Service Panel Question

My wife and I recently bought this house. It has a 200 amp Federal Pacific panel...I'd like to change it to a 200 amp Square D. Can i put the Square D panel box next to the Federal Panel and move the wires thru conduit to the Square D box Leaving the Main shut off where it's at? All the circuits will be on Square D breakers.. All except the main. This project I can do myself without having to have the meter pulled. Is this possible?
Thanks, Joe.

 

The idea of upgrading the panel is to remove problematic Federal Pacific from the mix.
I would want to remove the Federal equipment completely.

 

Coffee is still brewing, but I would say the POCO will have to kill power. Ditch the FPE complerely. To reconnect you'll likely need an inspection.

 

I have to agree with the others. You really should completely remove the Fed box altogether.
It will take some time and effort and a bit of money to do so but well worth it.

Before I retired if I ever got a call and when I was at the home owners home saw they had a FedP panel I refused to do any work on the system unless they agreed to replace the panel. I would not even add a circuit to the panel. No hands on - sorry. My hands were not going to be the last ones in any FedP panel. I just turned down the jobs.

 

Gentlemen, Thank you for all the advice. I know Fed. Pacific is a no even though i was just going to use the main breaker and feed it into a square D breaker, Wish i knew that when I bought this place, maybe I'd get a few more bucks off the price if i mentioned the service panel but it is what it is. I'm taking all your advice. I'm gonna call a company tomorrow (Munday) and make arrangements to have it totally replaced. Again, that you for all your input. Have a wonderful day, Joe

 

If you had a home buyer's inspection performed prior to purchase the inspector should have caught that panel and advised you that it must be changed.

Some inspectors don't catch everything but a FedPacific panel is up there with one thing that should be dealt with prior to purchase either as a reduction in price or replacement on the seller's side of cost.

 

You really need to get totally rid of the Federal Pacific load center. Do NOT even use it temporarily as a main to kill the power while swapping wiring to the new Square D load center.

Federal Pacific breaker malfunctions are known to have caused an estimated 2,800 fires each year.

Also this: https://safeandsoundelectric.com/the...trical-panels/

And this: https://rytecelectric.com/blog/feder...a-fire-hazard/

Zinsco brand load centers and circuit breakers are no better than the FPE.

I'd recommend going with the 'QO' Square D load center and circuit breakers. The Square D Homeline circuit breakers have the same thermal-magnetic guts as the 'QO' circuit breaker but the QO circuit breakers have the 'visi-trip' red window that makes it easy to identify when a breaker has tripped.

 

I feel that Square D QO is overpriced for just a little red window. I would recommend Siemens or Square D Homeline.

There is really no way to feed a panel off the existing FPE panel as you would need to feed the new panel off an FPE circuit breaker so you are back to square one.

 

Eaton Cutler Hammer now has the trip window also.