What Type of Panel Is This?

[watts]

Hello everyone,

I'm new here. Perhaps someone could help me. I'm wondering what type of panel this is. I believe it's a 150-200 amp panel. The home was built in the 60's. I would like to run 30 amps on 240 volts to one of the bedrooms. This panel seems to have fuses on the bottom for bedrooms, living room etc. They seem to be 15-30 amps @ 120v. I'm not sure what you call those things at the top though. They say oven, range, A/c, dryer etc. They don't look like normal breakers to me. The room I want to grow in is not near dryer/range etc.

 

[blazeoneup]

Hello everyone,

I'm new here. Perhaps someone could help me. I'm wondering what type of panel this is. I believe it's a 150-200 amp panel. The home was built in the 60's. I would like to run 30 amps on 240 volts to one of the bedrooms. This panel seems to have fuses on the bottom for bedrooms, living room etc. They seem to be 15-30 amps @ 120v. I'm not sure what you call those things at the top though. They say oven, range, A/c, dryer etc. They don't look like normal breakers to me. The room I want to grow in is not near dryer/range etc.

That's a fuse box, those things at the top are a type of pull fuse. These are used for the heavy loads in older fuse boxes.

You should be able to look at the fuse panel diagram on the inside cover of the panel door. This should tell you what your main amperage is.

I think you will need to upgrade the old fuse style box to a newer breaker style box If you want to run 30 amps to your bedroom.

It appears that old panel is currently full. You have no free slots to pull 30amps at 240v from.

There is only 2 options in my opinion.

1 upgrade the old fuse box to a modern style breaker box which will have plenty enough slots for the wiring you want to install.

2 you could unhook the dryer or range pull fuse and use it to run a new 30amp 240v line to the bedroom.

This would leave you having no dryer or range service depending on which one you used.

The recommended way to do things would be upgrade the fuse panel to a modern breaker panel. This would provide you all the slots needed to install the new 30 amp 240v service to the room and house all the current service lines.

 

[Hammerhead]

Agree those are old school. if you ever need to upgrade you have to change out that panel. There is a controller that hooks up to your dryer outlet and your dryer plugs into the controller. When the lights are on the dryer wont work....Its called power thief from dx hydro

 

[joe fresh]

wow i can tell the house was built in the 60's, lol....along with those older fuse boxes usually those old houses have the old type of wireing(paper insulated types)

so to be safe i would switch out the fuse box for a breaker panel and def use |NEW wiring for the grow op....EDIT: COSTS TPO TRPLACE FUSE BOX WITH BREAKER BOX IS ROUGHLY 600 PLUS ANY WIRING YOU NEED DONE

 

[Agent-Smith]

Also Agreed. Hammer head had a good idea with the controller that looks like this

They also make a box that will give you 240V by plugging two cords into 2 seperate 120V circuits called the Orion 1 by Titan Controls if you just need something small for a light or two.

Both options MSRP for $299.95

 

[Hammerhead]

Looks like this 225$ it does not really steal power. It switches from one outlet to another. That name is no a good one.

 

[blazeoneup]

Hello everyone,
The room I want to grow in is not near dryer/range etc.

Judging from the posters initial statement I think those type of controllers are not an option for him. His dryer/range plugs are no where near the area he wants to grow.

He has really only the 2 options I posted previously. He either needs to upgrade his service to a newer panel with modern breakers and more available slots. Or he needs to use the dryer/range fuse and run a new line to a new outlet in the room in which he wants to do the growing.

 

[Hammerhead]

The problem with these controllers is that they have a 30a breaker feeding the Receptacle witch are only rated for 240/ 15a or 120v 15a.. This is a major safety issue in my eyes ... When I got my controller I had to replace allot of the wiring and all of the receptacles to 6-20r. They only used 12g(9.3a) wire I had to replace that to 10g(15a) This is with the 80% continuous running capacity. It will be allot cheaper to run a power cable from the controller to the grow room. Replacing that panel will run in thousands...

