More power

[alexfitch225]

I've been thinking about this and I'm not too sure if it can even be done. My breaker box is pretty much full and I have a room that I'm building onto the house. Has anybody ever added a second standalone breaker box? (the room will have alot of lighting and outlets for whatever we may use it for) or would I be better off just getting a larger box and run it from there. Id love to eliminate some breaker space (like I said everything is about full except for around 2 or 3 spots) but every route for these are utilized almost on a daily basis except for the attic light but that's nice to have when I need it. Anywho any advise is appreciated, I don't claim to be an electrician and that's exactly why I'm asking before calling someone to do something redundant

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[snubbyfan]

When we bought our house one of the first things we did was to have it converted from a 100 amp service with fuses to a 200 amp service and breakers with a 60 amp sub box in the garage.
I ordered some breakers for the sub box, including a 240 volt breaker, pulled all my own Romex and did all the electrical in the garage myself.

 

[JohnRippert]

When my parents added a sunroom to the back of the house the electrical was redone similar to Snubbyfan's. If you are going to be there a good long while might as well bite the bullet and get a bigger box installed.

 

[snubbyfan]

When my parents added a sunroom to the back of the house the electrical was redone similar to Snubbyfan's. If you are going to be there a good long while might as well bite the bullet and get a bigger box installed.

Our plans included a garage workshop and finishing our basement with a pool table, new lighting, a jacuzzi and a sound system.
Weren't no way we could have done all that with the 100 amp service.

 

[427mach1]

When we had our house built, I had the builder install 200 amp service rather than the standard 150 amp because I knew I would be finishing off the basement and putting in a woodshop. I called the power company and found that, at least around here, they ran sufficient wiring for 300 amp service to the house for all their new residential customers.

Make sure you have the proper gage wires coming from your pole and into your house so you don't overload the main circuit, follow all electrical codes, and have it inspected. A qualified electrician could probably tell you whether it would be better to replace the whole box or just add an auxiliary box.

 

[Franklin]

If you have a ROUND electric meter socket its only rated for 100 Amps. It will need to be updated to a RECTANGLE meter socket to be rated to carry 200 amps. That's a job for an electrician, the power company will require it to upgrade, along with the city with a permit.... You need to start outside before any inside update is done.

 

[Abbynormal]

Local building/electrical codes tend to not like having 2 power sources
to houses. The reason being, one of the first things Fire Depts do in a
house fire is to disconnect (read kill the main breaker or disconnect).

If a house had 2 electrical sources, the FD might kill one and not the other (unless both were side by side and were marked as such). That could create fatal outcomes to firefighters.

So the SAFEST and smartest thing to do is to upgrade the electrical service from 60 amp to 100 amp or 100 amp to 200 amp which requires
heavier wire from the pole to the breaker box and also a new breaker box
sized to handle the increase in amperage.

A sub-panel can be used once the panel is up sized but its amperage still must be considered when up sizing the electrical service.

Hope that helps.

 

[Tom S.]

If your breakers are standard size, you can replace some or all with double breakers. They take up the same space as a standard size breaker, but each one is two separate breakers. I did this when I had to put in a dedicated 20 amp line in for a dialisys machine.

 

[chief38]

When we moved in to our current home 22 years ago, we upgraded the service from 100 to 200 Amps. Even with the new 200 amp 40 breaker box, we did not have enough space so we added an additional 20 breaker sub panel box for a total capacity of 60 breakers. UL would NOT allow the use of more than 40 breakers so I could NOT use the double ones they sell.

Because of all the extra's we have there are quite a few double 240v breakers. We have 2 central a/c units & air handlers (8 breaker slots) my air compressor (2 slots) , pool filter and salt generator (2 slots), arc welder (2 slots), Generator (2 slots) so 16 of the slots in the main box are taken up just for 240 volt applications.

Adding the extra 20 breaker box was easy, not expensive and it allowed me to get the UL certificate I wanted for insurance purposes. It also allowed me to have separate circuit breakers for all of the Kitchen appliances so none of them are on any other circuit with any thing else.

A quick side story about the 200 Amp upgrade from our Electric Company. When they did the upgrade work 22 years ago they ran a new line to the Pole and installed a new pan and meter. When on the roof one day cleaning the Gutters I went over to the pipe where the wires are tethered just before entering the pan and noticed that the wire was NOT the proper gauge! I called the Electric Company and they told me that was what they used for their so called 200 amp service EVEN THOUGH it was only safely capable of handling 150 amps!!! I blew a gasket because they charged me $1800 bucks for the upgrade and I demanded that they install a proper 200 amp wire or refund my $1800 bucks. After a few yelling and screaming sessions with supervisors they did come to the house and install the proper gauge wires. So always check that the upgrade has indeed been done with the proper gauge wires!

 

[Rule3]

For electrical stuff like this it is time to "call the man"

If you are building an addition, then there are those pesky "codes" and permits to comply with.

You are not replacing a light switch!

 

[WR Moore]

The first question is what's the amp rating of your current entrance panel/breaker box? If there's enough extra load capacity you can do as Tom S. suggests or you could install a secondary breaker box being fed from the bus bars in the current one.

Now, if you've got an older house with marginal electical service for the loads the modern house carries, you're probably going to need to upgrade the entrance panel and meter box. At least where I've lived, the power company would be thrilled to upgrade your service load capacity and will install a new meter box without charge.

Now the catch. You could install the new entrance panel (and service drop-the line that runs down the side of your house into the entrance panel) yourself (at least in a lot of places) and cobble up a temporary feed from the current panel. HOWEVER, the electric utility will not install the new meter until the electrical inspectors have made sure you followed the electrical code and blessed the installation.

By the way, YOU/your designee have to make the connection between the new service drop and the utility lines while they're hot. If you're very careful, that's not that big a deal, but it is if you're clumsy. I've done it several times-legally.

While I was typing, Rule 3 brought up a consideration on building codes. He has a point, but there are plenty of books around at Lowes/Home Depot/Busy Beaver etc that can show you how to wire to code. You still have to pass inspection and in some areas, running afoul of the local building trade unions can be troublesome.

It isn't rocket surgery. We built 3 barns and I wired all 3 (after getting a $4000 quote for the smallest one) above code requirements and they passed inspection without any issues. BTW, I just realized you probably would need to upgrade the electrical grounds. They upgraded the grounding requirements a couple of decades ago. It's not that big a deal and not a bad idea anyway.

Should you find yourself in the situation where you have a properly sized electrical service but the original electrician padded their profit margin by installing an entrance panel with a small number of breaker spaces you have options. Those options are to either go with a seconday breaker panel (paragraph 1) or buy an entrance panel with a larger number of breaker spaces. To install that, you need to pull your electric meter, change out the entrance/breaker panels and install the wiring in the new panel and call the utility to reseal your electric meter after you put it back in. Dunno if you'd need to get it blessed by inspectors in your area.