Determine Electric service size for work shop

[oosik]

rodnok - you are correct. Believe it or not - I still have ALL the receipts from building the house. Needed them at tax time for write off on capital gains tax. Anyhow - the panels, wiring and conduit all was more expensive.

SEE - that's what time does to your memory - you tend to forget the minutia.

 

[Todd727]

WRONG! The panels costs more, the wire costs more. The pipe to run the feeder wires in costs more. The labor costs more unless you do it yourself. As for the electric bill, the amount of electricity you actually use is what determines that bill. The upside to the 200 amp service is that you have the ability to add machinery in the future.

True, the panel is about $30 more. We don't really know about how much of a difference the wiring will be. For me, the transformer is right outside the shop, so the difference in PVC cost was probably less than $25. Wire, 2/0/2/0/2/0/1/0 is about $12/ft vs. 4/4/4/6 at $4/ft.

For me then, the difference in cost to have 200 amp service was less than $250. Not much amortized over the life of the building.

Of course, none of the 100 vs. 200 mattered for me. They won't run less than 200 amps around here.

 

[bdog]

After I read the thread title I came here to post go big to allow room for the future. I wasn’t expecting to see you considering 200 amp. That should more than enough. I don’t even remember what I have at my shop maybe 125 amp mains and it has never been an issue. I have two employees working in there along with me often and we have a plasma, stick welder, two mig welders, big air compressor, etc and never blown the breaker.