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I need to move some breakers (and attached wires) from the upper part of my electrical panel to the lower part but the wires I need to move aren't long enough to reach their new location.

Is it safe and legal/to code to pigtail a little piece of extension wire in the panel? I know that to make any kind of junction you have to do it in a box, so does the panel count towards 'being in a box'?

stu
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  • Related: http://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/5545/what-is-electrical-code-for-number-of-wires-in-a-breaker. At the time, the answer was "it depends on where you live", but I don't know if things have changed with NEC 2011. – Niall C. Jan 05 '13 at 15:56

2 Answers2

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You should check with your local inspection agency.

Different locales use different revisions of the code. They also may have their own addenda to the NEC. Furthermore, inspector interprets the code differently.

With all that in mind:

Jay Bazuzi
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what i recommend is finding the source if your wire. hopefully in the attic going through cap plate of wall, down inside wall to the panel. find enough slack in the wire to pull and feed that extra wire to the panel, allowing you to reach your new breaker locations.

code almost anywhere would only allow changing by splicing, if you use a junction box outside of the panel, always check your local code

ed greason
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  • please elaborate, I'm a newbie. Splicing in this context means what exactly? based on where you put the commas in your sentence, I'm not sure if you mean "by splicing in a junction box outside the panel" or not. Thanks for clarification. – stu Jan 06 '13 at 01:14