What if your electrical panel could think? SPAN doesn’t just distribute power — it manages it. And for Ontario homeowners adding EVs, solar, heat pumps, or battery backup, it changes everything.
Your Electrical Panel Is 50 Years Behind the Rest of Your Home
Your thermostat is smart. Your locks are smart. Your lights respond to your voice. And your electrical panel? It’s a metal box full of switches that hasn’t meaningfully changed since the 1970s.
That’s not just an aesthetic problem. As homes add EV chargers, heat pumps, battery storage, and induction ranges, that dumb panel becomes a hard limit. Everything fights for the same fixed capacity. Something has to give — usually, it’s your wallet, paying for a service upgrade you may not actually need.
SPAN is the first residential electrical panel designed for the way homes actually use electricity today. It replaces your existing breaker box entirely, and it brings intelligence to every single circuit.
What Is the SPAN Panel, Exactly?
SPAN is a 200A smart electrical panel — a full replacement for your traditional breaker box. Physically it looks different: a sleek, wall-mounted unit with a built-in touchscreen. But the real difference is inside.
Every circuit in a SPAN panel has three things a traditional breaker doesn’t:
- Real-time energy monitoring — you see exactly how much power each circuit is drawing, live, updated every second
- Remote control — you can turn any circuit on or off from the SPAN app, from anywhere
- Automated load management — the panel can intelligently prioritize or shed loads automatically based on rules you set
The result is a panel that doesn’t just deliver power — it manages it.
The Features That Actually Matter
Every Circuit, Visible and Controllable
Open the SPAN app and you see your entire home’s electrical load — in real time, broken down by circuit. Refrigerator: 4A. EV charger: 40A. Heat pump: 18A. Dryer: 22A. No guessing, no whole-home average — individual circuit visibility.
That same app lets you control each circuit remotely. Forgot to turn something off before vacation? Done from your phone. Want to cut power to the TV at bedtime? Set a schedule. Breaker keeps tripping on one circuit? Identify it in seconds.
Intelligent Load Management — Without Upgrading Your Service
This is SPAN’s most powerful feature for most households. Through its built-in energy management system, SPAN monitors total consumption and dynamically manages large loads — EV charger, heat pump, water heater — to keep the home within its service capacity.
In practice: if your house is running at near-capacity and your EV is plugged in, SPAN automatically reduces EV charging current. When demand drops, it ramps back up. Your car still charges overnight. Your panel never exceeds its rated capacity. And you never needed to upgrade from 100A to 200A just to make it work.
SPAN is UL 3141 certified — the highest Power Control System safety standard in North America — and the first smart panel to achieve this certification. Under the 2026 National Electrical Code, UL 3141 certification is a requirement for panels used in this load management capacity. SPAN meets it. Most alternatives don’t.
Solar and Battery Integration
If you have (or plan to have) solar panels and battery storage — Powerwall, Franklin WH, Enphase IQ, or others — SPAN acts as the coordination layer between them.
During a grid outage, SPAN can automatically prioritize which circuits receive backup power from your battery. Want the refrigerator, a few lights, and the EV charger to stay live? Set it once, and SPAN handles the rest automatically when the grid drops.
During normal operation, SPAN can shift heavy loads to times when your solar is producing peak power, reducing what you pull from the grid and maximizing your solar ROI.
Time-of-Use Rate Optimization
Ontario hydro rates vary by time of day. SPAN can automatically schedule large loads — EV charging, water heating, laundry — during off-peak windows, reducing your electricity bill without any behaviour change on your part.
SPAN vs. a Traditional Panel Upgrade: The Real Comparison
| Traditional 200A Upgrade | SPAN Smart Panel | |
|---|---|---|
| Circuit-level monitoring | ✗ | ✓ |
| Remote circuit control | ✗ | ✓ |
| Dynamic EV load management | ✗ | ✓ |
| Battery integration | ✗ | ✓ |
| Solar optimization | ✗ | ✓ |
| TOU rate scheduling | ✗ | ✓ |
| NEC 2026 UL 3141 certified | ✗ | ✓ |
| App control | ✗ | ✓ |
| Warranty | Varies | 10 years |
A traditional panel upgrade gives you more breaker slots. SPAN gives you more breaker slots plus everything above.
Who Needs a SPAN Panel?
SPAN makes the most sense for homeowners who are doing more than one thing at once. If you’re adding just an EV charger to a 200A panel with room to spare, a simpler solution may be the right call — and KiloWire will tell you that honestly.
But if any of the following describes your situation, SPAN deserves serious consideration:
- Adding an EV charger to a 100A panel with other large loads already present
- Going solar and wanting to maximize self-consumption
- Adding battery backup (Powerwall, Franklin, etc.) and needing intelligent backup prioritization
- Electrifying your home — heat pump, heat pump water heater, induction range — and worried about capacity
- Planning for two EVs now or in the next few years
- Interested in energy cost optimization through time-of-use scheduling
What Does SPAN Actually Cost?
Hardware: approximately $3,500–$5,000 CAD for the SPAN panel itself.
Total installed cost (panel + labour + permitting): typically $5,500–$9,000 CAD depending on your existing setup and what’s being connected.
That’s more than a standard panel swap. But a standard panel swap doesn’t give you any of the above. The comparison isn’t “SPAN vs. panel upgrade” — it’s “SPAN vs. panel upgrade plus load controller plus separate energy monitoring plus separate battery integration hardware.” When you add those up, SPAN frequently wins on total cost, and always wins on capability.
Why Installation Has to Be Done Right
SPAN is not a product you can buy at a hardware store and install yourself. It requires:
- A licensed electrician — SPAN panels involve work at the service entrance, the highest-stakes point in your home’s electrical system
- A SPAN-certified installer who has completed SPAN’s product training program — not all electricians qualify
- Proper permitting and inspection with your local Authority Having Jurisdiction
- Correct integration with your specific solar inverter, battery system, and EV charger
An improperly installed SPAN panel won’t just underperform — it can void the warranty, fail inspection, or create genuine safety risks.
KiloWire: SPAN Certified Installer in the GTA
KiloWire is a SPAN-certified electrical contractor serving the Greater Toronto Area. Our electricians have completed SPAN’s required product training and have hands-on installation experience with the full SPAN ecosystem — including integrations with Powerwall, Franklin WH, and leading Level 2 EV chargers.
When you book a SPAN installation with KiloWire, you get:
- Full permit and inspection handling — we manage the paperwork
- Proper load assessment before installation, so there are no surprises
- Integration with your existing or planned solar and battery system
- App setup and walkthrough so you actually use the features you paid for
- Post-installation support — we don’t disappear after the job is done
The Bottom Line
The electrical panel has been the dumbest device in a smart home for too long. SPAN fixes that — and for homeowners who are serious about electrification, energy independence, or simply understanding where their power goes, it’s the most significant electrical upgrade available today.
SPAN doesn’t just replace your panel. It upgrades how your entire home uses energy.
Curious if SPAN is right for your home?
KiloWire offers free consultations for homeowners considering SPAN installations.