical sense — costs money. It’s worth understanding how the decision actually gets made.

Why Naples Homes Have Specific Sizing Needs

Naples isn’t a generic Florida market. The housing stock here ranges from older concrete block homes in Naples Park and Golden Gate built in the ’60s and ’70s, to sprawling luxury properties in Port Royal and Aqualane Shores, to newer construction in Lely Resort, Fiddler’s Creek, and the developments coming up along Collier Boulevard. The electrical needs across that range are dramatically different.

But there are some things that are pretty consistent across the Naples market. The climate means air conditioning runs hard, and often. A lot of homes have pools — both older homes that added them and newer construction where the pool came with the house. Outdoor living spaces with real electrical loads are standard in this market, not an add-on. And in the last few years, EV adoption has picked up noticeably, particularly in the higher-end neighborhoods.

All of that adds up. The baseline electrical load in a typical Naples home today is meaningfully higher than it was when a lot of these houses were built — and when the panel was installed.

What the Numbers Mean

100-Amp Service

A hundred amps was the standard for residential construction for decades. It’s still technically sufficient for a small, simply-equipped home. But in practice, a 100-amp panel in a Naples home today is usually either already stressed or one project away from being inadequate.

To give a sense of what 100 amps has to cover: a central AC system can draw 15 to 30 amps depending on size. An electric water heater pulls around 18 to 25 amps. A dryer typically needs 24 to 30 amps. Add in the kitchen circuits, the lighting, the outlets, the refrigerator, and whatever else is in the house — you’re using a substantial chunk of 100 amps before anyone plugs in anything unusual. There’s not a lot of headroom.

For a Naples home with a pool, an EV charger, a large AC system, and a full kitchen, 100-amp service isn’t undersized in theory — it’s undersized in fact.

150-Amp Service

Some homes, particularly those built or rewired in the ’90s and early 2000s, came in at 150 amps. That’s a step up and it’s workable for a lot of situations. A 150-amp panel with adequate circuit spaces can handle a moderate Naples home reasonably well if you’re not stacking on major new loads.

Where 150 amps starts to run short is when you’re adding a pool heat pump, a Level 2 EV charger, and a home addition all at once. Any one of those might be fine. All three together, on a 150-amp service that’s already carrying a full household load, is a load calculation conversation.

200-Amp Service

Two hundred amps is the standard recommendation for new construction and service upgrades in Collier County today, and for good reason. It provides enough headroom to handle a modern Naples home’s baseline load plus the major additions people commonly make — pool equipment, EV charging, outdoor kitchens, generator connections — without running out of capacity.

Most licensed electricians doing honest work in this market are going to recommend 200-amp service for any home that doesn’t already have it. Not because it’s an upsell, but because it’s genuinely what makes sense for how people use their homes here.

400-Amp Service

This comes up occasionally for larger Naples properties — estate homes in Port Royal or Pelican Bay, properties with a detached guest house or significant outbuildings, homes with multiple large AC systems, full home automation, extensive landscape lighting, and so on. Four hundred amps is essentially two 200-amp services run in parallel. It’s not common in typical residential settings, but for the higher end of the Naples market, it’s a real consideration. We’ve done this work on properties where the load calculation simply pointed there.

The Load Calculation Is What Actually Decides It

Here’s the thing that gets skipped over in a lot of online information about panel sizing: it’s not about picking a number that sounds right. There’s a methodology — NEC Article 220 — that determines what service size a home actually needs based on its square footage, the type of loads present, and what’s being added.

The calculation accounts for general lighting and outlet loads based on square footage, the fixed appliance loads (AC, water heater, dryer, range or cooktop), and any special loads being added. It produces a minimum service size requirement. A licensed electrician doing this properly runs the numbers, not just the eyeball test.

What the load calculation often confirms for Naples homes is that the existing service is undersized — sometimes significantly — relative to what’s actually in the house. We’ve done calculations on homes that had been on 100-amp service for thirty years where the actual calculated load was already pushing 150 amps without adding anything new.

How Specific Projects Affect the Decision

Pools and Pool Equipment

A basic pool pump circuit needs a dedicated 20-amp, 240-volt circuit. Add a pool heat pump — which is common in Naples for the months when the Gulf water is cooler — and you’re looking at a load that can pull 30 to 50 amps on its own. A pool heater, automation controller, spa equipment, pool lighting — these add up to multiple dedicated circuits.

