I am installing a 240v ductless mini split. My breaker box is full, and I have a separate (hot water) breaker in its own box on its own meter. The main is a 100 amp Westinghouse, the house is 2000 sq ft. 4 beds 2 baths. The house is currently run on an oil furnace.
I see two ways I can approach the situation:
-
Add a subpanel on a breaker in the main box. Not preferred because I fear blowing the main breaker.
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Upgrade the breaker in the hot water box to supply a new subpanel. Preferred because I won't have to be concerned with blowing the main breaker, BUT there is no shutoff between this breaker and the meter, so the meter has to be pulled.
- Are there other plausible options that I am missing?
- Any other reasons why option 1 may be better than option 2?
Best Answer
Option 2 is probably not an option at all - that setup is almost always for a special-rate storage electric water heating tariff and is only on for a few hours when demand is low overnight (which is why it's a special lower rate) or else it's switched off whenever loads are high (a different scheme, similar concept.)
For my utility, you can keep them if you have them from decades ago (when they had a nuke plant idling away all night), but you can't get a new one done this way. You certainly cannot add to it, (for my utility) you don't own the water-heater associated with it - it's part of the overall deal, they own it.