On Wed, 20 Nov 2019 15:47:00 -0600, Jim Joyce
wrote:

On Wed, 20 Nov 2019 12:53:55 -0800 (PST), trader_4
wrote:

On Wednesday, November 20, 2019 at 2:35:33 AM UTC-5, Jim Joyce wrote:
On Tue, 19 Nov 2019 20:10:58 -0800 (PST), trader_4
wrote:

On Tuesday, November 19, 2019 at 10:33:25 PM UTC-5, Jim Joyce wrote:

6. The house has a 240VAC breaker box on the exterior wall, with no room
for an additional breaker, so I'm planning to buy a small 2-circuit
sub-panel that I'd attach to the house, right next to the existing 240VAC
panel. I would ask the electrician to connect the sub-panel to the existing
240VAC panel.

Q: I assume the electrician can create a new circuit from the 240VAC panel.
Are there any issues with that plan?

Should be OK, depending of course on what other loads are on the existing
panel.

That panel is dedicated to the kitchen range, the clothes dryer, and the
HVAC.



Doh! I hope there is enough capacity. Did you add up all the loads compared to the capacity?

No, I did not. Ugh!

Also, that panel is full, yet the youtube videos all show that a new
breaker is used to feed the sub-panel. However, there's no room for a new
breaker.

I suppose one option would be to use an existing breaker in the main panel
to feed the sub-panel, and then whatever that breaker *was* feeding would
be fed from a new breaker in the sub-panel. I hope I described that
properly.

Does the new sub-panel need a plywood backer board? It'll be mounted to the
exterior of the (brick) house. If so, does the backer board need to be
painted black? One of the YT videos said some jurisdictions have those
requirements, but I haven't checked locally. Lastly, what about a separate
ground rod for the sub-panel, or can it get ground from the main panel?

This is starting to get complicated.


You can replace one of the single pole breakers with a tandem and get
an extra circuit that way.