On Mon, 3 Jan 2005 23:49:21 -0700, "James \"Cubby\" Culbertson"
wrote:

Hiya,
I've got a 10 year old house with a single electrical panel with a main
breaker of 100A. The
literature attached to the panel says it's rated for 125A. I'm not sure
what the feed from the electrical
company is....doesn't say on the meter unfortunately. Oh yeah, the panel
is full. Here's my dilemma:
I want to add some 220v to the garage to power a table saw and dust
collector. I'm not sure how to
approach this (an electrician will do the work but I want to be able to have
an idea how to go about this).
I have a 30A/220v/2 pole breaker that serves the dryer that isn't used. So
I could remove the existing wires
and run my receptacles from that but I'm not sure I like this idea.
Particularly if we want to sell the house
down the road. A second option, and I'm not sure this can be done code
wise, is removing the guts of the
can and replace with a higher service rated setup (ie. bus bars, lugs,
etc...). It looks like there is room for
a larger set up and the can even has pre-drilled holes to accept a larger
setup (of course I need to verify
the feed from the electric company is set up for a higher amperage). Is
this Code legal given the
sticker says "Max. of 125A" on it? Another option is to replace the entire
service which I really would rather
avoid. I tried the "replace the breakers with slim breakers" approach to
free up the space but unfortunately,
everything was already "slim". Any other ideas on how to approach this?
What sort of permits etc might I
need (different places, different rules, just looking for a general idea).

I am considering adding an outbuilding sometime down the road and was
thinking it might make sense to
scrap the current setup and put in a larger panel/can/etc.... and run the
outbuilding on a sub panel. Unfortunately,
I don't have the cashola to build that building right now and not sure I
ever will. So for now, I'm pretty
much looking for what will work vs. what makes more sense for down the road.

Anyway, thanks very much for any advice.
Cheers,
jlc


For what it's worth, I took the kitchen range 220 and used that to
install a subpanel in the shop. I could have taken the dryer hookup,
but the stove is a better idea as the gas stove "goes with the house."
Taking the clothes dryer hookup takes the option of having an electric
dryer, which could have an impact on the sale of the house. For your
case, you could use the dryer line for a subpanel then provide a 220v
for the dryer and hook it back up. I think this is the lowest cost
practical option. Replacing the entire Main panel is the best way per
NEC, but that may run some $.