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John Galt6
Forward, March
Premium Member
join:2004-09-30
Happy Camp

John Galt6 to mackey

Premium Member

to mackey

Re: electrical sub panel

1 - Anon posts are allowed on this site...for better or worse.
2 - The picture requirement is never enforced...that's a mod call.
3 - That's your opinion.
4 - It's not "clearly unsafe"...it is a violation of the Code, however.
5 - Sure you do...a (now removed) attic-mounted HVAC unit could require a 10/2 for the unit and an 8/2 for emergency heat.

mackey
Premium Member
join:2007-08-20

mackey

Premium Member

said by John Galt6:

3 - That's your opinion.
4 - It's not "clearly unsafe"...it is a violation of the Code, however.
5 - Sure you do...a (now removed) attic-mounted HVAC unit could require a 10/2 for the unit and an 8/2 for emergency heat.

3 - It's also the opinion of the forum moderators judging by the number of threads which get locked and/or deleted. I'm really surprised »Wire Size didn't get locked; »Improper ground most certainly did.
4 - That's your opinion. It's clearly unsafe to me. The "doubling up" for the neutral and ground kinda reminds me of that now-deleted thread of someone asking something similar which ended with 4 pages of arguments about exactly how unsafe that was followed by the deleting of the entire thread.
5 - Unlike adding A/C to a furnace, electric emergency heat is built into the main HVAC unit and doesn't use a 2nd circuit. While having both an unused 8/2 and 10/2 ending up in the same place /could/ happen, I find it highly unlikely.

/M

Jack_in_VA
Premium Member
join:2007-11-26
North, VA

Jack_in_VA

Premium Member

said by mackey:

5 - Unlike adding A/C to a furnace, electric emergency heat is built into the main HVAC unit and doesn't use a 2nd circuit. While having both an unused 8/2 and 10/2 ending up in the same place /could/ happen, I find it highly unlikely.

/M

A heat pump indoor air handling unit most definitely has 2 separate circuits. One for the main unit and another for the electric strip heaters. Unit has 2 circuit breakers to disconnect them and 2 breakers in the Service Panel.

mackey
Premium Member
join:2007-08-20

mackey

Premium Member

Not always, it depends on the size of the unit. But yes, they can have 2 circuits. I was misremembering things as all the multi-circuit units I've seen actually use a subpanel near the unit which is fed from a single breaker in the main panel.

I forgot to add the 6th thing which made the OP feel like a troll to me - the name "hotinattic" sounds too close to the argument about conduit color and de-rating from a certain recent thread.

But by all means, OP if you could post some more info, preferably with pics, it would help a lot! That #8 alone might be enough for what you need (assuming you need only 120v or only 240v circuits in this subpanel).

/M

Jack_in_VA
Premium Member
join:2007-11-26
North, VA

Jack_in_VA

Premium Member

said by mackey:

Not always, it depends on the size of the unit. But yes, they can have 2 circuits. I was misremembering things as all the multi-circuit units I've seen actually use a subpanel near the unit which is fed from a single breaker in the main panel.

/M

That would be quite a circuit to feed the air handler and condenser unit plus 15 kw of strip heat. The circuit would have to be jumped to feed the 2nd breaker in the air handler.

mackey
Premium Member
join:2007-08-20

mackey

Premium Member

Kinda. The one at my parents place used a 125A breaker in the main panel and had 2 60A breakers on the subpanel attached to the side of the unit. As it was a normal subpanel there was no jumping required, just 2 2-pole breakers. The condenser got its own circuit to the main panel as it was almost on the other side of the house.

The unit in the last place I was at was really small so it only had a single 30A or 40A breaker plus a 20A for the condenser.

/M
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