No Room For New Breaker - Solutions

[wsroufe]

I recently purchased a used hot tub and was hoping to be using it today, but when my handy man came over he said I don't have any space in my 200 amp box to add a double breaker.

Of course, a new box big $$$ is one option - any other thoughts - solutions>?

[Chas]

A 200 amp box will feed lots of circuits - so I assume you have a large house.

Can you double up one other circuit with a 'buddy beaker?' That is a breaker which fits two circuits into the space normally occupied by just one breaker. It will not run your spa, however, it would give room for a two-pole 50A breaker, which is most likely what you do need for your spa. Here's a picture of a 'buddy breaker' or double half-wide breaker.

Or put a sub panel next to the main and move a breaker or two to that.

[dave nh]

If it were me depending on how long you plan on staying at the house, i would take this opportunity to add a 100 amp subpanel nearby or closer to the tub, in lieu of the buddy breakers. You will likely only need to ad more breakers down the road anyway, if you are full now. You can get a murray 100amp subpanel package at the chepot with breakers pretty reasonble. you will need to relocate some of the circuits to the new panel to accomodate the panel breaker.

[wsroufe]

I think the subpanel is the way I may go. Thanks I will post my repair.

[soakerman]

A sub panel or new main is the best option as "slimline" breakers are great for physical room to make a breaker fit but may in fact overload your amperage rateing of the box wich is not a good thing to do.

[Shaamus]

Unless you're adding a new "service", a subpanel is only going to give you more room, not more amps. A 125A subpanel connected to a 200A main panel isn't going to give you 325A, you'll still only have 200A. Now, I do agree that a subpanel is the cleanest and safest way to do what you want to do, but if this is more about amps than space you need to have your service upgraded.

[wireman]

First thing I wouldn't have a "handyman" do real electrical work. Hire a real electrician. If you do that you don't need to worry about much more. Here's the things to look at. How many amps is your service? If smaller, say 100amps: Do you heat with electric or gas? What's the max load on your service at any given time? I really doubt that you would overload even a 100amp service in the dead of winter even if your heating with electricity but still things to take into account. As far as the breakers go. You can mini up some of them and create room. Just need to be aware of multiwire circuits and keep your phasing correct.

[TinyBubbles]

We ran into the same situation. We had one slot open at the bottom of our panel, but needed two. We had an outlet in the garage that was dedicated for a chest freezer. Since we haven't had a freezer out there in years, we just did away with it and moved something up to it's place, which freed up a much needed space at the bottom.