Panel upgrade and kitchen electrical complete!

The panel upgrade was completed today, and we have power! PG&E finally connected the power today (not yesterday as scheduled). Here is the picture of the new panel prior to meter re-connect.

Note that the additional circuits for the kitchen are not in yet.  However, some circuits have already been upgraded. Specifically, the 220 volt circuits going to the kitchen for oven and cooktop thru existing conduits. Let's talk about conduits... There is the original 3/4" metal conduit under the kitchen island as seen i the picture below.

The second 1/4" conduit is for telephone line. The original 3/4" conduit carried a 220V 30A 3-wire circuit on 10-gauge wires. We want to have our cooktop on the island too, however most cooktops require a 40A circuit. Frankly, even if you crank up all heaters to max at the same time, then it gets close to 30A, so for all practical purposes 30A should be enough, but I am sure city inspector would disagree. So we've run new 8-gauge 4-wires for a 40A circuit plus a 20A circuit for island outlets.

Similarly, we've pulled a new 40A circuit for the oven through the existing conduit. 

What about the additional circuits to the kitchen in order to bring it up to code? We've decided to run them in a conduit in a trench. The conduit will come out of the ground right infront of the 2' kitchen wall in back elevation, terminate at the outside junction box and then the wires go into the kitchen wall. Here is what that junction box looks like:

Note that the conduit and trench is not there yet. Sergio and his team will be digging the trench and laying the conduit pipes next week.

The box is kind of an eyesore, but I think it will blend in once I paint over it. The alternative way of running additional circuits is through the roof. The downside with the roof approach is that it is harder to service (especially if you foam over it) and leak risk is relatively higher especially with flat roofs.

Kitchen has been rewired to code too. Here is what the new kitchen wiring  looks like:

Note that we've also added an outlet to be hidden behind the wall cabinet above the sink. This is for future countertop lighting needs. 

More to come once we dig the trench and run the new circuits.

Update on Nov 2nd:

The trench work is complete. Sergio and his team has laid the conduit and ran wires through it.