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We chose to save the money and be happy with 125 amps. Fortunately, we did this before hot weather arrived; the new AC unit installed by the flipper takes 50 amps.
As our inspector said to my husband, the breakers would flip every time "the wife" vacuumed with the AC on. I assured him that wouldn't be a problem because "the husband" did all the vacuuming.
Take a look at this for your AC - I installed it on 2 of mine and it reduced the initial inrush from around 100A to 32A. You’re probably fine now, but if you get any dimming or flickering when the AC kicks in give it a try.
I spent about $2300 for an electrical contractor to change out a fused 100A panel to a new one with breakers a couple of years ago on my Aunt's house. He also had to run new conduit and ground to the water pipe where it entered the home (which was tricky because it was a finished basement), and install a ground rod below the meter (exterior of the building) It took about one-and-a-half man days, plus time to meet the village inspector.
Your contractor may want to change outlets near water (sinks, toilets, etc.) to GFI's which is a good idea. He will probably also do an audit to determine what draws are on what circuits (you can do this yourself by plugging in a light or radio and tripping breakers). Adding more capacity is more expensive because the power company may have to install a new meter and supply wires, plus the cost of the new box. If your panel has enough capacity but is simply unbalanced, the cost will be less, but can still be time-consuming depending on how much new conduit he needs to run and the difficulties therein.
Personally, I'd run a new, dedicated circuit for the microwave, and leave the rest on the existing 15 amp (but have the breaker replaced with a new one anyway since it's hard to reset). Hire a contractor you trust and take his advice, you don't want to shortchange yourself on something that can burn the joint down.
I spent about $2300 for an electrical contractor to change out a fused 100A panel to a new one with breakers a couple of years ago on my Aunt's house. He also had to run new conduit and ground to the water pipe where it entered the home (which was tricky because it was a finished basement), and install a ground rod below the meter (exterior of the building) It took about one-and-a-half man days, plus time to meet the village inspector.
Your contractor may want to change outlets near water (sinks, toilets, etc.) to GFI's which is a good idea. He will probably also do an audit to determine what draws are on what circuits (you can do this yourself by plugging in a light or radio and tripping breakers). Adding more capacity is more expensive because the power company may have to install a new meter and supply wires, plus the cost of the new box. If your panel has enough capacity but is simply unbalanced, the cost will be less, but can still be time-consuming depending on how much new conduit he needs to run and the difficulties therein.
Personally, I'd run a new, dedicated circuit for the microwave, and leave the rest on the existing 15 amp (but have the breaker replaced with a new one anyway since it's hard to reset). Hire a contractor you trust and take his advice, you don't want to shortchange yourself on something that can burn the joint down.
This is probably your best advice. It sounds like you added space for more breakers by updating your panel so make use of that first. I would look at adding home runs for your hungrier devices like the microwave, garage door opener, disposal etc. Pulling those out of your existing circuits will go a long way towards eliminating nuisance trips. Remember, circuit breakers are there to protect the wiring not your devices.
And you know this how? Our 70's era neighborhood was originally built with 100 amp services all underground. When I looked to upgrade to a 200 amp service I was told the conductors from the transformer were not of sufficient size and would need to be replaced.
I replaced my panel from 100 to 200 amp and the feeders were upgraded without incurring any costs. In fact at first I was gonna do a 400 amp service. but decided 200 was sufficient. Usually the power company does uogrades without charging. That may be area dependent.
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Originally Posted by webster
Disclaimer: I do not understand electricity. On the other hand, this is what I went through when the breaker to the microwave and some misc. outlets in the dining room started tripping - grounded. The electrician came out, could not find out why. They thought since it happened after a shower it had something to with the hot water heather which they installed months before. They replaced the breaker and it still happened. They then replaced all in electronic components of the hot water heater (they ate that cost). It still happened. (I use one company for plumbing, HVAC and electrics.) They then called in a senior electrician who only works on large commercial jobs. He literally took less than a minute to see the problem. The breakers (there are two) for the hot water heater were heating up a minuscule amount, but enough to trip the breaker above it. He moved the breaker above it, replacing it also, leaving a space and the problem went away. I ended up only paying for one service call; they ate the rest of the costs.
