New Electrical Service Box Question

Hello:

Moved into an older home that has 100 amp service.

Will be hiring an electrician to update it to 150 or 200 amps, but would
like
to get some comments and information on how to handle the following problem,
before I do so.

The present service box is recessed into an area that does not have the
physical
room to accept a larger box. Not practical to cut a larger opening there.

However, plenty of room about six feet away.

But, all the wires coming in for the 25 or so circuits do not have the
length to
make it to a new, six foot distant, location.

What are some options in handling this, please ?

If new extension pieces of wire are just spliced onto the old wires using
wire-nuts, these nuts can't be just left
dangling in space, can they ?

Or, if they are all packed into the old box (e.g., with the breaker panel
removed) it
probably violates some codes as to the number of wire nuts in a given volume
(or does it ?)

How would / should this type of problem normally be handled ?

Thanks,
Bob

 

When your electrician comes in to do the pre-work inspection, he
should discuss all these options with you, and let you know what they are.

--Dale

 

Five options come to mind, in no particular order:
1) Don't upgrade
2) Rewire from the new service to the first junction on
each branch
3) Pull the cables from the existing service to the attic
or basement, and splice new runs from the new service
to them in as many j-boxes as are needed.
4) Splice them in the existing service which you convert
to a j-box
5) Install new service and feed old service from it
as a sub-panel.

I'm guessing that 5) may be your best bet. If necessary,
one or two existing circuits could be routed to the new
service.

Ed