Changing Out Breaker

[Mike Hicks]

You have what appears to be a square D box. They make a single slot double pole breaker that you could replace one of your existing breakers with. Then move the circuits to that new breaker and pull the unused older breaker. This will free up the other slot you will need in order to put in a 240 breaker. It is not hard to do but you would probably be well advised to let an electrician do it for you.

[Bryan Wellman]

You have what appears to be a square D box. They make a single slot double pole breaker that you could replace one of your existing breakers with. Then move the circuits to that new breaker and pull the unused older breaker. This will free up the other slot you will need in order to put in a 240 breaker. It is not hard to do but you would probably be well advised to let an electrician do it for you.

OK....bear with me here. The easiest way to add your 2 pole 60A subpanel breaker is as follows.

You're going to need to buy a HOMT2020 breaker. This is the one they are talking about. It is a single pole, 2 circuit (2 handle) breaker. You will actually need to install it in slot #24. This is because you will be moving #28 up to that position. This keeps the two circuits on the phases they were on. More than likely this isn't an issue in a home with Romex, but there is the chance that you might have a bundled circuit.....a 12/3 romex....2 hots, 1 neutral.

If you remove the breaker in #24 and install the 2020, you simply put #24 on the top slot and move #28 up to the bottom slot on the breaker. This allows you to pull # 28 making room for your 240v 2-pole breaker. Just remember to remark #24 with an A and B and label accordingly.

[Nathan Dekens]

The issue with that solution is that its single pole. If he is going to be running equipment off 220VAC from this breaker he is only going to be loading a single pole from his main panel leaving a highly unbalanced load on his distribution panel. and this could cause tripping issues. He needs to install at least a 2-pole breaker by combining the empty space and the breaker already running to the garage outlets along with moving around of a few breakers.

OK....bear with me here. The easiest way to add your 2 pole 60A subpanel breaker is as follows.

You're going to need to buy a HOMT2020 breaker. This is the one they are talking about. It is a single pole, 2 circuit (2 handle) breaker. You will actually need to install it in slot #24. This is because you will be moving #28 up to that position. This keeps the two circuits on the phases they were on. More than likely this isn't an issue in a home with Romex, but there is the chance that you might have a bundled circuit.....a 12/3 romex....2 hots, 1 neutral.

If you remove the breaker in #24 and install the 2020, you simply put #24 on the top slot and move #28 up to the bottom slot on the breaker. This allows you to pull # 28 making room for your 240v 2-pole breaker. Just remember to remark #24 with an A and B and label accordingly.

[Bryan Wellman]

The issue with that solution is that its single pole. If he is going to be running equipment off 220VAC from this breaker he is only going to be loading a single pole from his main panel leaving a highly unbalanced load on his distribution panel. and this could cause tripping issues. He needs to install at least a 2-pole breaker by combining the empty space and the breaker already running to the garage outlets along with moving around of a few breakers.

Read my post a little closer. This is exactly what I was explaining. He needs to move one breaker (#28) to a twin breaker, thus freeing up the space next to the empty one for the 2-pole breaker....