Renters using too much power and the breakers keep going off

Question

I'm renting four rooms in a 4 bedroom apartment (bought the building this way). They have a fridge, stove, microwave, washer, dryer, etc all in the kitchen. Then, they also have AC's in 3 out of the 4 bedrooms and 3 fridges in 3 out of the 4 bedrooms. The 15 amp breakers keep going off because the system is overloaded. I can't forbid them from using AC when hot and they have their own mini fridges in their rooms because people steal each other's food in the main fridge in the kitchen.

This is the panel of this specific unit with the breakers going off

This is the setup for the whole 4 unit building

It's a 4 unit building that gets 400 amps and I know the other 3 apartments have 100 amp panels. This one has a 100 amp breaker and a 200 amp breaker, I've never seen this before but I believe it has to do with there being a central hot air heater for the apartment which I believe uses the dedicated 100 amp breaker and the whole panel is 200 amp?. Anyways, I was wondering if I can add 4 new 14/2 Romex wires with 4 new 15 amp breakers, one for each room since the panel has space and if that would solve my problem. Obviously I will hire an electrician but I just want to know what I'm getting into and if this will fix the problem!

Answer 1

Having an electrician run a new 20A circuit for each A/C should solve the problem.

The building and the apartment both seem to have adequate capacity in their panels.

If you are paying for this, you might be successful at lower cost by buying and installing new, small, efficient window A/Cs and installing them well. Tenants often buy used oversized power hungry beasts and install them poorly. If each room has it's own 15A circuit already, this may be enough. If you provide effective A/C you can forbid the tenants from installing their own. You could perhaps run one or two 15A circuits shared between rooms for the fridges if needed

Answer 2

People keep making a fuss about refrigerators, but they are very small loads of 120 watts when running, and 40W average. I'm talking about 2000s full-size fridges (no ice on the door) which I have measured at length. Measure yourself or just look at the Energy Star label and divide kWH/year by 365 for kWH/day. Not much.

Let me guess. They're portable A/Cs, right? Those have been a recurring theme all summer, because they absolutely dominate a 15 amp circuit, taking 11-12 amps. You cannot have 2 of them running on the same circuit. The things are dreadfully inefficient, as Technology Connections discusses here.

Inefficiency = high amp use = breaker trip nuisance.

In my experience, a modern window unit uses about 1/3 the amps to do the same practical cooling (due to the "Suck" discussed in the video). A 6000 BTU window unit does the same or more practical cooling than a 10,000 BTU portable. So if your windows support window A/Cs, I suggest outlawing portables (or at least 1-hose portables) and requiring small sized window A/Cs only. That will help.

Part of the reason the window units take less power is they run continuously until they hit target temp, then they shut off. They don't stop and then have to catch up, because there's no water bin to empty.

You can also reduce A/C load by realizing that sunbeams are 300 BTUs per square foot, and if your building isn't white, it's absorbing almost all of that. Ask your painter for the reflectivity or albedo of your paint. And think about ways to lighten roof color or have shade structures up there tat the wind can get under, cough, solar.

However the root problem is probably that the apartment was built to Code/slumlord minimum standards. That calls for 2 kitchen general-use receptacle circuits, 1 laundry, 1 for all bathrooms, and one 15A circuit for the entire rest of the house often. So when you get tenants with an A/C in each room, especially portables, that creates a difficult situation.

Answer 3

... but I just want to know what I'm getting into and if this will fix the problem

um no. These sort of question make me laugh... what happens when they add another lane on the highway at an exit in the hopes of alleviating traffic backing up - everyone just uses that extra lane to then cut over at the last minute and instead of one lane backing up now there's two.

recognize reality and human nature, they are renters. if they steal each others food, they are not going to respect your building. Unless you double the service amperage from 100 to 200 and add multiple new outlets then only doing one or two new runs is going to get used up quickly and likely going to be a waste of money on your part (unless you raise the rent and actually recoup the cost).

The existing electrical service is what it is, put it in the rental contract, leave the breakers tripped and have the renters pay someone to come reset them when they trip. The problem will work itself out.

I can't forbid them from using AC

you're not legally or morally required to provide it to them either. This sort of thing will only get worse, and more comical, as "those" people continue to push their "electrify everything" agenda, ban fossil fuel propane nat. gas, etc.

trying to answer this question without hurting feelings is totally unrealistic; you could just mandate the landlord to update the building electrical service so tenants can have whatever they want.