The home we bought in 2022 had a 100-amp panel, and every slot was full. We had upgraded our previous home to 200 amps fifteen years ago. At the time we bought this house we thought 100 amps was not up to contemporary expectations. However, everything worked fine and the home inspector did not see any safety issues with it (but mentioned the low capacity).
When we wanted to add ONE more outlet, the electrician said that according to the rules that required one more circuit and circuit breaker and thus a new panel. He didn't think a "tandem breaker" would comply, I forget why, but I wasn't putting up much sales resistance as I thought we needed a 200 amps for future-proofing anyway. Since then we've added a ductless minisplit, which surely is a home improvement, and if we hadn't upgrade the panel before we'd have had to do it then.
So this thread is interesting to me, but it had never occurred to me that this wasn't a legitimate "home improvement."
When we wanted to add ONE more outlet, the electrician said that according to the rules that required one more circuit and circuit breaker and thus a new panel. He didn't think a "tandem breaker" would comply, I forget why, but I wasn't putting up much sales resistance as I thought we needed a 200 amps for future-proofing anyway. Since then we've added a ductless minisplit, which surely is a home improvement, and if we hadn't upgrade the panel before we'd have had to do it then.
So this thread is interesting to me, but it had never occurred to me that this wasn't a legitimate "home improvement."
Statistics: Posted by nisiprius — Fri Jan 02, 2026 8:27 am — Replies 21 — Views 2198