Upgrading of condo circuit board.

$15,000 at least.

Check first if the Board will give you permission to run the "supply cable". When I wanted my floors sanded, I was told there was no 220 in any of the apartments. The flooring company had to bring in smaller sanders to do the job. Since I was having the place rewired and the fuse box changed to a circuit breaker, I asked about adding a 220 line for the sanding. I was told no additional lines of any kind could be run to any apartment since the installation could impact other apartments, eg. holes punched in their walls to feed the wires. Also, since appliances and lights are more energy efficient, the amps run into the apartment were more than enough. This made no sense to me since they could rewire the whole apartment without punching any holes in my walls. But the building's policy is absolutely no....

Hmm. I don't know about that jelj13. You can't just thread high-voltage lines through the walls like speaker wire; they need to be insulated (ideally inside steel conduits) and attached to the walls every few inches -- an impossible task without tearing into all the walls.

However, I disagree with the assertion that because of "energy efficient" appliances and lights, 1960s-era amperage is sufficient. On the contrary, we've essentially tripled the number of "things" that need to be plugged into the walls since 1960. And while our refrigerators and air conditioners may be more "efficient" -- our flat-screen television sets and computer monitors are absolute power hogs.

And I'm speaking as someone who desperately wants 200 amp service in my small apartment so I can have a proper washer and dryer, as well as an ELECTRIC range.

Come to think of it -- also since the 1970s -- we are using more air conditioners than ever, thanks mostly to the fact that they're a fraction of the price they once were.

It used to be that a window air conditioner was a luxury found mostly in upper class and upper middle class apartments, and rarely in the poorer neighborhoods. Now, not only does everyone have them, people have them in nearly every room!

NYCMatt: The electricity within the apartment had conduits already installed. It was just a matter of attaching the new wiring to the old and pulling it through. Running a new line up from the basement required a new conduit, an entirely different story. It only took a day to rewire the whole apartment. Adding new outlets throughout the apartment was another story . Channels had to be chopped into the wall for the new conduit.

We have central heat and a/c, so the wiring for that is on a line attached to the basement circuit breaker.

We can't have washers/dryers in the apartment since an experiment with allowing them in a few of the "second " kitchens of combined apartments showed the plumbing, as is, can't support them.

I had a total electric summer cottage with a washer/dryer, baseboard heating, and window a/c's. 100 amps was sufficient.

Total amps and needing a 240V line are separate problems. Your circuit board can already support 240V circuits, but you may just not have enough Amps (or enough unused breaker slots) for the device(s) that you wish to run on that circuit.

That's what I was trying to explain, stu. Correct me if I'm mistaken, but EVERYONE gets 240v service into their homes. It just depends on how the amps are divvied up amongst the circuits.

Matt, 100 amp service is completely fine for an electric range and a dryer. My all-electric building has 100 amp service per unit, and the units have heat pumps / central air, electric ranges, electric water heaters, and some have electric dryers. No issues.

I would love to move the building to tankless water heaters, just to reduce the potential for damage when our water heaters (all in our apartments) eventually die, but that's where major electrical upgrades tend to be required. Even that, though, can apparently be done on 100 amp now, whereas it couldn't 5-10 years ago.

"Matt, 100 amp service is completely fine for an electric range and a dryer. My all-electric building has 100 amp service per unit, and the units have heat pumps / central air, electric ranges, electric water heaters, and some have electric dryers. No issues."

I have only 60-amp service though.

Matt: "That's what I was trying to explain, stu. Correct me if I'm mistaken, but EVERYONE gets 240v service into their homes."

Yup. There are two 120V lines coming in. If you run one of them on your circuit (plus neutral), you get 120V. If you run both of them, you get 240V. Thats because when on is positive, the other is negative, and vice versa. If you add those two 120V waves together, you get a 240V wave.

BUT ... at the expense of valuable amps. Most new apartment units in NYC have 100 amp service. But many prewars, even with "updated" electric, have only 60 amps. And there are quite a few rent-stabilized units barely getting by on 40.