Replacing a Fuse Box

[Traum]

Long story short -- we had a home inspector check our place out (the single detached home, not the apartment), and among other things, he identified that our fuse box at home in woefully inadequate and poorly set up. We've been living there forever since we immigrated to Canada eons ago. Apparently a lot of stuff are double or triple tapped, and a total amperage of only 100A is kind of inadequate.

So we are looking to address that. The problem is, I know absolutely nothing about how these things work. The home inspector only gave us some very rudimentary suggestions of how the process goes -- it pretty much boiled down to go find an electrician, someone needs to arrange with BC Hydro to have power at my place shut down / cut off from the grip, the electrician does his thing, we pay him big bucks and off our merry way we go.

I did some basic Googling and have a rudimentary understanding of why double tapping is bad. (And triple tapping therefore sounds like super extra bad.) I know the right thing to do is to get it done, and I am reluctantly planning on doing that. The 2 big questions that I have though are:

1) what exactly needs to be done, and in what order / procedure?
2) how much hurt is my wallet going to see?

Would appreciate some insights if other fellow RSers can chime in and shed some light.

[koukimonst3r]

Originally Posted by Traum

Apparently a lot of stuff are double or triple tapped, and a total amperage of only 100A is kind of inadequate.



The home inspector only gave us some very rudimentary suggestions of how the process goes -- it pretty much boiled down to go find an electrician, someone needs to arrange with BC Hydro to have power at my place shut down / cut off from the grip, the electrician does his thing, we pay him big bucks and off our merry way we go.

Double tapping or triple tapping isn't a good idea because each circuit should have its own breaker, can't overload or else it'll just trip. Most circuit breakers are rated at 15A, mircowave, oven, fridge, lights, washer and dryer are the ones that usually use a lot of current.

Yeah that's basically what you need to do, an electrician should be able to give you a quote and figure out what needs to be done.

[Hondaracer]

how big of a house is it? do you have a suite?

For most 100 amp service is fine, inspectors are really hit and miss in terms of what they know works and what they know from reading a book.

When i was working on reno's at my place the first 2 guys who work for "big" companies suggested we upgrade the panel, even though the majority of our appliances and heating were gas.

Then once i was hooked up with my contractors electrician, who had had his own company for 25+ years, a 1 man operation who would benefit hugely by "upgrading" my panel, said there was no need. We added a sub panel off the main 100amp feed and have had zero problems since.

Are your breakers doubled up because of a lack of space in the panel? is there any room to just add additional breakers?

If you have a gas furnace and gas hot water tank, even with a suite a 100a service shouldnt be a problem.

The thing with upgrading to say a 125 or 150amp service (as far as a i know) if that sometimes you cannot just simply upgrade the service using the existing feed off the line, some of those higher amperage feeds need their own pole etc.

thats when you're looking at $10,000+ for a simple upgrade that may not even help that much in the end..

An electrician can probably chime better but i think it may just be the case of an over-zealous "by the book" Inspector.

[blkgsr]

pretty much

if your BREAKER panel (not fuse box, unless the house is SUPER old) is full, then you can upgrade the panel without involving too much else

you will need to have hydro cut the power to the house, then electrician will rip out the old panel and install a bigger one with more slots. at the same time you could see if the service to the house would accommodate a larger main breaker but unless you're tripping it now, there's no reason to upgrade. you just want a larger panel with more slots so that you can have individual circuits.

[Traum]

We are on a gas furnace and and a gas hot water tank, but the basement / ground floor has a few electric baseboard heaters that gets used in the winter as well.

I think the breakers are doubled / tripled up because of a lack of space in the panel.

Personally, given how we have operated without any major issues (ie. frequent tripping of fuses and stuff) since forever, I am not really terribly concerned about the 100A being insufficient. However, from just googling, it seems like the doubling up could range from anything between an inconvenience to a potential safety hazard, so I guess something would still need to be done?

What would this sub-panel option be like? Does it just take a line off the main panel, branch off on its own, and then act like a hub for other lines to tap into it with its own circuit breakers? If that's the case, wouldn't it just mean the entire subpanel can only support 15A's worth of juice?

IIRC, I think the home inspector said that every single breaker / switch was at least double tapped (a few were triple tapped) LOL~

Again, I apologize for my ignorance because I really dunno shxt about this electrical stuff.

[Traum]

Originally Posted by blkgsr

if your BREAKER panel (not fuse box, unless the house is SUPER old) is full, then you can upgrade the panel without involving too much else

The house is probably 40 - 50 yrs old. And I'd have to tell you I don't really know whether it is the breaker panel or fuse box because I don't know the proper terminology.

you will need to have hydro cut the power to the house, then electrician will rip out the old panel and install a bigger one with more slots. at the same time you could see if the service to the house would accommodate a larger main breaker but unless you're tripping it now, there's no reason to upgrade. you just want a larger panel with more slots so that you can have individual circuits.

If it is just a larger panel with more slots, how much do you suppose the entire job would cost? A $10k ballpark would be really bad news. Even a $5k-ish estimate would sting pretty badly, and I'd need quite a few months to rebuild that fund.

Again, I appreciate all the replies that are coming in. RS rocks!

[GLOW]

lots of diff topics & scenarios so i'll just respond to the 2 questions you posed

adding a sub panel (lets say 60A 30 circuit panel) will mean you will make space for a breaker in your existing spot to add a 60A breaker in it. You will re-route the wiring for the breaker(s) that you took out of your original panel to the new sub-panel. the sub-panel will have space for new breakers that you desire (minus the ones you brought over to make room for the 60A breaker). your overall load doesn't get to be increased, you'll just have more breaker space.

if all you're doing is replacing an existing panel for one with more space (more breaker slots) and nothing more, then i suggest budgeting $1500-$2k, plus the cost of Hydro disconnecting and reconnecting power. If the electrician can plan the work so hydro just comes out 1 time it'll save you paying hydro to show up twice. if the electrician asks for more than what i said ask them to break out labour/material costs for you

keep in mind locating a sub-panel in another location further away from your existing panel (for whatever reason) will also add additional costs.