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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Does your current box have capacity for 4 new breakers?  That would be good. 200 should be fine and was for our prior house with 2 AC units.  [/quote]

To me it looks like yes, but my electrical knowledge stops at HS physics and taking notes on my parents’ box for a project.

Electrician 1 insists it has room but is going to run the numbers to be sure.

Electrician 2 wants to add a panel but I think it’s just to simplify his other work.

HVAC guy 1 wants an additional 95A.

HVAC guy 2 insists he needs &gt;100 additional amps.

Contractor who is neither HVAC nor electrical insists that all of these calculations are wrong. We have more electricians coming out in 10 days so I hope to get clarity then, but we are also under time pressure because we need to move and list our other house soon and book work before the post-Christmas busy season starts.

None of this matters if the city can confirm that we have a conduit and not just a buried line, or that we already have upgraded service from a past renovation, but it takes 2 weeks to be assigned a rep and even more time to get them to do a site visit.

It’s suddenly very obvious why the previous homeowners didn’t do certain things, and frustrating that even a thorough inspection can’t provide insight into some of the problems we’ve stumbled into.[/quote]

PP electrician again. Needing to add an additional 95-100A seems suspicious, BTW. Are the HVAC contractors suggesting your panel lacks this capacity already? Really unlikely based on your descriptions. If breaker space is lacking, you could run a new subpanel. Further, that’s a lot of power and amperage draw for an AC system. A 4000 sqft house needs an 80,000 BTU AC = two units smartly sized to achieve 80,000 BTUs total.

Carrier makes nice units and their Comfort™ Series Single-Stage Air Conditioners are good entry level systems. See page 9 on: https://www.shareddocs.com/hvac/docs/1009/Public/06/24SCA4-01PD.pdf

You could go with a 48,000 BTU unit on a 40A circuit plus a 36,000 BTU unit on a  25A circuit (which are hard to find, so say 30A).

Or, you could also consider upgrading to a very high efficiency AC such as the Carrier Infinity® Variable-Speed Air Conditioner with Greenspeed® Intelligence. This will consume less power and be more likely to fit within your load center’s capacity. See page 4 on: https://www.shareddocs.com/hvac/docs/1009/Public/0F/24VNA6-02PD.pdf

With a high SEER unit, you could go with a 48,000 BTU unit at 30A plus a 36,000 BTU unit at 20A. This is much less of a power draw, should easily fit within your existing load center’s capacity, and will save you lots of $$$ in the future on operating costs. Plus quieter, better for the environment, and still very powerful. Definitely a more expensive install up front…but not if you can avoid upgrading from 200A to 400A main service.

Assuming you already have ductwork installed and an existing air handler on a dedicated 15A or 20A 1P circuit, not that this adds much to total power draw.

Don’t let these shady contractors fool you, OP. [/quote]

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