On this page 3 sections
Common-area electrical: hallways, stairs, laundry — house load, not inside someone’s door
Common-area electrical is house load: corridors, stairs, laundry, entries, and the mechanical rooms. Reliability matters more than finish. A failed house circuit takes every floor with it.
Inside a unit
An occupied apartment is apartment electrical repair.
The lot or the carports
Parking on a multifamily property is multifamily parking lighting.
The meter stack
Sockets the utility reads are meter banks.
Common-area electrical: house-metered, owned by no tenant, and usually running on last decade’s controls
Common-area load lives on the house meter and belongs to no unit, which is exactly why it gets neglected. Corridor and exterior lighting, laundry, and the site loads run on timers and photocells nobody has touched in years.
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On the house meter
Corridors, stairs, laundry, and site lighting are billed to the property, not a tenant — so their circuits and controls are the owner’s to keep current.
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Controls that drifted
A photocell stuck on, a time clock never reset after a power blip, or exterior heads half-dead are the common findings — cheap to fix, expensive to ignore on a utility bill.
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Site loads count too
Gate operators, elevator-lobby power, and pool or laundry equipment are common-area electrical even when they sit outside the building.
When common-area electrical isn’t the right job
House load that is not inside a unit is this job. Inside a unit, or assigned parking lighting, are not.
The fault is inside an occupied apartment
That is apartment electrical repair.
The lot or the carports are dark
That is multifamily parking lighting.
Common-area electrical questions
A tenant says their apartment is dark.
If it is inside their door, that is apartment electrical repair. If the hall and the stairs went with it, this is house load.
The laundry room is on a unit breaker.
Then someone crossed the line. House load does not live on a tenant’s circuit. We put it back on the house panel.
The parking lot is the complaint.
Carports and lots are multifamily parking lighting. This job stops at the building.
The utility flagged the stack.
Meter sockets are meter banks. This job is halls, stairs, laundry, and the house panel.
Still not sure it is the right job? Call (279) 972-9272 — available 24 hours.
Serving 19 communities across the Sacramento area
Litel Electric serves businesses throughout all 19 communities in our service area — from Davis and Woodland to Roseville, Folsom, and Elk Grove.
Get estimate
Tell us what is happening, or what you are planning. We read the details, tell you what else we need to know, and explain the next step before anything is scheduled.
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You send the problem or the plan, with the address if you have it.
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We reply with what it involves and what has to be seen in person.
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Nothing is scheduled, and nothing is priced, until the equipment has been looked at.
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- License
- CSLB #1115460 · C-10 electrical