 

[joe fresh]

The problem with these controllers is that they have a 30a breaker feeding the Receptacle witch are only rated for 240/ 15a or 120v 15a.. This is a major safety issue in my eyes ... When I got my controller I had to replace allot of the wiring and all of the receptacles to 6-20r. They only used 12g(9.3a) wire I had to replace that to 10g(15a) This is with the 80% continuous running capacity. It will be allot cheaper to run a power cable from the controller to the grow room. Replacing that panel will run in thousands...

your a little off on your AWG=amps


60amp=6ga
40amp=8ga
30amp=10ga
20amp=12ga
15amp=14ga

heres a quick list of the most common wires used in a grow room, and their max rated amps....remember to never load your wires more than 80% of the max rated amps for that wire

 

[Hammerhead]

No you forgot the 80% capacity. My nubers have already taken that 80% out..

http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm

 

[joe fresh]

No you forgot the 80% capacity. My nubers have already taken that 80% out..

http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm

actually i didnt, and your numbers are still wrong...

you said 10awg wire is good for 15amps, when the max rated amps on 10awg wire is 30 amps, how is 15 amps 80% of 30 amps???


you also said 12awg wire is good for 9.3 amps, but again a 12awg wire is rated at 20 amps, meaning 80% of 20amps is 16amps, so how do you come up with 9.3??


like i said you are off on your awg-amps even at the 80%


and the link you posted is incorrect or maybe RIVES can pop in and clarify it because i know for a fact that a 6awg wire is max rated at 60 amps and 80% of that is 48amps, i know for a fact that a 6awg wire can handle 48 amps on continuous load, where as your link says only 37amps....so there is a problem with that link, maybe IRON LION or RIVES can clarify that table in the link

 

[Hammerhead]

lol look at the link.. Your numbers are correct.. I did not even look at there math. Thats allot of miss info if its wrong.. Keep in mind these are not my numbers just a copy and paste

 

[blazeoneup]

Both of you are right but not seeing eye to eye. You are confusing each other.

10awg is rated for 15 amps. 10/2 is capable of running 30 amps. Why because it has 2 10awg lines both capable of using 15 amps or 80% there of.

His math is based on a single 10awg wire.

You guys are just confusing each other and that in turn can possibly confuse the thread starter.

I think I am getting confused trying to figure out where the confusions coming from

 

[Hammerhead]

LOL that makes sence wont be the last time I have confused someone...

 

[joe fresh]

Here is another one this one is wrong as well 6g it say 55a. Im reading as depending on the type of conductor your using..

http://www.electrical-designer-guide.com/electrical-wire-size.html

Wire insulation plays a big role as well as to how much a wire can "safely" handle a load

 

[joe fresh]

Both of you are right but not seeing eye to eye. You are confusing each other.

10awg is rated for 15 amps. 10/2 is capable of running 30 amps. Why because it has 2 10awg lines both capable of using 15 amps or 80% there of.

His math is based on a single 10awg wire.

You guys are just confusing each other and that in turn can possibly confuse the thread starter.

I think I am getting confused trying to figure out where the confusions coming from

hahaha...ok that makes perfect sense, i just never seen a 10awg wire with only one wire in it, usually its 2 or more

 

[blazeoneup]

hahaha...ok that makes perfect sense, i just never seen a 10awg wire with only one wire in it, usually its 2 or more

Yeah people don't realize that most of the time.

 

[Hammerhead]

I have 3 breakers in my panel that only have 1 wire. Thats what a singe pole breaker is for. Its very commen. So now that thats all figured out..Back to not confusing the op

 

[blazeoneup]

I have 3 breakers in my panel that only have 1 wire. Thats what a singe pole breaker is for. Its very commen. So now that thats all figured out..Back to not confusing the op

What you have is a single pole breaker, which has a single hot line ran to it. There is also a neutral and a ground wire used for 120v service they are part of that same line but not ran to the breaker.

 

[watts]

Thanks for the help guys. Just what I needed to know. A proper upgrade would be nice. Would the electrician need full access to the home and all rooms? The electric company would need to turn power off at the home as well I bet.

The dryer is 30 amp 3 prong 240 volts. I'm assuming its on 10 gauge wiring. Not sure if those power thief boxes are 3 prong or 4. I'd like to run 7 600 watt lights total (veg/flower) so 30 amp 10 gauge should be enough i'm thinking. I figure I could run fans,pumps, t'5 off of normal outlets.