A 60 or 100 amp panel feeding cloth-wrapped circuits will not carry a new outdoor unit plus everything else. The HVAC quote and the panel quote belong on the same page – finding out afterwards is the expensive version.

This is most common in homes built before about 1940. Pre-war construction — galvanized supply, cast iron drains, cloth-wrapped wiring, ungrounded circuits.

Related

• Ductwork threaded through a house built for floor grates
• One central return for the whole house
• Water heater vents into the chimney and the furnace no longer does
• Silver-wrapped tape on old duct joints
• Additions still on window units
• Uninsulated walls and an oversized condenser
• Furnace runs but the house never warms evenly
• Filter slot is a gap behind a grille

Back to Hvac.

---

Written by Jaylan Jones. I Like To Fix earns a referral fee when a call connects to a contractor. See our business-model disclosure.