I am rewiring my basement that has originally been set up as a basement suit and trying to isolate the basement from the upstairs panel. The house was built in the 70s and has had the service upgraded to two 100A panels some time ago. The panel for the upstairs has the main panel in the basement and then the sub panel on the upper floor. This sub is fairly old and has no ground bar to isolate the neutral from ground which is a code requirement. Has anyone else run across this with any ideas to help?
Cant say that i've ever seen that before. Only thing I would say is pull that old sub out and replace it.
To be clear, just the 2 - 100A panels?
2nd floor is the sub?
If so, how many conductors to the 2nd floor? 4?
just add a ground bar to the sub,relocate the grounds to this bar (drill and tap,this GRD bar.)
If 3 conductors,not sure about the CEC, but you can pull up a GEC from the main to the sub.
I presume that you're trying to isolate the expense of powering up the basement.
That is, you're looking to rent the space.
Your lowest cost gambit is to correct the ground/neutral path as described above.
Then shift the loads unique to the basement over to sub-metering like E-Mon D-Mon.
http://www.emon.com/index.html
Yes that’s correct, 2 panels in the basement that both have there own meter (one for the basement suit and one for the upstairs) and plus one sub panel for upstairs as well. The main feed is a 3c with ground. I was thinking about the ground bar idea but as soon as I start changing things in this panel then I will have to get this inspected as well. My plan was to only change wiring in the basement and only pull a permit for this basement reno.
Thank you for this idea as well for the metering options Tesla. I will save this site for future jobs. In my case it is just a matter of separating the two panels and then the basement suit will have its own meter.
How old is the panel and what brand is it? You may be able to get a neutral kit if it is a product from a major, still living, company. (C/H, SqD etc)
The house was built in 1968 and the panel is a Federal pioneer. Thank you for that idea I will check into it.