For a home that doesn’t have a pool yet but is planning to add one, this is a critical time to look at the panel. We’ve seen homeowners get partway through a pool project only to find out the panel needs to be upgraded first, which delays the timeline and adds unplanned cost. Better to know going in.

EV Charging

A Level 2 home EV charger — the kind that actually charges your car overnight rather than taking three days — needs a dedicated 240-volt, 50-amp circuit. That circuit needs a breaker space in the panel and the panel needs the capacity to support the additional load.

For a newer Naples home already on 200-amp service with available spaces, this is usually straightforward. For an older home on 100-amp service with a crowded panel, adding an EV charger often triggers the panel upgrade conversation. The charger itself is the visible project, but the panel is what makes it possible.

One thing worth planning for: if you own one EV now but think you might have two in a few years, factor that into the panel sizing now. Adding a second 50-amp EV circuit later is a lot simpler if the panel already has the capacity and the spaces.

Home Additions and ADUs

New square footage means new circuits — typically lighting circuits, outlet circuits, and usually a dedicated circuit for a mini-split AC unit. A 400-to-600 square foot guest suite or casita might need five to eight new circuits. A full ADU could need twelve or more.

When we pull a permit for an addition in Collier County, the electrical review looks at whether the existing service is adequate for the total load including the addition. If it’s not, the upgrade is part of the scope before the addition gets signed off. Getting an electrician involved at the early planning stage means this gets discovered and priced before it’s a mid-project surprise.

Whole-Home Generators

Standby generators — the kind that kick on automatically when the power goes out and run on natural gas or propane — have become a lot more common in Naples after recent storm seasons. A generator needs a transfer switch and a service-side connection sized for the generator’s output.

A 22-kilowatt whole-home generator on a 100-amp service is a mismatch. The generator is sized to power a modern home, but the service entrance and panel are a bottleneck. If generator capability is on the list, the panel sizing conversation needs to include it.

Circuit Count Matters as Much as Amperage

Here’s something that doesn’t get talked about enough: amperage capacity and circuit space aren’t the same thing. You can have a 200-amp panel with only 20 circuit spaces, and if those spaces are full, you can’t add circuits regardless of whether there’s amperage headroom.

Older panels sometimes show up this way — they were upgraded in amperage at some point but the physical panel is small. In those cases, even if the amperage is adequate, the panel may need to be replaced with a larger unit to accommodate the circuit count a project requires.

When we size a replacement panel, we’re looking at both the service amperage and the number of spaces. For most Naples homes, a 40-space or larger 200-amp panel is the right choice — enough spaces to handle everything that’s there now plus what’s reasonably likely to be added.

Older Homes in Naples: A Specific Conversation

Homes in Naples Park, Golden Gate, and the older established neighborhoods that got built out through the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s often have electrical systems that have been patched and added to over decades. Some have had partial upgrades — the panel was swapped at some point but the service entrance wasn’t, or a sub-panel was added as a workaround when the main panel filled up.

These homes benefit most from a clean, comprehensive service upgrade: new panel, new service entrance conductors, everything properly sized and permitted. The piecemeal approach works in the short term, but it tends to create a situation where each subsequent project requires another workaround.

We look at the whole picture when we’re on site. Sometimes a homeowner comes in asking about a specific circuit and we find a situation that warrants a broader conversation. We’d rather tell someone what they’re actually dealing with than do a small job and leave the underlying issue for the next electrician to find.

Talk to Coharbor Electric Before You Commit to a Panel Size

Panel sizing sounds simple from a distance and gets more complicated the closer you get. The right answer depends on what’s in the house, what’s planned for it, and what a load calculation actually shows — not a number that sounds reasonable.

Coharbor Electric works throughout Naples and Collier County, including Marco Island, Bonita Springs, Estero, and the surrounding Southwest Florida area. We do panel assessments, load calculations, service upgrades, and the full scope of residential electrical work that goes along with them. Licensed, permitted through Collier County, and coordinated with LCEC from start to finish.

Reach out through our website or give us a call. We’ll come out, look at what you’ve got, run the numbers, and give you a straight recommendation.