Electrical panel upgrade

[Veets]

Hello,

My wife and I are purchasing a house that was built around 1952. It has two 60 amp circuit breakers that we want to upgrade. The sellers have central AC and I guess the 120 worked for them but we want to upgrade the panel to 240. Do we need to also change the internal wiring in the house? i.e. the wiring to the receptacles, ceiling lights, etc.?

Thank you, Vito

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[RBM]

You may be mistaking voltage for amperage. If the panel has 2-60 amp breakers, it is probably a 100 or 125 amp -120/240 volt service, possibly even larger. You may be wanting a 200 amp service, and I would certainly recommend talking to a local electrician first, just to determine what you have, and what you want. When increasing the amperage of a service, you typically don't do anything with receptacle outlets unless you have some areas that are spread a little thin and may need more circuits. Often, houses of that era were wired with non grounding cable and wiring devices, which is something you may want an electrician to check out as well.

[HeyBub]

Assuming "... has two 60-amp circuit breakers..." means that's ALL there is.

First things first:

Well, what you've got sure ain't right.

Circuit breakers protect the wire. In your case, if one of your outlets has an overload, the wire in the wall (almost surely rated for 15 amps) will melt and start a fire. Inside the wall.

The previous owers probably installed central air and swapped out the two

20-amp breakers for 60-amp ones so they could keep cool, not realizing fires will overwhelm the capacity of the central air.

Second things next

I'm not familiar with a central air unit that works off of 120 ac.

No, you do not need to upgrade existing wiring, save for getting it on the right-sized breakers. Your new service will include something like dual

50-amp breakers for the air conditioning

[Stormin Mormon]

The Stucco site is not a help forum, it's an

*advertising* forum that invades real forums (like "alt.home.repair", part of "usenet") parasitically in order to generate free advertising for itself, which continually advances its search engine placement, thereby increasing its own revenue through its click- through advertising commissions.

So the first thing you should do is write them an email and tell them to quit spamming.

Then try to find your way here through proper channels. Please do a google search on "Usenet" and post the regular way.

[BillGill]

Just to echo HeyBub, no you don't have to have the outlets replaced, although you might want to check if you have grounded outlets. That is a whole different story.

But if you just get the panels replaced the electrician will just extend the existing circuits from the current box(es) to the new box and put all the breakers in one box.

If the existing box(es) are mounted in a closet or other enclosed space a new box will have to be mounted someplace where there will be no impediments to access. There has to be a 3 foot clearance in front of the box. So it may wind up on an outside wall, probably near the current meter location.

Bill

[bigtoe1340]

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Do to the age of the home you might want to change the internal wiring. Many homes built in this area did not have a grounding wire included in their wiring. As far as the new main service panel goes you most likely need a 200-amp 120/240-volt single-phase panel. If it is outside make sure it is rated for outdoors. You will probably have to add new grounding for the panel itself. This will include ground rods, a bond to the cold water pipe and also to the gas meter. As a professional electrician in Phoenix I would highly recommend hiring a skilled professional in your area to do the work for you. Tony Dolce Meade Electric

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