Houptee
Member
Why not build what you need, use a separate meter socket with outdoor main panel like the ones Reach4 posted, connect them with a offset nipple or short piece of conduit?
IMO extending old circuits, ESPECIALLY multi-wire circuits, is a last resort. I'd run new for new things.
Installing AFCI on old circuit is asking for trouble.
Is this something they have in writing, or are you just blindly doing what they want?
It is NOT required to install AFCI's for a panel change unless there is some weird local amendment.
Why not build what you need, use a separate meter socket with outdoor main panel like the ones Reach4 posted, connect them with a offset nipple or short piece of conduit?
Twelve spaces, carefully managed, will get the job done. I expect to use nine.
I will be running four new circuits to the kitchen (conduit on the outside of the house) and I can protect them with two spaces. Kitchen circuits don't need arcfault, so I can use tandems. Three wire circuits (which I will be using) need the paired breakers to be tied together as a 240v breaker would. Tandem two pole breakers take up two spaces, have four circuits, which are tripped in pairs, as the code requires.
Likewise, I will be adding four circuits that do not need arcfault, so those will be protected with tandems, and take up two spaces. These will have their own neutrals, so don't need to be tied together.
I'm just trying to avoid rewiring the house where I don't need to. I will be replacing all the outlets and switches, and I won't be splicing the neutrals on the receptacles, but rather giving them pigtails, as required by code. I will be more fastidious, if that is possible, to assure that all wire nuts are new and tight, and that all connections at switches and receptacles are tight. I do not use backstabs, I don't trust them.
Yes, I could use a separate meter socket and a larger panel, but there is no room on the lot for an extension of the house, and with three open spaces, I can still install airconditioning (using a triplex breaker) and add a few circuits. That said, I might do it.
Honestly, I am considering just merging the two circuits in the bedroom half of the house, rather than having a three wire circuit. It is only 600 sq ft, if that. One 15 amp circuit is sufficient, especially as I will be installing a home run 20 amp dedicated circuit for the bathroom outlet.
Good Luck if your Inspector don't micro inspect your work. It may not pass.
Just buy lunch, and you should be OK.
Five arcfaults take up five spaces.
I think 5 two pole arc fault breakers like you linked to in the first post on the thread will take 10 spaces.
Here is a good article on AFCIs
http://www.ecmag.com/section/codes-standards/afcis-settle-code
Relax. That article is for 2014 NEC. Will you have to adhere to that standard?
Combination breakers/devices will be the way to go in the future.
It all looks like a crap shoot for a while, until the code settles in.
This is dumb.
Maybe the best approach is to sell the customer on the newest things, and that they may make it easier to sell the house in the future, and you never know, it might actually help. Not a good choice...and, I'm sure, a hard sell.
This is awkward, but...
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