DIY new electrical panel

[kaylie]

H has been taking classes offered at the community college on home improvement. They're taught by a GC. This is the course description for electrical wiring 2:

Part no.2 expands skills learned in Part no. 1 above, Including working on the installing of a main and sub-panel. Students will have hands on experience in wiring in a main and a Sub-panel.


We do need a new electrical panel because we have too many piggy back breakers in our current one, but is this something that a novice could even attempt after instruction? He wants to sign up because he thinks he could DIY it. It's a series of four three-hour sessions.

Thoughts? Reality check from Fox et al.?

[johnohfs]

I've done a lot of wiring as part of my home improvement experience. As an engineer, I would tell you that learning from an instructor is hugely helpful, but unless he has a more experienced person there to check his work (especially the first few times he attempts something), I would hold off on replacing a breaker panel yourself. Once he gets some real world practice, he'd probably be okay.

I would also add that you should only work on a panel that has the power to it secured. Adding a sub panel is easier and safer in this regard since you can secure power to the bus bars. Replacing or upgrading the main power requires you to basically remove the meter in order to secure the power to it.

Check with your local township or municipality to see if you can pull your own permits for this type of work. If any work is attempted, they'll conduct a couple inspections. If they don't allow this type of work, then you're better off paying a licensed and insured electrician the roughly $1k for this job.

Like I said, I've done a lot of electrical work, and I wouldn't replace my own primary panel. I've paid people to do it for me. I would add a sub-panel myself, but that's just me. Electrical work isn't something that is very forgiving if you make mistakes... like carpentry or something. Best of luck!!

[FoxInFiji]

Um no! We did a lot of electrical work on our current remodel but we would never attempt to "design" the layout ourselves or touch the main panel. That is one area you want and need to spend money. It's against every code I know for a non-licensed person to touch the high voltage lines coming into the main panel. That is how you kill yourself. A class is only going to teach you basic wiring (this wire goes to this part of the breaker, side A vs. B of the panel, etc.) but they won't be able to tell you how the panel should be laid out which is key (balancing loads on each side, what rooms need their own breaker, how many outlets can go on one breaker, etc.). Sounds like your current panel is poorly laid out so you'll need an experienced electrician to fix that. Even if your DH thinks he could fix the layout odds are it's against your local code to do that amount of electrical work being non-licensed. Most states or cities have a law like that in place. Being out in the country we don't but like I said we only ran lines per our electricians instructions.

We wanted to hire him to just do it all but he was busy taking some new state tests so he ended up just helping and instructing us in his spare time. It saved us a lot of money but also extended our remodel by weeks because we're not as fast as him and needed his input on a number of things. He made multiple visits and gave us detailed instructions on what to run where after spending half a day testing what everything was. We located and daisy chained basement recessed lights and wall receptacles. Hooked up light switches, drilled, and fastened the wires to the wall studs following the code dimensions. But he hooked up all junction boxes (a little more tricky but the "hot" wire is the only real concern there) and the main electrical panel. It will take a lot of knowledge to determine what line is what in an existing home to do no or minimal drywall cutting. We had almost every wall open and it still took a trained professional half a day to figure it all out! That amount of time is also not easy to estimate and is where most electricians estimates vary. Cheaper electricians will underestimate that number and then come asking for more money after they won the project because they went way over on time. You want to ask how much time is budgeted for each quote you get and the fastest guy is not who you want.

[darthxtater]

If he causes a fire...it is possible your insurance may not cover it. Make you have licensed master electrician do the work.

[kaylie]

Jul 14, 2012 17:15:26 GMT -5 FoxInFiji said:

Um no! We did a lot of electrical work on our current remodel but we would never attempt to "design" the layout ourselves or touch the main panel. That is one area you want and need to spend money. It's against every code I know for a non-licensed person to touch the high voltage lines coming into the main panel. That is how you kill yourself.

Okay, this sentiment here was my first reaction. It just seemed like a bit too much for a non-licensed person to do. I jokingly told him that if he wants to attempt it, I have to make a call to our life insurance agent first.

If Fox and John wouldn't DIY, there's no way I'm letting him do it. Thanks, guys.

We actually did get a quote of $1,200 to get a new panel plus a sub panel that we can use for new circuits as we need them in the future. It's also not urgent, just something we need to do before making any major electrical addition or alteration.