Seeking Certified Electrician

[sarahkbarrick]

Seeking certified electrician to provide a price quote and timeline for installing a sub panel in my home in Top Hat (near White Center). The main (only) circuitry panel gets overloaded and needs to be split into two separate panels for upstairs and downstairs power usage. Hoping to complete this job by August 1st or August 15th at the latest. THANKS!

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[mark47n]

First, I recommend Keithly Electric. They’re located in South Park and they have a fantastic residential team!

Now I’ll give you a a bit of information that I suspect they’ll provide you: It’s likely that you need a service upgrade – more power, not more circuits – not just a sub panel. You may not even need a sub panel, just a new panel. If you’re tripping the main but not any of the other breakers, that means that, while none of the individual circuits are overloaded, your main service is overloaded.

Your main breaker rating is determined by the size of the feeder supplied by the utility, not the size if the breaker. If this is overloaded, as is indicated by the main tripping, then the feeder supplying your home is too small and also need to be upgraded, as doesn’t your meter.

What size is your main breaker? IS it 100A or 125A? I’d be surprised if it was 200A or 225A. You cannot get a service larger that 225A in Seattle without a variance (and it would be shockingly expensive). While I can’t reasonably estimate what these expenses will be I will say that a service upgrade, after permitting (yes, you’ll need permits for SCL to connect you) and other utility costs will be north of $3500…probably more since my knowledge of current costs are…dated.

Common causes of this are increased loads due to converting from a a gas appliance or heating to electric, adding a heat pump, etc. Consider what’s happening when the main trips. While it’s also possible that you have an intermittent fault, it’s possible that it’s just enough to put you over the line of the main.

Before you ask, I’m a licensed Master Electrician with 25 years of experience. I no longer work in the residential market and I’m not a contractor but I can certainly recommend.

If you have any other questions that I can answer please feel free to ask.

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[mark47n]

First, I’d recommend Keithly Electric. They’re located in South Park and their residential team is fantastic!

Now I’ll tell you something that one of their electricians will likely tell you: it’s not likely an issue with you panel, it’s more likely, if you’re tripping your main, that your service needs to be upgraded. Your main panel would feed the sub panel so this removes no load from the main. I would presume that you probably have a 125A service, right? You’d be better served (sight unseen and based only on your description) to get a service upgrade rather than just move some circuits around and it may even be less expensive. This would bump your service up to 200A and install a larger panel at your current location thus eliminating the need to relocate wiring.

These issues are coming up more frequently since many are switching to electric cars, electric heat/cooling, cooking, etc. These are the big loads that are the most likely source of overloading a service.

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