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Oxblood
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Location: seattle Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2016 Posts: 182
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I have an Eaton CH load center that was installed by a professional electrician a few years ago. At the time, I had an ancient 100 amp panel with very few circuits that was probably the panel that was installed when the house was built in the 50s. The new panel is a 200 amp service. The electrician who installed the panel installed breakers for all the existing circuits, adding AFCI breakers where required by code. The old circuits feed multiple rooms, and are pretty nonsensical in terms of how things are divided up (basement and upstairs bedroom on same circuit, for example).
I am planning to re-wire the house myself now, and my thought was it would be easiest for me to start adding breakers for the new circuits at the bottom of the panel, which is currently empty. Is there anything wrong with doing it this way? I could not find anything in code that said you have to fill a panel from the top down, bottom up, etc.
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Sun Nov 20, 2022 11:09 am |
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jukk0u
Site Supporter
Location: Lynnwood and at large Joined: Wed May 1, 2013 Posts: 21147
Real Name: Vick Lagina
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Lots of Sparklers on this forum: https://www.diychatroom.com/They might already have a thread covering that, too.
_________________ “Finding ‘common ground’ with the thinking of evil men is a fool’s errand” ~ Herschel Smith
"The said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." ~ Samuel Adams
“A return to First Principles in a Republic is sometimes caused by simple virtues of a single man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example. Before all else, be armed!” ~ Niccolo Machiavelli
Láodòng zhèng zhūwèi zìyóu
FJB
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Sun Nov 20, 2022 11:27 am |
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Traut
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Location: Downtown Newcastle Joined: Sat Mar 5, 2016 Posts: 3440
Real Name: Traut
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You can put breakers where ever you want vertically, but you want to try to keep the total loads (amps) on each side of the panel balanced or equal, as much as possible. So assuming it was balanced to start with, if you add a circuit to one side, you'll want to try to put the next added circuit on the other.
_________________ I always thought growing old would take a lot longer.....
So, when does that "Old enough to know better" shit kick in??? I've learned that pleasing everyone is impossible, but pissing everyone off is a piece of cake.
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Sun Nov 20, 2022 12:14 pm |
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Arisaka
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Location: Tacoma Joined: Sat May 4, 2013 Posts: 6194
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Traut wrote: You can put breakers where ever you want vertically, but you want to try to keep the total loads (amps) on each side of the panel balanced or equal, as much as possible. So assuming it was balanced to start with, if you add a circuit to one side, you'll want to try to put the next added circuit on the other. This
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Sun Nov 20, 2022 12:40 pm |
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Albroswift
Location: SEATTLE Joined: Sat May 14, 2022 Posts: 60
Real Name: Al
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Traut wrote: You can put breakers where ever you want vertically, but you want to try to keep the total loads (amps) on each side of the panel balanced or equal, as much as possible. So assuming it was balanced to start with, if you add a circuit to one side, you'll want to try to put the next added circuit on the other. Every other slot is the opposite leg, example 208/220/240 breakers grab 2 consecutive vertical slots, so unless you used every other slot on one side and somehow used every other slot on the other side that was on the same leg it would be hard to get very un-balanced. If you look at a photo of a service you will see the stagger up-down and left-right.
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Sun Nov 20, 2022 2:35 pm |
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RocketScott
Site Supporter
Location: Kentucky Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2015 Posts: 11045
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Check the panel cover
Might be a pain to knock out the slots from the bottom up
That’s all I can think of right now
_________________ You may be right, I may be crazy, but it just may be a lunatic you're looking for
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Sun Nov 20, 2022 7:13 pm |
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Traut
Site Supporter
Location: Downtown Newcastle Joined: Sat Mar 5, 2016 Posts: 3440
Real Name: Traut
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Albroswift wrote: Traut wrote: You can put breakers where ever you want vertically, but you want to try to keep the total loads (amps) on each side of the panel balanced or equal, as much as possible. So assuming it was balanced to start with, if you add a circuit to one side, you'll want to try to put the next added circuit on the other. Every other slot is the opposite leg, example 208/220/240 breakers grab 2 consecutive vertical slots, so unless you used every other slot on one side and somehow used every other slot on the other side that was on the same leg it would be hard to get very un-balanced. If you look at a photo of a service you will see the stagger up-down and left-right. This is true. My choice of words was poor. When I said "side" I should have said and meant leg or opposite phase. Good call.
_________________ I always thought growing old would take a lot longer.....
So, when does that "Old enough to know better" shit kick in??? I've learned that pleasing everyone is impossible, but pissing everyone off is a piece of cake.
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Mon Nov 21, 2022 1:17 pm |
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