Federal Pacific Panel Replacement

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crazyengrchic

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Location
San Diego, California
Occupation
Construction
Hello, I just purchased a 1959 home. The current panel is a recessed FPE Panel with a fused main and circuit breakers with the meter socket at the top. A friend mentioned that there is an option to piggyback a new panel on top of the existing (after gutting hte panel). I was unable to find any information on this. Please help.
 
I work in the construction industry and will hire a licensed electrician to do the work. Just looking for a few options. Is there a piggyback panel that fits to the FPE panel? Thank you for your input.
 
IMO there is nothing good about any component of a FPE panel that is worth saving including the back box. I would just rip it all out and start over.
 
crazyengrchic said:
I work in the construction industry and will hire a licensed electrician to do the work. Just looking for a few options. Is there a piggyback panel that fits to the FPE panel? Thank you for your input.
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Always a good thought to see what can be saved. However, having replaced many panels (and some by tearing the guts out) I've found that I much prefer to replace the whole thing. First of all, if you keep the old box, you will probably have an undersized box for the things you now want to use it for. Second, the whole thing will be a lot neater, better mounted, and more professional (say: safe IMO), if you get the new box. Third, the price of replacement guts costs as much or more as buying a whole panel.
 
All of the piggybacks that I have seen were simply for temporary power. You would still have to have access to all of the conductors and would not be able to splice behind the piggyback, now, yes you could remove it to get to any splices, but I wouldn't allow it.
 
crazyengrchic suggested to me in a PM that they would use the old panel as a junction box and install a new panel adjacent to it. This seems like a good idea.

crazyengrchic, welcome to the forum. :)
 
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