I'm remodeling my fixer house, and I plan to install an electrical panel in an unfinished basement. At some point (hopefully in the near future), I'll finish the basement space. This will add thickness to the walls (insulation and framing).
If I want to move my panel from the unfinished wall to the finished wall, what's the proper/correct way to allow for the extra length of wiring I'll need to account for the change in depth (about 4-6")? I'm interested in both accounting for extra length in branch circuits as well as the feeder cables coming into my house. Citations of relevant sections of Code are appreciated.
Best Answer
The Code requires "neat and workmanlike" work. A lot of people interpret that as nipping back all extra length of wires so there's the minimum wire clutter possible. I don't at all. I leave enough wire so I could move the breaker almost anywhere in the panel, and I use stranded wire so shaping them in clever ways doesn't work.
One very easy way of leaving extra space is intentionally choosing breaker locations that are farther away than needed, i.e. wire all the left-entering cables onto the right breaker bar, and the right-entering cables onto the left breaker bar. Remember don't cross the buses with wire, go above or below the buses.
That's it.