I recently had a 60 amp subpanel installed in my garage. The main panel was full so the electrician removed two 15 amp full size breakers to make room for the 60 amp double size breaker.

This of course made me curious, so I mapped out what was tied to every breaker in the main panel. It turns out that the electrician seems to have joined two circuits on one breaker. My family room used to be on one breaker and two bedrooms were on another. Now the same breaker turns off power to all three rooms. There are now about 720 watts of lighting, 16 duplex receptacles, and two smoke detectors on this one breaker.

I'm not sure, but I assume he did a similar thing with another pair of 15 amp circuits to make room for the other half of the 60 amp breaker.

I had assumed (I know, I know) that he would have installed half-height breakers to make room for the 60 amp breaker. I'm going to call him and ask him to fix this situation. My question is, should I expect him to eat this expense in the name of doing the job correctly or is what he did acceptable and I'm at fault for not being explicit enough when describing the work I wanted done?

 

Why didn't he just "relocate" the two 15A circuits to the new subpanel?

Regarding the circuit that you mapped out - what do you generally plug into the receptacles and do you normally have all 720 watts (6 amps) burning at the same time?

Tandem (half-height) breakers can only be installed where a panel will accept them. What is your panel's catalog number?

 

He didnt relocate the circuits to the new panel because it is in the garage.

 

I would not assume that what your electrician did was wrong. I would bring up my concerns, and see what your electrician's answer is to this, then perhaps post back if you are not comfortable with the answers, letting us know of course, what was said.

 

It's not unusual for 8 or 9 of the 12 light fixtures (all 60 watt) to be on at once. The main loads on the receptacles are two TVs (one in the family room and one in a bedroom) and a stereo system (all together, the amplifiers draw about 300 watts peak). Other receptacle loads are minor, like clock radios and phones.

I don't know the panel's catalog number, but there is a tandem breaker in the main panel already so I assume the panel can accept them.

 

Some tandem breakers that are meant to be used as replacement breakers in older panels can be installed where they shouldn't be. A "resourceful" electrician can often make a tandem breaker fit onto a bus bar where it isn't supposed to go.

One sure way to know if your panel will NOT accept is to count the number of "handles" in your panel and if you come up with 40 then you cannot install tandems because 40 is the maximum number of handles allowed. Double-pole breakers count two handles. So do tandems.

You can always map out your entire panel and decide if there may be a double pole circuit not being used or if there are other circuits in your house you want "doubled up". You can then call your electrician and ask him to rearrange the wiring accordingly if you don't want to mess with it yourself.