Adding another circuit breaker and moving a room off the old breaker ... approx price?

Question

Right now my house is wired so that the living room and 2 small bedrooms are wired into one circuit breaker. All I want is to pull one bedroom off the breaker and onto its own. Reason: that room is my office and there are 3 PCs in there. With all that draw on one breaker, if I try to run AC in that room it triggers the breaker. That also means no AC in the living room (I'd rather not go with central air if possible). When I moved into the house the electrician I had come in to fix a few things said there was plenty of room to add additional breakers.

What I'd like to know is the approx. cost of something like this. Note, I'm not expecting real accuracy, but are we talking a few hundred? A few thousand? Would it be cheaper to put in Central Air? Or what?

Answer 1

As opposed to changing a bunch of existing wiring which could be labor intensive, why not just run two new circuits? The A/C has a high amp draw on startup so dedicate one cicuit with one outlet to that and a circuit which only feeds your computers. With plenty of room in the panel, this should be your safest, easiest, and least expensive solution. Two breakers, some wire, a couple old work boxes, and devices with about half a day labor depending on the difficulty of the wire pulls, the total cost should be less than 400 dollars.
Don't count on simply being able to switch some wire at the panel and just add a breaker, it's still one circuit and would need to be broken and pull new wire anyway. Leave that circuit alone and isolate your high amp devices to their own circuits.
As for the central air it would depend on how long you plan to live in the house, how many window units you are currently using, and if you are prepared to invest 2-4 thousand dollars to benefit from the long-term energy savings a new system will generate.

Answer 2

It seems to me that you have 1 circuit feeding 2 rooms and your A/C unit may be also using that same phase. If that is in fact the case, then you need to have an electrician put the A/C on it's own circuit and add 1 possibly 2 circuits to feed your 2 rooms. This should not cost more than $500-$600, and adding 1 additional circuit doesn't add that much in cost. In will be worth it in the long run.

Answer 3

some element out codes, and also you should keep that in options. honestly there is not any longer some thing incorrect with a separate breaker for each room. without understanding the total provider coming for your Breaker field, I recommend you more effective comprehend. If it truly is a few thing you're unclear of, i'd a minimum of verify with the code corporation, and/or get suggestion from an electric powered contractor which i do not see right here. i have been a GC for decades yet sub out each and every wiring pastime i'm getting. yet another difficulty is safe practices and criminal duty, insurance, and only a ordinary experience of self assurance in having the pastime performed by using someone with a license and adventure, who will carry the criminal duty for the pastime. it truly is going to also be inspected, and particular a allow pulled. you're talking about your position. the most important funding you'll likely ever make, why no longer do it the perfect genuine way? Steven Wolf

Answer 4

G.E. breakers cost about 4 to 5 bucks for 15 and 20 amp sizes,other name brands go up in price from there,14/2 wire costs about 25 bucks for 50ft. and 12/2 costs about 35 for 50ft.,i would run a seperate line of 12/2 to the aircon. and a seperate line of 14/2 to the room, just measure the amount of wire and you will come up with a close estimate, ps. you will have to discontinue the existing line in the room you are changing by finding where the line comes from 1 room to the other and tap into it on the new room side and cap off the old room side,so you may need a new junction box there at cost of about 3 bucks. if you are not familiar with electrical wor k do not try this yourself,call in the pros , depending how much wire has to be run he may have it done in about 3 or 5 hours at a cost of about 200 bucks for labor.

Answer 5

The cost of new breakers depends on which brand/type is currently in your box. They vary from 20 or 30 bucks to close to 100. Adding a breaker is relatively easy. Running the wire from the panel to the new room is much more of a problem.

'nuff said?

Answer 6

As long as you don't have to run new wire, if there's enough excess wire to move from one breaker to the other, you're out the cost of a new breaker. maybe 10 bucks