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Tom Horne[_2_]

wrote:
A new friend asked me.......

He has a FPE stab loc 100 amp main panel, and knows this model can
cause fires. worse his panel has many 1/2 breakers, panel is maxed out
with around 28 circuits. ABSOLUTELY JAMMED

he wonders about replacing the 100 amp panel with a 200 amp, to get 40
breakers, and swap out for now the main 200 amp breaker for a 100 amp?

he has never had a main breaker trip, his problem is FPE, and number
of circuits. h

May I suggest that your friend install the panel with a generator
interlock kit with a one hundred ampere breaker installed as the
generator breaker. Then until he decides to upgrade he can use the main
as the generator breaker and the one hundred ampere breaker as the main.
In this way he will have a generator interlock that allows her/him
to use any circuit in the home that the generator he attaches to the
main breaker can supply. This will give him the safety of a generator
interlock to use in the event of a power outage and still have a main
breaker sized to prevent overloading of the service conductors.

The reason that I make this suggestion is that changing out the main
breaker in a factory assembled panel is not a job for the faint of heart
or the inexperienced. If it is badly done the panel can experience a
"Burn Down" which is the term of art used to describe destructive arcing.
--
Tom Horne

"This alternating current stuff is just a fad. It is much too dangerous
for general use." Thomas Alva Edison