At the beginning of this project we knew replacing the electrical was a given. There were maybe one quad or two duplex receptacles per room throughout the house, which is nowhere near code. Who knows who or when the electrical was installed in this house at the time we purchased. Plus, I didn’t have that many extension cords, and electric is one of those things you just don’t want to mess around with. Better to start from scratch if anything looks suspicious. I had some idea of what it would cost to replace the electric, so we budgeted accordingly… so we thought.
The house was juiced with two 60 amp meters totaling 120 amps when we moved in. Our engineer told us that this was enough to run our house, but our contractor talked us into upgrading to 200 amps because of future technology, gadgetry, kitchen, and so on. It sounded like a good idea, but the catch was that upgrading to 200 amps would double our electrical budget.
The debate was early in the planning phase, so we just decided to go for the upgrade.
Getting to the point where we needed to wire the house became a dream come true. After what we experienced with the DOB, so many structural problems, then getting the house filled with stick walls, the electrical work was welcoming. My contractor’s crew webbed the entire house brilliantly with conduit, plenty of receptacles, and light switches.
Before long, the space was finally feeling like a house again. Plenty of planning went into how each floor would be fed. The location of breaker boxes was also considered because of the wall size they needed to occupy. Because this was a two family dwelling, two separate meters, plus a common meter was required. For our unit we installed a 150 amp, and for the apartment and common areas, two 50 amp meters was installed.
Tags for what goes to where. Very important in the process.
Now, the only thing I can describe in the following images of our electrical breaker boxes is the closest thing to (apologies) porn. Our electrician did such an amazing job and has such a beautiful style for organizing the breaker box that his work speaks for itself. I have never seen anything like it.
So there it is. We have power! Now if only we can get the plumbing inspection…