As some might remember from my previous posts, my wife wants us to renovate the kitchen. I am looking into how to do it right without spending too much money we do not have.
After taking inventory of the existing circuits and wires to the kitchen it appears that I need three more circuits: the second small appliance circuit, a circuit to separate the microwave from the dishwasher and an individual circuit for the refrigerator. The first small appliance circuit is present as is a separate circuit for the garbage disposal. The lighting circuit is there too even though it might have too many outlets in other spaces of the house which means that eventually I will need to pull another set of wires to split some of its load. At a future point I will need to pull to a nearby location at least 1, but probably 2 more circuits for the GFCI bathroom outlets when we get to renovating the bathrooms. At this point I am looking at at least 5 new 20A circuits running from one corner of the house to the opposite corner (that is in addition to the existing 5 circuits). As it happens the reason for that is that the electrical panel and the kitchen are in the opposite corners of the house and the runs are on the order of 50ft.
I am wondering if it is smarter to place a subpanel in the basement below the kitchen and run the circuits from there as opposed to running them from the main panel and thus saving about 50ft of cable on each run. In either case I will need to hide the wires in the finished ceiling of the basement. My plan for the subpanel is 125A panel connected to the main panel with 1 inch flex in which I plan to run four #3 THHN wires(two hot, one neutral and one ground which I guess could be somewhat thinner, #6?). The breaker will be 100A breaker inside the main panel(the main panel is 200A). The flex will need to make the equivalent of 9 ninety degree turns at various points along its route. The questions are:
1. Am I allowed to use flex conduit for connection from main panel to subpanel fished through wall and ceiling cavities(the conduit will be supported only where I can reach it; there is absolutely no way I can put rigid EMT without opening up the whole ceiling)?
2. Did I get the size of the conduit and the wires correct for the application?(reading the NEC and figuring this out was fun, but it would be nice for someone to confirm that my wires are not too thin)
3. I have access to a location in the middle of the run. Is it a good idea to place a box there to make pulling the wires through the conduit easier?
After taking inventory of the existing circuits and wires to the kitchen it appears that I need three more circuits: the second small appliance circuit, a circuit to separate the microwave from the dishwasher and an individual circuit for the refrigerator. The first small appliance circuit is present as is a separate circuit for the garbage disposal. The lighting circuit is there too even though it might have too many outlets in other spaces of the house which means that eventually I will need to pull another set of wires to split some of its load. At a future point I will need to pull to a nearby location at least 1, but probably 2 more circuits for the GFCI bathroom outlets when we get to renovating the bathrooms. At this point I am looking at at least 5 new 20A circuits running from one corner of the house to the opposite corner (that is in addition to the existing 5 circuits). As it happens the reason for that is that the electrical panel and the kitchen are in the opposite corners of the house and the runs are on the order of 50ft.
I am wondering if it is smarter to place a subpanel in the basement below the kitchen and run the circuits from there as opposed to running them from the main panel and thus saving about 50ft of cable on each run. In either case I will need to hide the wires in the finished ceiling of the basement. My plan for the subpanel is 125A panel connected to the main panel with 1 inch flex in which I plan to run four #3 THHN wires(two hot, one neutral and one ground which I guess could be somewhat thinner, #6?). The breaker will be 100A breaker inside the main panel(the main panel is 200A). The flex will need to make the equivalent of 9 ninety degree turns at various points along its route. The questions are:
1. Am I allowed to use flex conduit for connection from main panel to subpanel fished through wall and ceiling cavities(the conduit will be supported only where I can reach it; there is absolutely no way I can put rigid EMT without opening up the whole ceiling)?
2. Did I get the size of the conduit and the wires correct for the application?(reading the NEC and figuring this out was fun, but it would be nice for someone to confirm that my wires are not too thin)
3. I have access to a location in the middle of the run. Is it a good idea to place a box there to make pulling the wires through the conduit easier?
