Electrician's advice?

[Freedom420]

Here’s the deal – trying to set up a small grow room in the garage, nothing complicated, but landlord concerned about the load on the house by doing so. I maybe putting out 6-8 amps out MAX, so not too worried about the load in/out of the garage. He is more concerned about the current set up of the house as a whole, “especially with all those lights and fans I have in my closet”. Looks like the way the routing of all the circuits are currently, could be redone and would help eliminate the shorts he’s been getting when running... let’s say a space heater in the winter.

Here is the current setup;

20a ?

20a kitchen outlets

20a washer, living room outlets, all 3x bedroom outlets,

100a main?
100a main? (both under "service disconnect"

15a garage

15a ?

15a exterior lights, hall, living & 3x bedroom ceiling lighting

15a attic/crawlspace exhaust fan



We tested them all and found that 2 (with the ?’s) have nothing attached. Could we take the washer off the 20a its sharing now and give it its own breaker? Can we split up the other 15a and spread some of the love around so that it doesn’t get too overloaded, when he lights up that space heater with other items on?

Or… could it all be solved even easier/cheaper by just upgrading the breakers that are in there now +5a? 15 to 20, the 20 to a 30a?

He called an old electrician of his and got a crazy estimate of nearly $1k, with 3 line items on the estimate that read:
1) install new 120volt circuit to split of existing circuit to allow for more devices to operate on a given circuit $250.00
2) install new dedicated circuit to existing outlet $350.00
3) install new dedicated circuit to new outlet $350.00



Let me know what you think? How much of this can one do on their own with minimal knowledge? Not looking to add anything, per say. maybe more so upgrade whats already there. 15a to 20a on one or two points. to lesson the likely hood of a short?

Otherwise (and ideally) how would I spread the others around? especially to the 2 dormant 15a's?

[Wash. state Desk Jet]

1. Looks like you got 100 amp service is that correct?

or is it 200 amp coming into the house? Is yer panel box common or divided?What about stove and water regarding amps coming into the house? What do you got for stove ,os it fifty amps? Or do you have a gas range? and yer water tank ,what does it draw? Or is it gas.

The bottom line question is what do you have coming into the house 100 amp or 200 amp?A lot of older homes that have not been upgraded are still running 100 amp service.When yer box is maxed out in amps what happens is a circuit steals power from other sources. Ever heard of that before?

Run down the entire box .You seem to be confining whats what there to yer specific interests .

The electrician's estimate is about splitting a circuit and adding two GFI or dedicated circuits.One to existing and the other a new addition.So the math was done.There is enough amps in the box to accommodate a new circuit.So what about upping the garage to 20 amps ? That is given the house wiring is equal to it.Or run yer own circuit out into the garage.

What does shorts he has been getting in the winter mean? does he share the house or are those shorts a result of your usage of space heaters in a rental house?

[conscious evolution]

2. Do not upgrade the breakers

The breaker are sized so that they will protect certain wire sizes.(15a for 14 gauge wire,20a for 12 gauge,etc..)Replacing the current breakers with larger ones creates a high risk of losing thermal overload protection which can result in a fire.

The quote from the electrician is pretty much in alignment with what I would charge.Most likely,he will place the new circuits on the spare breakers.Be thankful you have spares.Otherwise he would have to replace and upgrade the panel and service cable.That would really run up the price.I charge anywhere from $1500 to $2,500 for service upgrades,depending on degree of difficulty.

[Wash. state Desk Jet]

3. In view of his garage project

it would seem running some 12/2 into the garage attached to a spare beaker would solve his dilemma. As to the rest of it, he should stay out of the box! Would you agree with that?
Lights and plugs.It also stands to reason he needs full permission from the owner of the house and property to do that or have it done.Looks like about $350.00 for the additional garage circuit as per the estimate given by a electrician the owner of the property knows and has trust in.

Things do indeed cost.It looks like he has the solution to his own dilemma, though he doubts that it comes at a cost.

[Freedom420]

4. thanks all

i live with the owner of the house whose full blessing i have. we're just trying to go about this the safest and most economical way... also making sure we're not getting the shaft on the estimate for what we're asking for.

and finally to validate/debunk my half-baked (literally) idea. we'll stick with the pros on this one.

thanks again!

[Wash. state Desk Jet]

5. You Idea is not bad.

A spare circuit with some 12/2 run out to the garage will allow your idea to develop. And frankly, the bid seems high to me. As a general contractor I would turn down the electricians bid in far less than a New York minute.!
On the other hand that may be what they charge in your locality. Just the same I would turn that down !

But I haven't seen the box or any of the house wiring either.

Good luck with your idea and your creative project.
Ask your landlord if he has any ideas about running a spare circuit out to garage just for your creative endeavor.You buy all the materials.
And ah, pick up a how to book on electricity -adding plugs and lights and circuits. About $15.00. And ask yer landlord to help.You can always pay a electrician to drop by and look over yer work-get it? ! surely it would be worth $75.00 or $100.00 bucks for ten minutes of his time to look it over !Or $350.00 to look over an entire project.

You would be surprised what you can do
Yes you would !
And yes you can !