Want to wire up box for welder in garage.

[dirtyb115]

Yup, i got a buddy at work who is a licensed electrician who i am gonna talk to tommorow about an upgrade.

Houston
I have 15 and 20 amp breakers for lights outlets, its like i have a sub panel in my own panel with its own 60 amp breaker.

Cperky:
I realize i cant just add the breakers, i just meant that having no main breaker, i have the "potential" of going over the rated amperage of the panel, which i dont like.

Thanks for all the advice ect.. Ill keep you posted on how it all turns out!
Dirty

[Willl]

Are you sure that center 60 amper doesn't also kill the upper breakers ?

Your box sounds a lot like mine, rated at 60, with the main in the center.

[Mike058]

It sounds like you've got enough advice on this one. Having an electrician friend take a look at it is the best plan right now. I just wanted to add that I had the service for my property installed a couple of weeks ago. I was toying with the idea of doing it myself (its just pulling big wires through conduit, right?) but after pricing the materials, I decided the estimate from the electrician wasn't that bizarre after all. I was there when they did the work and I'm glad I paid to have that job done. Mostly because I would have made a right proper mess of things. Secondly, because when the inspector from L&I came out, he opened the panel, checked the connections and it was perfect the first time. As much reading as I've done, I still missed some stuff that would have cost me return inspection trips. For instance, I didn't know you have to have a GFCI outlet installed at the service panel. I still can't find where that's written down, but the electrician said you needed it per code, and the inspector was looking for it when he was there.

Anyway, I just wanted to vote for having a pro do it.

[mjncad]

No main breaker and a 125-AMP main panel sounds like the service was installed in the 70's. If you can afford it, get a qualified electrician to upgrade it to a 200-AMP panel.

Otherwise a subpanel is your best best for your existing setup. A subpanel is sized at 80% maximum of the main panel, or 100-AMPS in your case.

I have a 200-AMP main panel with (42) 1/2" breakers available, of which most were full. I added a 125-AMP subpanel in the garage for my welder and 240VAC space heater and a 125-AMP subpanel in the basement. I could have gone with 150-AMP panels; but I couldn't find them locally at a decent price, I did the sub-panels myself, and they weren't difficult.

Just find out what the codes call for these days.

[Inspector507]

Originally Posted by dirtyb115

My meter says 200,

Around here almost all "spinning disc" type meters (not meter cans) say 200A on them. That's their full continuous load rating.