I need to add a 50 amp breaker, is there room in this box? (I will be hiring an electrician to do the work). Thanks!
Electrical – Do I have room to add a 50 amp breaker
electrical-panel
Related Solutions
Assuming you've got 6 gauge wire feeding the sub panel, you should be fine. As long as you aren't pulling more than 50 amps through that sub panel at once, you don't need to worry about over loading the panel. That's what the 50 amp breaker is there for.
It looks like your old Westinghouse panel will accept breakers from Eaton or Cutler-Hammer (but check at place of purchase). If so, this tandem breaker can serve two circuits but use only one slot in the panel.
This is different from a double pole breaker which takes two slots like you would need for a 240 volt appliance:
To use the tandem, pull out a pair of single pole/non-tandem breakers (and discard), connect the two circuit wires to the tandem and insert. Voila! You have freed up an extra slot.
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Best Answer
When you define "50A" breaker it is really necessary to specify if it is for a 110VAC circuit or for a 220VAC circuit. Common usages for a 50A breaker is for a 220VAC circuit to support:
With that said the 220VAC/50A breaker would be a two pole unit similar to the existing 30A breakers that have the connected (bridged handle) across the two poles.
It appears plausible that such dual pole breaker would fit in the two remaining spots in the lower left corner of the panel. I say plausible because there is some question about just how the panel's bus bus bars are configured considering the existing placement of the two pairs of 30A breakers on the left side that have bridged handles. You may want to have the electrician come out to give a bid on the work and its ultimate feasibility before you commit to the work.