No Room In Electrical Panel - Quick Fix

Glad you brought in a knowledgeable pro. Also remember if you do make space and add a new circuit that it has to be an afci combo breaker for new circuit or modified existing 120v circuits

Joel you always do such a great and professional job of explaining your work, kudos!! I have learned so much from your channel, ditto with Scott!

Just searched for this topic the other day to add a heat pump water heater but needed more panel space. Well done.

Joel’s channel is awesome too! I have learned a lot from both of you.

The subpanel in my home (Eaton BR) has all spaces with rejection tabs but you can get Non-CTL twin breakers that fit into those spaces without field modification. The panel was listed as 20 breakers and 40 circuits so it was designed to have all twin breakers but you have to use the Non-CTL (circuit total limitation) breakers.

One thing you did not cover when combining circuits is if you have MWBC multi wire branch circuits you can't combine both phases on the same phase by using tandem if pigtails because you will overload the neutral.

Lower loads on LED vs incandescent lighting circuits is not something I had considered. Thanks!

Most modern square D homeline, qo, and qob panels are listed for two circuits per breaker space. It's a code violation to use tandem breakers in panels that are so old that they listed the number of circuits the same as the number of spaces. Although square d b 15-30 amp breakers are listed for two wires per terminal, the cafci, dafci, and GFCI breakers are not. Also, good luck finding cafci, dafci, and GFCI breakers in tandem formats. Finally, if you are combining loads leaving a space for a future circuit, it's ok to leave the breaker in its side space as a spare. You don't have to prematurely remove the breaker, you can leave the old breaker until you're ready to replace it with the new breaker.

Just a safety concern and hint! When you turn off the main switch, which may be remote from the panel, please “lockout and tag out” the main switch so someone doesn’t see the power out and throw the main switch back on! Lock it out with a padlock!

Scott & Joel - longtime viewer of both of your channels. Great content as always, I especially liked the tip about tandem breaker and how it is only permitted in specified slots. Never used one and wouldn't have known.

Thank you for showing that some Homeline's can use 2 wires and also a thanks to whoever pointed out that overloading the neutral was a possibility. I just combined a few very lightly loaded lighting/doorbell/motion detector light circuits to make room for a 240 V 40 Amp Dual Car charger breaker pair. Not related, but I'm replacing 50 year old IDC connectors in my modular home with UL rated DIN rail terminal blocks as I've had two open hots in 6 months.

Thank you for this very much needed clip.

This got me thinking how I could improve my panel. Never thought about this method. Fantastic! I really like Joel's channel as well. Wish I could hire him as my local electrician.

Great information, the only thing I would suggest is placing the feed wire in the center position of the Wago connector, that way the effective current flow through the busbar is reduced by sending it in two different directions.

Very informative as all of your videos are, Thanks!

Excellent description/ video shots thankyou.

Load balancing on the phases (legs) is also worth doing if you start moving breakers around. Just something to keep in mind.

Great colab for valuable info. 👍

Thank you for the information. I had a specialist from the local guild say I basically needed to demolish the house and start over with a new service. not kidding.

Two comments. After Joel opened the exterior disconnect switch he failed to verify the service was dead. Never skip that step if you are relying on a dead panel. I've see numerous older disconnects that have internally failed and don't open all phases. Kudos for the gloves and glasses Joel. Many DIY channels don't have a clue about NFPA 70E. A word of caution about multiwire branch circuits because older installations don't necessarily have them protected by a two pole breaker which is now required by code. Be sure to pair circuits on the same side of the box to avoid potential neutral burnout.