My kitchen is from the 50s and has been updated somewhat over the years by previous owners. The wiring has all be updated to Romex but it’s still all running from two circuits, and one of them is inconveniently placed and practically useless. The end result is I can only use one countertop appliance at a time without tripping a breaker. Only the dishwasher and oven have dedicated circuits.
I’ve lived with this limitation long enough. My 2026 project is to put each outlet on its own circuit and move a couple other outlets from circuits that are shared with adjacent rooms. In all, it’s looking like it’s going to be 5 or 6 total circuits.
Would I be ahead to do a single big circuit (220V split phase) from the breaker box and break it out in a sub-panel in the kitchen or just run new individual circuits up from the main breaker box?
Secondary question:
Assuming I do the sub panel and break out five 15 amp circuits in the kitchen, that’s 75 amps. I only have 100A service from the meter. I do not ever anticipate drawing 75 amps from the kitchen outlets at once, but AFAIK codes require that I account for the possibility.
Would it meet code (NEC) to put a 30 amp “main” breaker on the sub-panel that feeds 75 amps worth of 15 amp circuits (or, alternatively, feed the sub-panel from a 30 amp breaker in the main panel)?
It’s a gigantic hassle to pull more wires but if time/money doesn’t matter, I prefer centralized panels.
Think about someone else walking into your house and needing to fix a problem. They wouldn’t know to check the kitchen has its own sub panel.
Unfortunately, time and money are factors. Not that I want to cheap out, I just thought maybe a sub panel might be more economical.
I mean, when there’s only a 40 amp breaker labeled “Kitchen S/P” I think they’d figure it out.