My 1960 ranch home will be receiving a new load center at the end of this week. The one that is in there now is undersized and just a mess in general. My BIL will be doing the majority of the work on trade for some 'puter work from me. I will be a gopher on this project (go for this, go for that). I've purchased a new Square D load center, breakers, service entrance cable, grounding rods and wire, misc connectors and fittings and have the PoCo scheduled to come out and pull the meter. I didn't realize exactly how bad the old box was wired until we pulled the cover to get a materials list going. Some of the circuits were on 30 amp breakers and triple or quadruple tapped. I'll feel much better when that's all cleaned up and done correctly. I'm going to leave the top right space open for a generator interlock in the future. I don't have a genny now, but it's on the list. Unfortunately we're going to have to make quite a few splices so the space to the left of the panel is going to be littered with boxes. As I rewire areas of the house those will go away. There are no permits and/or inspections required in my county, so I don't have that to deal with. All in all, I think I've got a good plan put together and trust my BIL to do it right. I'm still open to any last minute thoughts or advice anyone may have though.
Wise choice to redo that cluster F. I hate walking into a customers house and seeing those mini's in thier panel. makes me cringe. Are those Cutler Hammer breakers?, ITE?
It is a General Switch brand load center. The only breakers I can find that fit it are Murray...and the fit isn't the best. The breakers below the 100A on the left hand side have 4 conductors wired into each breaker...with 12awg on a 30A breaker. Lots of issues to say the least.
Decided to replace the ugly @$$ plywood board behind the current box when I put in the new one. Got it cut out tonight. Two more days. Ducks are all in a row.
Looks like the right decision to clean that up. My house was built in 1959 and had a Federal Pacific load center that had more double taps than I could count. It took a couple full days to do the job (house used to have electric heat which was abandoned in the past, but all that was wadded up inside the panel), then another couple days to get the inspector out and receive the OK for the power company to reconnect service. Lucky for me I wasn't living there yet.
I think I'm going to be into this project about $400. Short money for some peace of mind and room to add stuff in the future, if you ask me.
We'll absolutely do it to code...no shortcuts. "Deal with" implied no timing/coordination with inspectors, permits to pull, fees, etc.
What an absolute mess. Lots of 10-3 wire sharing a common neutral to make two circuits. Not sure if that was common back then but it couldn't be more common in my house. Was able to get them single tapped on 20A breakers at least. Lots of splices all over around the box. Filled every slot....might need to add another panel. Need to move meter base somewhere else so I will probably do it then. Lots of rewiring in my future. Good thing wire is cheap Try to get some pics up tomorrow.
You can never have to big of a panel, least that's what my father in law says! We built our house two summers ago and and he put in a monster box we only used 3/4 of it.
Still not nearly the way I want it but much improved. Need to move that plumbing too. Feels good to have that done. Learned a ton.
