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Adding a subpanel

4K views 20 replies 4 participants last post by  InPhase277 
#1 · (Edited)
I am in the process of remodeling my master bath and getting close to the point of doing the electrical. I will be bringing an electrician to do panel work but I am going to run the wires myself.

I have a two panels, seen here.


The thick grey cable coming out of the panel on the right is on a 150A breaker in that panel and goes to a service disconnect in the furnace room. It says not in use and "Old Electric Heat". I would like to add a subpanel in the furnace room to supply power to

- 50A steam shower generator
- 20A heated floor mats
- 20A dedicated bath GFCI circuits.

the current bath circuit from the main panel will be used for bath lighting and a dedicated 30A for the bath tub.

Questions

- Are there any problems with that?
- Does the service disconnect need to stay and the new subpanel connects to it or does it get replaced with the subpanel?

The main breaker on the panel that feeds that service disconnect is 200A.

Thanks!
 
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#6 ·
By the way, that other thick grey wire coming out on the buttom of the right subpanel is for tennis court lights, which apparently cause sparks (told by the previous owner) and we have not turned them on. I dont really care enough about the tennis at night to bother with it. Just pointing out unused load from that subpanel.
 
#7 ·
Maybe, but you need to know what the overall house has for a service feed

Since this wire already fed 150a of electric heat I really don;t see any problem putting in a sub. If it worked before pulling up to 150a it should work again


Verify the current wire size to make sure it meets todays code

The only "issue" being if anything was added to that 200a panel in the way of large electric devices after the electric heat was eliminated

The tennis court lights are probably high output - metal halide maybe
If you want lights out there I would replace with CFL floods
 
#12 ·
It looks like you have a "400 amp" service. But yeah, you'll need a 4-wire to your sub panel. The tennis court wire looks like 4-wire and headed that way too, do you know what size it is?

I actually think those two are the same...The tenis court disconnect is in fact in the furnace room as well.

Power company said to add up the main breakers :)

I'll check/add up tonight and see what I come up with and come back for more questions.

But, is the proper way to replace the disconnect with a panel or feed a panel from it?
 
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