Electrical – Would like to add a 14-30 outlet in the garage

electrical-panel

I am looking to add a 14-30 outlet in my garage. My panel is right where I would add the outlet too.
Just trying to understand my own electrical panel a bit before I go further. Attached are the pictures of my panel and the GE spec sheet.

My understanding is:

  • Panel supports 200amp
  • I have 30,30,50 circuit breakers in my top section that is always hot.
  • My lower section can support max of 100amp breaker but is using a 60amp breaker right now

So I am thinking I could:

  • Change the 60 amp breaker to 80 or 90 amp breaker
  • Add a 240/30amp breaker to the lower section
  • Connect that to a 14-30 outlet

Things I am not sure of:

  • Can you add double pole breakers to the lower section?
  • I see a 27 poles maximum, is that in total or just for the lower section?
  • From the spec sheet, I see 8 poles on each side but on my actual panel, I think I only see 6 being used on each side? So there should still be 2 poles available on each side?

And lastly, I will definitely be getting a professional to do the work but wanted to understand what options I have before hand too. Thanks!

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Best Answer

What you have here is called a "split bus panel". There is no main breaker and as Limo Driver said, it follows the "rule of six" which means it must be possible to cut all power with 6 movements of your hand, you can cut all power with 4, so you're in good shape that way. But the panel is FULL! The 2 "unused" spaces are probably not available because there are connection lugs behind them. A picture of the innards of the panel would be helpful to get better advice.

Also, it's impossible to feed generator power to a panel like this safely unless you get one of those rinky dinky generac transfer switches with individual breakers. The master electricians here prefer a manual interlock on the main breaker so you can power the entire house from the generator, but that's not possible here.

Another consideration would be a sub-panel. You could upgrade the sub-main breaker from 60 to 100 amps, move some circuits to the sub-panel to make room for your 14-30 outlet. But that's kind of a kludge. Less expensive than a full panel replacement, but still a kludge. If it were my house, I'd do a full panel replacement with a 40 space panel. I also noticed you're in Washington State (me too), and we have our share of wind storms and power outages. So if you do this, you might want to consider a breaker for the generator and a generator interlock between the generator breaker and the main breaker.

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