The Real Tom wrote:
On Sun, 1 May 2005 17:21:22 -0500, Mike Hartigan
wrote:


I have a GE service panel in my home that accepts both 1/2" and 1"
breakers. As I add circuits to this box, is there any advantage to
using 1" breakers over 1/2"? I'd rather use 1/2" since that will
allow me to add twice as many circuits. Obviously, there's the
potential to overload the box, but, for the sake of discussion, let's
assume that I'm smart enough not to do that.



I do not have a ge panel, but I know what mini-breakers(tandom) are.
The question that comes to mind before thinking about getting around
the limitations of your panel size is, do you have enough researve
amps?

You mentioned you are assuming you will not overload the box, but what
are you basing this on? Have you done a service calculation? Just
saying, if you are trying to cram more breakers in a 100 amp panel,
and you have a service calc of 95, you might want to bite the bullet
and upgrade to 200a.

So, can you add more?

later,

tom @ www.FreelancingProjects.com





I have a GE panel. They are rated for being fully packed with those
1/2" breakers. They are not tandom breakers, they are individual 1/2"
breakers, or 1" wide 2 pole breakers.

The service load calculations are a totally separate issue.

Best regards,
Bob