wnjj wrote:
One word of caution here before you buy everything: my panel only allows doubles in the lower section of the panel. Since I needed more room in order to install a normal sized arc fault breaker, I put one like that in the bottom and put the arc fault and another up top. That said, they do make specific breakers that allow doubling in the top but I’m not sure if they come in mixed sizes. What you could do if you can only fine 2 the same is combine two existing ones, freeing up a spot for a 50.
The way you can tell is by the depth of the slot in the back of the breaker. The fins in the top of panel are solid and the ones that allow doubling have a fork. The deeper doubles are much more expensive, presumably to prevent common use of them up top.
If you do need to rearrange anything in the panel, you can splice the wires with wire nuts if needed since the panel also meets the requirements of a junction box.
Info here: http://m.startribune.com/how-to-know-when-tandem-circuit-breakers-can-be-used-aka-cheater-breakers/140688183/
Thank you AGAIN, @wnjj. i will pull the cover off the panel and have a look. I wonder if I need to actually remove a breaker to tell. I'll check the links you gave before I get started.
I suppose I could very easily rearrange a few of the 15A circuits in there and really open up a spot anywhere to put in a double 50A breaker... If I'm doing panel work anyway, it doesn't really matter at that point.
