I have 34 circuits in a small house, on a 100 a service. Everything seems to need a dedicated circuit, even if it really amounts to a minor load, AFCI's have added to this.

I am going to have to install a 200A MLO 40 Cir.on this 100A service, just for space.

Comments??

sparky,

You're in that "Gray Place" again!

You're the best judge of what type of situation you have there. What are all these 'extra' circuits for?

I know some will say that the load determines the service size and nothing is wrong with this, but it sounds like a bit much to me already. (Just my opinion)

It wouldn't surprise me if the va/sq.ft. values used for calculations get raised at some point soon to reflect more modern (realistic) usages.


Bill

Why don't you take some readings with as much load energized as practical? If you have sufficient capacity, and the house is that small, you could mount a 2nd panel and just transfer some of the circuits. Some people want a separate circuit for every little load that comes along.

thanks, some good points here. Yes, i'm in a sort of NEC limbo here...
I have;
3 arc-fault circuits
1--gfi cir for an outbuilding lite & rec
1--gfi cir for bathrm lites
1--gfi cir for jacuzzi
1--circuit for those dumb overhead heat lamps that are really only good for bald spots
1--radiant electric flr heat in bath , which makes more sense
1--furn
2--exterior peak light cir's for possible airport lights (joke)
1-dish
1-pig
1-ref
2-kit
1-wash
2-dry
1-cellar lites
2--range
2-well
3-bath
and a bunch more i cannot recall, the reality is that there are many that do need dedication, but many do not, so i've sort of screwed myself here.

mostly, this is due to my wiring methods...this is a small 3 bed cape, despite the 3 baths.

Does each bedroom afci need its own ckt?Are there window ACs?
Can gd & frig or dw be combined? Thoughts?
Is one of the baths a powder room? It could share with a full bath.
Whats the wattage of peak lites, the bath lites, and the cellar lites?

sparky,

Should I ask where these 34 circuits are now?

sure,
all in the 200A MLO, fed via 2-3 ser to a 100A meter/ main

All the baths could be on one circuit

All the receptacles outlets could too, for that matter.

Some kitchen appliances could be combined

And i could of used 12-2 instead of 14-2 for lighting,(180W per stop thing...) but i hate getting hung up on box fill.

There are 2 peak lighting circuits , simply for the unknown, 4 AFCI's, 3 GFCI's . I did not have the time to do any concise prints of circuitry as i would normally, i just winged it, all speed, no brain...

Many of these circuits will draw little to nothing, which is not a bad think is it?