Separate Kitchen sub-panel or not?

tpagel

My 200 AMP main panel is starting to get a little crowded. I have enough circuits for my new kitchen renovation, but does it make any sense to install a separate sub-panel dedicated just to kitchen circuits? If so, how big? 100AMP? It makes sense to me, in that I would save circuits on the main panel for future electrical expansions, and have all the kitchen stuff organized in one easy box, with a separate main cut-off, if need be. Is this common at all? Thanks

teamo

Nothing wrong with adding the sub panel but I wouldn't worry too much about having it dedicated just to the kitchen. I would install one when I ran out of room in the main panel when needed. What size main panel do you have? If you don't have the largest panel for a main panel then you could always upgrade that to a bigger panel.

tpagel

My main panel is 200 AMP. I think it has maybe 8-10 spaces or so left on it. It is actually in the attic (yeah...weird), on the opposite end of the house from the kitchen. I created an electrical room around it, for when I finish off the attic. My plan was to install a sub-panel directly above the kitchen, so I could run only one homerun to the main panel, and all the kitchen wiring basically straight up and into a small dedicated box. Seems the most efficient, especially since the area above the kitchen would still be a storage area, even when the attic is finished out. Would a 60 AMP panel be enough for kitchen wiring?