In article , The Real Tom
Tom @ www.Love-Calculators.com says...
On Sun, 01 May 2005 23:51:22 -0500, zxcvbob
wrote:

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.

The OP mented about not overloading the pannel, so I would check the
calc first before adding any new breakers for new branches.

So, IMHO it's not a seperate issue, but the first issue to address.

later,

tom

I threw in the comment about overloading the panel not out of concern
that I might inadvertantly do so, but in an attempt to minimize the
predictable rash of responses admonishing me:

1. not to use 1/2" breakers
2. leave it to a professional
3. just be satisfied with what I've got
4. [insert your favorite non-responsive bit of advice here]

It's not that I don't appreciate your valid concern, but that's not
what I asked.

Let me re-phrase the question: 1/2" and 1" are both available and my
GE load center will accept both. Is either one better (safer, more
reliable, etc.) than the other? 1/2" has a clear advantage over 1"
in that I can install a smaller box without sacrificing capacity. Do
1" breakers have any advantages over 1/2"? 'MC' pointed out that
"1/2 inch breakers will use a slightly less contact surface to the
main buss bar". Is this significant? Perhaps this holds true
internally as well? Presumably, these things would not be sold if
they didn't meet some industry accepted standard for safety.
Nevertheless, intuition tells me that there would be no market for
the size-disadvantaged 1" breakers if they provided no benefit over
1/2".