The main circuit breaker on the side, at the outside out my house is overheating and trips. All electricity inside the house gets turned off when this hapens. It tends to happen whenever I use the AC on a hot day. The electrician says that this 90 AMP main circuit breaker needs to be replaced. The problem is that he says that they don't make these 90 AMP circuit breakers anymore. They only have them in
100 AMP. He says it's safe to go up from 90 to 100 AMP.
Is this safe to do at my house? Your suggestions/advice would be greatly appreciated.
I forgot to mention that this 90 amp circuit breaker is the main circuit breaker to the house. On the panel outside the house, there are 2 circuit breakers. One for the main, and one for the AC. The AC breaker is OK. Only the main 90 amp circuit breaker trips when I use the AC. The AC was tested, and the AC was not the root cause of this problem. The main circuit breaker was the problem.
Without seeing the breaker box I doubt that anyone can tell you whether it is safe. The electrician you hired thinks it's safe and he saw your breaker box. Selling you a new and larger breaker box would be profitable for him so if he recommends just swapping the main breaker he's saving you money and is guaranteeing that the swap is safe. Sounds good to me. Make sure he's licensed and get a receipt.
Upgrade to 200 amp and have all your wiring rechecked before you burn the place down. The A/C is straining your system but every time a motor starts, e.g., the fridge, you can expect something to give.
Nobody here can tell what condition your panel/wiring/etc. are in but an electrician came and looked and said "ok". What are we supposed to say--he's wrong?
BTW, the increase in size from 90 to 100A is certainly ok if that's your concern--wiring is not sized in such fine increments--wired sized to be adequate for 90A is the same size as would be used for 100A.
I'd say the answer to the question is afa anyone here can tell, go w/ the electrician assuming he is a reputable one, not somebody you found by knowing someone who has a b-i-l who moonlights as a fly-by-night on the side handyman...
You believe wrongly. The 80% requirement applies only to continuous loads, which is specifically defined by the NEC as maximum current for more than three hours.
Let's not play Chicken Little. The sky is not falling.
You have no way of knowing this. While 90 amps is kind of small by modern standards, it is not necessarily too small. We don't know the A/C load or other loads that are present.
It is quite likely the breaker is failing. It happens. If so, all she needs to do is replace the breaker. This is much, much cheaper than upgrading to 200 amps, which would require a new panel, likely new breakers, and possibly a service upgrade.
The electrician should have checked to make sure the box and the supply will support 100. I believe it is likely it would, but without seeing it, I guessing is the best I could do.
Those that are suggesting this might be a good time to consider increasing your service to say 200 amps are doing you a favor. Ask your electrician about it. If you have a small home and really don't need it, then 100 should be fine.
He (the electrician) has already there, assessed the situation--if he was even half-way competent and saw an undersized service entrance wouldn't he have already made the recommendation????
Agree. A 90 amp house service does sound a little small in this day and age. Maybe the house was built before AC and many other modern gadgets became common and affordable for most if us? But if you have gas or oil heating, not electric, then 90-100 amps may be quite adequate! But quite possibly the breaker is getting a little old and tired. If the electrician says replace it with a new 100 amp and the wiring is OK try that for a while. And naturally even if you do not have 'a lot of electrics' in your house maybe conserve a bit by not running anything else 'heavy' while the AC is in use? For example don't go baking anything in an electric oven (not that anyone might want to on a hot day anyway?) during a hot day when the AC is on? If the house has been extended or other additions, then perhaps, maybe, it may be time to think about a larger new service. But doing that can mean that major parts of the house may have may to be rewired to meet current electrical code requirements and the consequent expense; whereas the current problem, if nothing else has changed, may be just a worn out circuit breaker!
First, if your house has a 90 amp service, it must be old. Therefore, it is from a time before we had toasters, microwaves, and all the gobs of goodies everyone plugs into the wall sockets.
If you want to just save and use your 90 amp panel, you need to go through, and throw out about half your "stuff", as you don't have enough electricity to run it all. You could do that, and many people do when it costs too much to upgrade, or they like a simpler lifestyle, or, say at a cabin where service is limited. Or, you can just run certain things at certain times, remembering not to use the microwave when the AC is on, etc, etc, etc, but that is a pain, and something always ends up overloaded.
If you want to upgrade, you will have to run much more than a panel. Sure you could put in a 200 amp panel, or a 400 or a 12,000. But from there, the wires have to take it all over the house, and there again is where you are weak. You'll need to upgrade all through the house, add outlets, add heavier wire, etc.
Whatever you do, have a licensed electrical company do it, don't cheap out, and wire for the future. You're betting your house on it.
U think Michelle is going to know what specific tests an electrician made or really cares about the breaker itself?
She had an electrician evaluate the situation; her best bet is either accept the professional advice she paid for or hire another if she thinks there's something suspect about this one.
What a load of garbage. You have no way of knowing that.
[snip of utterly useless drivel masquerading as "advice"]
She already hired a professional electrician to come out and look at it. And you think you know more about the situation than the guy who was actually there. What amazing arrogance. And what amazing foolishness.
I too, agree that the electrician on the job, is in the best position to make these determinations. While 90 amps is relatively small, it can be perfectly adequate in a smaller house with non electric cooking, clothes drying, and heating. There is no panel or service equipment rated at 90 amps, it would be a minimum or 100 amps, and any cable used in a service that would be adequate for 90 amps would also be adequate for 100 amps. #2 aluminum or #4 copper is what's required for 100 amps, anything smaller wouldn't be adequate for 90 amps either
Steve, not to be argumentative, but you don't have a shred of information to determine what you've written. There are bazillions of houses with 100 amp services, that have every modern convenience and plenty of electricity to power them
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