California Power & Light

Jeff P.

I should preface this with the fact that I have not received service from them, but they're Yelp presence and correspondence needs some work.

If a merchant uses the ""request quote"" button, then they should sincerely put forth an effort to actually contact the customers when it's used.

It's very annoying for customers to use the button and then get a canned response to call in to their office M-F during regular business hours for help or assistance. Take the button down if you're not going to use it sincerely and ethically, otherwise I feel you're not advertising in good faith.

Brett B.

We had an absolutely awesome experience with Henry and his crew. They replaced our electric panel, and installed several can lights. They were at our house during a rain storm (what are the chances) and each of the crew members took off their shoes outside to keep our house clean. They did a great cleanup. Also, they came back this past weekend to do the labeling of the panel because they couldn't get it done during their full day at our house. Henry is also very responsive to text messages and was great about keeping in touch with my wife throughout the process. Highly recommend them.

Ed W.

One word: outstanding!
I originally contracted with Henry through Emberwest to install an electrical outlet flush mounted in the fireplace to accept a gas system that requires power. His crew did an excellent job and during that work noticed I had a Zinsco electrical panel. He mentioned concerns regarding Zinsco panels and encouraged me to research it on-line. Sure enough, those panels installed decades ago had fire hazard issues and would be stupid to ignore and take a chance to not remedy the situation.
I decided to have the electrical panel replaced and upgraded to 200 amps.
Henry and Mike did a fantastic job with the replacement and upgrade. They arrived promptly as scheduled and completed the job along with the PG&E inspection, all in the same day. I had power by late afternoon and was back in business. Also kudos to Raul for his excellent stucco repair required after the electrical panel was installed.
I cannot more highly recommend Henry and his staff. They are professional, knowledgeable, and very polite. Thank you Henry!

Vinith M.

If you want to both solve your house's electrical problems and understand what's going on, Henry's your guy.

We were having a number of electrical difficulties with our recently purchased home: random outlets were out, grounds were missing, and plumbing was electrified (and shocking us!). In hindsight, this was probably the worse possible scenario you could present to an electrician, and it speaks volumes that Henry knocked it out as rapidly as he did.

We contacted a number of (5-star + many-reviewed on yelp!) electricians for troubleshooting and quotes, and came across two problematic types:
- Some were unable to even replicate the problem until we pulled out our own multimeter and started troubleshooting for them --- they seemed out of their depth on anything outside the routine. Not exactly a confidence booster!
- Some would tell us the problem was ""black and white"" and promise to solve it with some sort of hacky quick fix, before having even examined the electrical system in detail. In hindsight, these quick fixes would have kept us shrouded in ignorance about the messed up wiring in our walls, and would likely have made future electrical problems even harder to fix. Our current problems were in fact caused by the accumulation of many of these ""hacks."" (surprisingly, the quotes we received for these hacks weren't significantly cheaper than Henry)

Most importantly, no one we talked to was able to competently describe what was wrong in our house, or how exactly they planned to fix it.

At our wits end, we called Henry. Here is what happened:
1. He informed us up front what the pricing would look like for coming out and for troubleshooting. These numbers never changed, even as the complexity of the problem grew and even as he had to come back the next day to finish the job.
2. He showed up, and immediately went about attempting to rule out obvious problems (e.g. does the house have a solid ground, etc.), and on his own quickly replicated the problem we had observed.
3. Once he had an idea of what the troubleshooting would entail, he clearly described what it would and would not involve (although he ended up throwing in a bit of the latter anyways) and began in earnest.
4. This is the big one. Henry invited me to follow him around *everywhere* and explained exactly what he was doing at each step. I learned a tremendous amount about how our house was wired, how (and why) houses are supposed to be wired, and where handyman-types had messed with the original wiring of our house. The service price was worth the information download alone.
5. In the process, he uncovered a number of other problems with our wiring and laid them out to us. This stuff doesn't sound serious until it results in someone in your family getting electrocuted in the shower (not fun, I can tell you).
6. Another big one: after fixing the problem, Henry could have easily packed up, pocketed our cash, and gone home. Instead, he asked me to go through the house and verify that nothing else had been messed up by his fix. It turns out something *had*: several outlets and a major light in the house were inexplicably no longer working. Henry tried for multiple hours to fix it, but had to go home and promised to come back the next day to finish the job.
7. As promised, he returned the next morning, crawled into the attic, and quickly discovered that the culprit was some hackjob electrical work from the previous owners that was rerouting power in seriously problematic ways.
8. Finally, he sat down with us and described the various ancillary problems he'd observed throughout the house and what it would take to fix them.

Mike S.

My previous electrician retired and I needed to find a new one to do some work.
Henry and his assistant replaced some worn out ceiling light fixtures with new LED fixtures.
They also installed a new outlet outdoors.
The work was completed quickly and efficiently. They were very careful and cleaned up nicely when finished. Henry is very straightforward and easy to deal with. No bullshit, all business.
I thought the price for the work was very reasonable, and much less than another quote I had.
I definitely will call Henry next time I need electrical work.

J S.

I have an older home, older electrical panel, and I wanted to upgrade it. I first called another Yelp top-rated electrical company for an estimate. They sent out a sales pitch rep that insisted on telling me how good the company is, showing me company brochures, yes we charge more than others, it's worth it, etc, and then revealed the cost would be shockingly (to me) high. I didn't like it.
I then called California Power and Light and spoke over the phone with the owner, Henry. He asked a few questions about my home then provided an immediate price that was literally half of what the other company quoted. Henry further disclosed that changing the electrical panel would involve cutting into the stucco wall. A city permit is also required. He said I could save some money by getting the permit myself and/or shopping around for a stucco repair service on my own. I preferred to let Henry take care of both of those issues. The out the door price was still good, far below the other company, and acceptable. In the end I was very satisfied. His work crew did well, they finished in about 6 hours, Henry came out and did the final electrical connections and hookups. The City of San Jose inspector approved the job the first time around. A stucco worker came out a few days later and did an equally good job in fixing the open areas around the new panel. I only need to re-paint the affected area.
All in all, I ended up very pleased and I would use this company again.

Katherine H.

These folks are responsive and knowledgeable in their profession!! I would hire them again if needed.

Steve C.

Henry was able to work to fit my schedule for upgrading my service panel to 200A earlier this summer. He was willing to give a quote remotely when I was shopping around and stuck to it.
Henry and his crew were friendly and finished things on time. Along with the service upgrade, they added a couple new branches including one into an overhead garage storage space which was more difficult to run. They handled all permits and found a stucco tradesman who did a good job restoring and matching the existing stucco style. Several months later now, everything is still good.

Overall, responsive with reasonable rates and a clean install.

angela b.

California power & light was recommended to us when we had our gas fireplace installed. At the time, he not only installed the fireplace but put in two new lights for us to complete the job. More recently, when our kitchen lights (installed by previous home owner) started going out one by one, I called the fireplace company to get Henry's number! He was able to have a technician out and worked with him to replace our old lights and all the old housing, all in the same day. Super quick, super responsive, super friendly and trust worthy. All around great guys and company--would highly recommend them for your electrical & lighting needs.

Erin A.

Henry was fast, considerate, and very knowledgeable. He even took his shoes off on our carpet which I appreciated! Will definitely use him again. Love using a family business instead of a big corporation.