Garage electrical question

[deeno]

As a summer project I walled up a the porch side area of my garage. Its around 200 square feet. Just a small area to tinker in comfort. I am in the process of getting it all wired for outlets, lighting and insulation. I am thinking of installing a 9000 BTU mini split ac but in all my reading it looks like it would require a dedicated circuit. I am out of breaker slots in my garage breaker box. I know my garage is wired to support 30 amps as I got that done when I got the garage re-wired by an electrician when I purchased the house a year ago. I also have 220V outlet dedicated for my welder. I know that I will not run the welder when I have the AC so I dont think I will overload the circuit. I don’t want to violate any codes to help avoid issues if I decide to sell the house in the future. Do you think that if I replaced the breaker box with one with an additional slot to use for the AC would be an issue? Thanks for the advice.

[Duane N]

A 208/230 volt mini-split system will obviously draw less amperage than a 115v system and yes, they require a dedicated circuit for the unit. Most mini-split systems require the circuit at the condenser then the condenser powers up the wall/ceiling mounted unit via a 14 guage cable (usually 3 conductor with a ground wire).

I'm a commercial HVAC technician so I'm not too familiar with electrical codes (they vary by state and city) so I would check with your city to see what is legal or maybe bump into an electrician and ask him/her what is legal or not. The last thing you want to do it over-amp the panel.