New electrical panel question

[ultrarunner]

New service with underground might as well do it once and be done...

We can get 3 phase here for farm use... it does come with a standby charge which can be steep...

One of my friends had it taken out because unlike the sellers... he was a hobby farmer and it was costing him monthly to have something he was not using.

 

[dickfoster]

New service with underground might as well do it once and be done...

We can get 3 phase here for farm use... it does come with a standby charge which can be steep...

One of my friends had it taken out because unlike the sellers... he was a hobby farmer and it was costing him monthly to have something he was not using.

Never heard of a standby charge but I'm sure if there is a charge to charge then I'm sure PG&E in California would be charging for it and then some and the state would likely pile an extra tax on for it too.

 

[Zerk]

I suspect it is not unusual to pay more for 3 phase service. They are probably using 3 transformer set up, which costs them more.

I wonder how many people really know how many amps they draw.

 

[ultrarunner]

At work needed to know this for some equipment we needed to bring in...

Have a 1200 amp service and monitored it for 30 days... we were at 27%

Entire room of panels... outlets and circuits everywhere... thing is most are for convenience and few are used...

 

[CurlyDave]

It sort of goes without saying you have to upgrade everything including wire to the house when upgrading to 200 amp. and that is why the price is most likely quite different between the two quotes. No licensed electrician would put a 200 amp box on a 100 Amp wire to the house. Not even a good unlicensed handyman would do that. Only a complete hack that doesn't know about electricity would do that. OP do not allow a hack to put a 200 amp box in your house without also sizing the feed to the house for 200 amp.

OK. Please educate me on this. If I have a 100 Amp wire to the service entrance, and put in a 200 Amp panel, but change out the main breaker to be a 100 Amp breaker, what is wrong with that?

I know I have to upgrade the main feed wire to put the 200 Amp breaker back in, but if I ever need the 200 Amps, I don't have to change out the panel. And, I get a lot more breaker slots. As people have said, with LED lights and more efficient appliances, real amperage draws are decreasing, but the number of circuits desired seems to be increasing.

 

[ultrarunner]

This is what I'm finding... real usage down and number of circuits up...

The common setup and one I still have a few of is a 1200 square foot, 3 bedroom single family home with a 30 amp main serving two branch circuits... a 20 amp for outlets and a 15 for lights.

These same homes are now getting 200 amp with 40 slots like the home one door over... yet I have never had a single issue with my 30 amp 120 volt main...

I think a lot of it is the sales factor of going to 200 amps... even the city only requires 100 amp

 

[papabear]

Think resale.
If I am looking at a property to buy, and it only had a 100 amp service, that would be a negative feature of the property for me.
I would spend the extra $$$ and not cheap out.

 

[teejk]

OK. Please educate me on this. If I have a 100 Amp wire to the service entrance, and put in a 200 Amp panel, but change out the main breaker to be a 100 Amp breaker, what is wrong with that?

I know I have to upgrade the main feed wire to put the 200 Amp breaker back in, but if I ever need the 200 Amps, I don't have to change out the panel. And, I get a lot more breaker slots. As people have said, with LED lights and more efficient appliances, real amperage draws are decreasing, but the number of circuits desired seems to be increasing.

I'm not a pro but your thinking makes sense to me although you might want to price things out. The main breakers are pricey so it may be cheaper to buy the 100a panel w/ main (around here the "kits" are cheaper than the individual parts) and add subpanels for additional slots. As for number of circuits...when you need more and more dedicated circuits for your smoke alarms, septic pumps and such the empty slots evaporate quickly with very little load.

 

[LD1]

Agree with others that if you are doing all new underground, go with 200A. As the cost difference in 200A wire vs 100A wire is ~80 cents a foot last time I priced. Which is small compared to the other costs associated.

But check with your utility first. Make sure the meter/meter base as well as the transformer are sized to handle the load.

I may have missed it, but dont remember you saying what the existing service is? Depending on that, the electric company may need to upgrade things on their end. My electric company dont charge for any of that. Just did new 200A service to my shop. Tapped into the transformer already on the pole but feeding the neighbor across the street. XFMR was too small, so they dropped a bigger one on there, wired the drop, and installed the meter panel with a 200a breaker in it as well as what they call a "contractor" plug....which is a 30a GFCI receptacle. None of that cost me anything. Used the contractor plug to have power down there while building. When ready to tie in the main panel, no need to call them back. Just shut off the breaker in the meter base, wire up, turn breaker back on.

 

[buickanddeere]

This is what I'm finding... real usage down and number of circuits up...

The common setup and one I still have a few of is a 1200 square foot, 3 bedroom single family home with a 30 amp main serving two branch circuits... a 20 amp for outlets and a 15 for lights.

These same homes are now getting 200 amp with 40 slots like the home one door over... yet I have never had a single issue with my 30 amp 120 volt main...

I think a lot of it is the sales factor of going to 200 amps... even the city only requires 100 amp

I'm trying to think how that would operate two fridges, a freezer, electric stove, microwave, toaster, coffee pot, hair dryer, electric water heater, electric well pump,electric clothes dryer, 22Kw of electric heat, block heater on the tractor and water heat trace for the critter's water pipes.
Then if we ever dialed the welder up to 300amps.........