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Electrical Wiring

Can a homeowner safely remove the entire electrical box?

mfran12345 (Zone 6b, northeast PA)

8 years ago

Long story short, my family is selling a house to A local company since they own the land they're kicking is out and then the house will be torn down. We own the house so can take anythjng with us. The electric is still hooked up and the house has two newer electrical boxes. Is there anyway I can remove them and take them with me before the meter is pulled and electric shut off to the house completely? I imagine they're worth a lot of money and I don't want some stranger coming in to demo and getting them for free when we paid for them. I'm pretty handy with tools but electric scares me so I figured I'd ask. Thanks.

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Comments (5)

greg_2015
8 years ago
I imagine they're worth a lot of money

Not really. A couple hundred dollars brand new (or less)?

You can't safely remove the box with the power still on, but you could take all of the breakers out of it if you wanted. They're probably worth more than the box. But then they're only worth something if you can actually use them in your new house. If they're just sitting in a cardboard box in your basement, then they're worthless.

I guess you could sell them on ebay.
mfran12345 (Zone 6b, northeast PA) thanked greg_2015
mfran12345 (Zone 6b, northeast PA)
Original Author
8 years ago
To take out the breakers just switch off the main power switch at the top of the box then it's safe to remove the breakers? I need to add some more circuits to my house for outlets outside and the garage, no free space in my current breaker box though so I wanted the entire box for that but I'll take what I can get. Thanks.
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greg_2015
8 years ago
If it's a panel with two removable covers on it (one for the main breaker area and one for the other breaker area), then switching off the main breaker will de-energize everything in the other area so you don't have to worry about touching anything.

If there's only one cover, then switching off the main breaker will de-energize MOST of the exposed stuff, but the main lugs will still be live.

Are the circuit boxes in your house the same brand? All breakers aren't interchangeable with all boxes.

Is there a reason you can't just get the electricity turned off before you do anything?
greg_2015
8 years ago
I just noticed that you said the house had 2 electric boxes. Is one a subpanel being fed from a breaker in the other? If so, then you could safely take that one.
mfran12345 (Zone 6b, northeast PA)
Original Author
8 years ago
Yes one of fed from the other. Not sure if we have enough time to call and have the power shut off. I'll see if I can get the sub panel or the breakers at least. Thanks for the advice.

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