1

I am buying a house and at some point in the past they installed or upgraded the HVAC. I think because they ran out of room in the two panels in the basement, instead of upping the number of circuits in the boxes they tied in a stand alone for just that one item on the supply/service side of the main breaker. I have looked in uglies but it only covered past the main in the rules.

Do I just need to have the elec cut for a day and upgrade the two panels to larger and then run the HVAC on a regular line? I'm comfortable enough with wiring it all up just not sure if it is good as is or must change since the HVAC technically isn't behind the main breaker.

Improve this question
3
  • 1
    Pictures of all the existing panels would be helpful. It is unlikely (but not impossible) that they actually put the HVAC before the main breaker. More likely (hopefully...) you have a meter main that feeds HVAC and the two basement subpanels. But anything is possible.
    – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact
    Commented Jul 1 at 1:35
  • It’s possible that this is perfectly fine. “Line side taps” are a legitimate thing. Whether your setup is actually OK depends on the details: the size of the taps vs. the service conductors, the unfused length, etc.
    – nobody
    Commented Jul 1 at 2:04
  • Yeah, can you post photos of everything involved? a lineside service tap for a load (vs. distributed generation) is uncommon but not necessarily illegal
    – ThreePhaseEel
    Commented Jul 1 at 2:24

0

Reset to default

Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.