Circuit Breaker Panel Question

I know a sub-panel can be run off the main panel. How about a second sub-panel? Must it also be run off the main panel, or can the first sub-panel be used?

Thank you

Bob

Reply to
Bob R
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A change like that brings up questions that call for answers that your post doesn't answer.

What do you want to do, do you plan to do it yourself, what level of expertise do you have access to, and a lot of others. Ones that I am confident you will be asked.

Reply to
Michael B

*It's legal, but it must be identified as such. Just put a label on it "Subpanel 2 - feed from subpanel 1". Personally I wouldn't do it that way. If you need space in the first subpanel you should just install a larger panel.
Reply to
John Grabowski

That is very common in commercial work. Like John says, you should have very clear labeling.

Reply to
gfretwell

That's legal as long as all your breakers and wire sizes are appropriate. Personally I'd avoid it in residential work though.

Reply to
jamesgangnc

with the cost of a entire new main 200 amp panel so cheap i would just replace the entire thing. much more pro look, less someone hacked this

Reply to
hallerb

Once again, more advice without any knowledge of the situation. You just continually jump to conclusions without even the barest of facts.

There is nothing wrong with subpanels. I've seen brand new residential construction that had a subpanel. The user asked if it was legal to daisy chain them. The answer is yes. He might already have a 200 amp main panel for all you know. He never gave us any info about that.

Reply to
jamesgangnc

needing 2 sub panels will cause grief at home resale time, and looks hacked even if it meets code........

Reply to
hallerb

I certainly would not blink an eye at daisy-chained panels that were well thought out for the need at hand.

Maybe the 200A main panel is way at one end of a big house, and at the other end is a 100A subpanel under the kitchen, and now he's building out a workshop in the garage that's attached to the kitchen. But now all the walls are finished and running multiple cables back to either existing panel would be costly and disruptive. So put say a 60A panel in the workshop, run one big cable back to the kitchen subpanel. Sounds fine to me.

Sure you could contrive to trip the kitchen panel's main breaker if you started the cabinet saw while someone was welding and the shop space heater was runnning and the oven and the microwave and a kettle are all cooking. I don't think that's a dealbreaker, but local code (and the panel manufacturers) should have rules about how badly oversubscribed any panel is, and I'd probably keep way clear of those.

Now if the kitchen panel was say 60A, and it fed the waterheater and the dryer and the range and all the kitchen outlets, and the new subpanel was 40A, I'd say that's a daft idea that'll be a constant headache.

I'd love to hear more about exactly what situation the OP is in.

Chip C Toronto

Reply to
Chip C

Continued advice with no knowledge of the situation.

Two subpanels may be a selling point, with breakers convenient to where the circuits are.

Perhaps you could find a fetish 12-step program.

Reply to
bud--

needing 2 sub panels will cause grief at home resale time, and looks hacked even if it meets code........

Why should it be a matter of "needing" and not a matter of wanting. I have a

40 circuit main panel, a 20 circuit sub panel in an unfinished part of my basement, with a 12 circuit sub panel off of that in a detached garage. They provide me with plenty of power wherever I want it
Reply to
RBM

For my hard-of-thinking brain, are we talking a panel daisy-chained from another via a breaker? Or simply daisy-chained without a breaker to the incoming feed of the first panel?

cheers

Jules

Reply to
Jules Richardson

My setup is a 200 amp 40 circuit service panel in one location, a 20 circuit sub panel with a 100 amp main fed from the 200 amp panel, then a 12 circuit sub panel in a detached garage,fed from the first sub panel, which has a 60 amp main

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Reply to
RBM

You could pass the feeder through one panel to the next if the feeder size remained the same and you had twin lugs in the first sub panel

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Reply to
RBM

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