Tandem Breakers

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J

JHarvey

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Hi All,,
I have a quick question about tandem breakers. I had a job the other day where i was sent to do a service change and add a few circuits to a house. When we were done adding the circuits we had two circuits more than the capacity of the panel. It was a brand new Siemens 100A, 24 space panel and I suggested to the boss that we use a couple of tandem breakers for the two left over circuits. I was told to tie, wire nut, a couple of the lighter existing circuits together and put them on a single breaker because the panel wasn't rated for tandem breakers.
The question I have is, is there such a thing as a panel that is or isn't rated for using tandem breakers? Or is was this just a $$ issue? I'm thinking $$, but I don't know, I'd never heard of that before and I was just on another job for them today with a 100A panel that's older than dirt that was nothing but tandems.:eek:
Any assitance would be greatly appreciated.

J.Harvey
 
J,
Look at the label on the panel. Some panels are not listed for use with tandems, but most are.
Don
 
Don is correct. The easiest way to tell with most panels these days is to look at the box label. They'll either be specified as something like "30-space, 40-circuit" or it'll be hidden in the part number, such as "200MB3040".
 
You can not use breakers that are not listed on that cover.Just because they fit does not make it ok.Why might i ask if this was a service change did you end up with a over filled panel ? To me you just cheated the customer if you left them with an already past filled panel.
 
On a Siemens panel, you can see where the tandem breakers are allowed on the bus. Those spaces have a notch where the breaker makes contact. Even if a panel is listed for tandems, you are only allowed to install them at those spots.

Anyway, your boss was right. Doubling up circuits might not sound right to you, but it's what's called far in this situation because it's legal, whereas your proposal would not be. I'm still wondering why you only installed a 24-space panel knowing how many circuits there were. Is space so tight that a 30-space panel wouldn't fit? Or was someone trying so save a few bucks on the cost of the panel?

Leaving the customer with a completely full panel is not something I would do unless there were unusual circumstances.
 
jeff43222 said:
I'm still wondering why you only installed a 24-space panel knowing how many circuits there were. Is space so tight that a 30-space panel wouldn't fit? Or was someone trying so save a few bucks on the cost of the panel?
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I don't know why only a 24 space panel was quoted. We were seperating some circuits that had been tied together on single pole breakers and I could see 18 circuits easy before we added the the new circuits. There was enough space to install a 30 circuit panel but the 24 is what was quoted so thats what I was stuck with. You know the old saying, " the boss is always right, even when you can prove he's wrong" lol

jeff43222 said:
Leaving the customer with a completely full panel is not something I would do unless there were unusual circumstances.
Click to expand...

I agree with that. I normally like to leave 8 - 10 spaces open for future installations when I get to spec the equipment to be used, which isn't very often. And I can understand that since I'm just starting to get into the spec side of the job.

Thanks for the Info All.

JHarvey
 
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