Sounds like your breakers are past their normal life. If the breakers are on the hot side of the hoise not only are they dealing with the heat for the draw of the home usage but they are dealing with the heat from the elements outside. Like anything the heat will eventually warp and make the guts be slightly deformed and eventually they either trip faster than they should and I worse case they do t trip at all which is bad. But it does happen. I had new breakers that didn’t trip when tested.
How old is the house and the breaker box? Do you know if you have aluminum or copper wiring?
I replaced my panel from 100 to 200 amp and the feeders were upgraded without incurring any costs. In fact at first I was gonna do a 400 amp service. but decided 200 was sufficient. Usually the power company does uogrades without charging. That may be area dependent.
Sounds like your breakers are past their normal life. If the breakers are on the hot side of the hoise not only are they dealing with the heat for the draw of the home usage but they are dealing with the heat from the elements outside. Like anything the heat will eventually warp and make the guts be slightly deformed and eventually they either trip faster than they should and I worse case they do t trip at all which is bad. But it does happen. I had new breakers that didn’t trip when tested.
How old is the house and the breaker box? Do you know if you have aluminum or copper wiring?
1978 manufactured home; probably the original breaker box. Copper wire.
Power company would only inspect the work and raise issues, and specifically said they would not do any part of the work.
I have Actually seen them test big breakers when I was at Allen Bradly control school .
Oooh man , they were testing interrupting capacity and time curves .....we watched behind bullet proof glass
I watched a lineman replace a 1000 Amp fuse on a (2000?) volt feeder line, it came off our pole but went to a neighbor's property underground (another commercial property). He closed the circuit with about a 20' long fiberglass pole and it blew again, sounded louder than a 30.06, and I was at least fifty feet away, big puff of orange smoke from it when it blew - I'd guess it was about the size of an 8 oz. can of vegetable juice. I knew it was coming (he warned me), but my feet still left the ground about a half-inch.
Dead short somewhere underground, they got to digging and found it. You'd think it would be dangerous to let guys with big brass balls work on circuits with that much power...
Update: the licensed electrician we'd worked with before came out, changed the breaker (20 amp), put a protective cover on the outside outlet, and chatted for an hour or so, including suggestions on what to try if the problem persisted.
Charged us $20 for the breaker, no labor charge. We tipped him generously.
One 15 amp breaker pops off frequently in hot weather, or if I run two appliances at once. I have to wrestle it into full off before I can turn it back on.
It provides power to:
Microwave
Range (it's gas, but the thermostat and igniters are electric)
Kitchen lights
Disposal
--I forgot to check the dishwasher
Laundry room and back porch lights
Some but not all switches in two bedrooms
Lights in one bathroom
Which is insane. Each appliance should have its own breaker, and this circuit skips all over the house. I have questions before calling the electrician.
We had the house service upgraded from 60 to 125 amps last year (the max the power company would allow without replacing poles).
We didn't add more circuits then; can we add 65 amps worth of new circuits?
Can the electrician separate the various items onto different circuits?
Can we upgrade the problem circuit to 20 amps?
How much is this going to cost? Ballpark, so I don't freak out. Hundreds? Thousands?
Everyone focused on kitchen for big current draw, but you should also pay more attention to the laundry room. An electric drier uses lots of juice, but if you had all the above on just one 15 amp breaker, you must have a gas drier, or the electric drier is on a different circuit. I'm not sure you can run an old style washer and gas drier at the same time on just one 15 amp circuit, you need 20 just for that, faintly remember having to do that for my whirlpool w/drier set back in '94, it would blow a 15 amp breaker if you ran both at the same time. A washing machine draws more than you may think, and so does a gas drier because it has a powerful electric motor which turns a drum full of heavy wet clothes. The gas range would hardly use anything, The microwave might draw 1 KW for the short time it's running, less power than ONE electric burner on high, for an electric stove. Add a circuit for laundry room and one for the kitchen, if any of those bedrooms have a window AC or space heater, add one for bedroom too.
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