For your protection this should be left for an electrical contractor. By doing this yourself you are leaving yourself open to cancellation of your house insurance policy. A licenced contractor will take out the proper permits and have it inspected. If for some reason you have a house fire, the first thing the insurance adjuster looks for is home owner wiring and permits to cover the wiring. IF YOU ARE NOT ALREADY SURE YOU CAN DO THIS JOB
SAFELY AND COMPETENTLY
REFER THIS WORK TO QUALIFIED PROFESSIONALS. If you do this work yourself, always turn off the power at the breaker box/fuse panel BEFORE you attempt to do any work AND always use a meter or voltage indicator
to insure the circuit is, in fact, de-energized.
Usually when you run out of breaker space in the main panel. One other instance would be if you wanted power to an out building.
As many as you need. Just make sure the main breaker of the subpanel stays below 50 amps (the rating of the subpanel) and the input to the subpanel, whichever is lower.
Ideally you need two open breaker locations adjacent to each other. Install a 2-pole breaker to supply 120/240 volts. Rating of breaker should 50 A to subpanel. Do not bond neutral and ground in the subpanel.
The wire is sized to the breaker in the main box that is feeding the subpanel. The calculations for the subpanel is based on what devices will use the subpanel and an estimate of duty factors for the devices. An electrician can provide this information, or you can look on-line in the National Electric Code for estimation methods.
Your only hope is that someone wired the box not to code and that there are two wires going into the offending breaker. If you can't separate wires you can't distribute the load.
The main electric panel is where neutral is bonded to ground. There is usually a screw or strap that connects the two so the same type panel could be used as a subpanel and have the neutral and ground unbonded in subpanel.
As many as you need. Just make sure the main breaker of the subpanel stays below 50 amps (the rating of the subpanel) and the input to the subpanel, whichever is lower.
Ideally you need two open breaker locations adjacent to each other. Install a 2-pole breaker to supply 120/240 volts. Rating of breaker should 50 A to subpanel. Do not bond neutral and ground in the subpanel.
nutral bus in the subpanel
#6 wire is needed. If placing the subpanel in a garage at a good distance, it is recommended to also install a seperate ground rod .
The wire is sized to the breaker in the main box that is feeding the subpanel. The calculations for the subpanel is based on what devices will use the subpanel and an estimate of duty factors for the devices. An electrician can provide this information, or you can look on-line in the National Electric Code for estimation methods.
Your only hope is that someone wired the box not to code and that there are two wires going into the offending breaker. If you can't separate wires you can't distribute the load.
The main electric panel is where neutral is bonded to ground. There is usually a screw or strap that connects the two so the same type panel could be used as a subpanel and have the neutral and ground unbonded in subpanel.
It depends on what you are adding for a load. There is nothing wrong with what you have, but if you have more than two circuits to add, a subpanel is your answer if the loads are lighting or other small stuff. Pricewise and ease of installation equals a subpanel. If adding larger loads, an upgrade to 200 amps is necessary.
Yes you can, but it is all about distribution of the load. You still have a maximum limiting current of 150 Amps. So if you did use 100 amps on the sub-panel that would only leave 50 amps on the main. Since power usage is usually not constant and varies by day and situation, you just need to make sure the load is distributed so you don't start tripping breakers.
Yes. The panel must be grounded with its own grounding rod. The ground will not be provided with the feeders to the panel, these will only contain your phase wires and neutral. Also make sure that any subpanel installed does not have the neutral bonded to ground. This should only be done at the main panel where the electrical utility service is connected.
If by "60 amp box" you mean a 60-amp service panel (circuit breakers or fuses), you would generally get a 60-A panel that has several slots designed to accept a variety of compatible breakers, from 15A to 60A. If you have a "box" with no breakers, you would need another "subpanel", with wires from the 60A box to the new subpanel, and install one or more 15A breakers in the subpanel. If you don't need more than one breaker, you might also simply use a 15A disconnect panel with a single breaker in it.
In a residential application it would most likely be used as the breaker for the entire main electric panel or a subpanel feed.