Marking a Slot as a Spare

You can mark a blank (open) slot as a spare.

There are 2 settings in Electrical Settings that allow you to specify whether the spare loads are included in the panel's Total Connected Load and Total Estimated Demand parameters (both for VA and Amps). The settings are Include Spares in Panel Totals and Run Calculations for Loads in Spaces.

Spares are locked by default, but can be unlocked. Locked spares do not move from their current slot or phase when you rebalance the panel schedule.

1. Open a panel schedule.
2. Select one or more open slots.
3. Click Modify Panel Schedule tabCircuits panel Assign Spare.

   The term Spare displays in the Circuit Description column for all selected slots and the default phase values is 0. You can overwrite this value and assign phase load values to the spares.

   

   NoteWhen the maximum number of poles is reached on a panel, the Assign Spare command is unavailable. For example, if there are 21 poles assigned to the breaker, and 42 slots display in the template, this command is unavailable for poles 22-42.

    

   You can also make a spare circuit into a multi-pole spare. This can be useful for electrical designs that include renovations of existing buildings.

   Once a spare has been created, the value in the Poles column of the Panel Schedule can be edited directly. For example, to change the spare into a 3-pole breaker, change the value from 1 to 3. 

   

   Note There must be sufficient unused slots directly below the spare to add the additional poles. For example, to convert an existing spare in circuit #2 to a 3-pole breaker, circuits #4 and #6 must be empty.