Electrician in Tigard, OR — Built for 1970s Homes

Roughly half of the houses here date from 1960–89 and began on a 100-amp service, which is now being asked to carry a heat pump or a car.

Tigard is really two towns by age. Between 1960 and 1989 it built nearly half of its 23,877 homes, 4,919 of them in the 1970s alone. Most of those went up on a first-generation 100-amp service, and the ones completed from 1965 to 1973 date from the stretch when aluminum branch circuits were used. Knob-and-tube is rare: about 358 homes, 1.5%, are older than 1940. I-5 runs along the east edge of the city and Hwy 217 through the middle.

Almost as many, 46.5%, went up in 1990 or later. Their wiring is modern. Their panels are another story: one sized in 1996 rarely has space for both a heat pump and a charger in the garage.