How many amps do I need for home/nursery?

rlee6 · Mar 22, 2005

What I want to know I hear all here FIRSTHAND from experienced TBN'ers! Thanks. Now I realize I got mixed up between 200A and 200A panel. I am not getting into a major farming. So single phase should be sufficient.

I have a followup question, if I may. I want to get into tree nursery business. Are there nurserymen out there who can advise me on well gpm? Pot-in-pot, drip watering, some vinyl houses, about 10 acres.

Av8r3400 · Mar 22, 2005

200A is minimum in my opinion for a 3 br home. That's what I have in mine and it is completely full. Next house I may investigate a 400A box, or at least the next bigger from 200A.

BTW, I would give my /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif to have 3-phase on the pole in front of my house!!

DUMBDOG · Mar 23, 2005

Cannot help you much with the drip watering, but you need to figure the number of emitters and the output of each, then how many you need to operate at one time. As far as the well gpm, once you find the capacity of the well, then size the pump for the gpm vrs the depth of the well. You will need the capacity wanted first.

I have two wells kicking out app 115 gpm, this will operate the water reel and several drip lines at one time on my 40 acre garden. Hope to get the water supply lines finished this year before we need them.

A search of irrigation should yield lots of results that will help you in your computations. Last year, spent many hours doing the various computations on the many types of watering out there and was lucky enough to get the water to operate the reel.

Is there any other Polk county people out there for a get together?

notamustang · Mar 23, 2005

AV8R, when you say full, do you mean no more breaker space or are you pulling 150+ Amps of power ?

twin88cam · Mar 24, 2005

rlee, On the size of your service and for what you want to do, I would suggest a 400 amp meter base feeding a 200 amp in the house and a 200 amp disconnect outside. With the disconnect you can wire in the shop at a later date and won't have to call the power company to pull the meter to disconnect the power. you will need to check with your power supplier in your area as most all have different reguirements when it comes to service types. You or your contractor will probably have to install the service entrance,meter base, and disconnect. The 200 amp for the house is assuming a three bedroom house with a heat pump and probably less than 2600 sq ft total heated. whether you supplied by FPL, or an EMC they will have a spec sheet for you to know what you need to supply and install. Hope this helps.

sparkkky · Mar 24, 2005

The load of your house calls for the size of service, as a rule of thumb, house's with gas heat and HW are served well by a 100 or 125A service. If you have more than two central A/C's or lot of 120V circuits 150A will do. A mid size total or should I say all total electric house's must be at least 200A, and most of the time will cover a fair size shop also.

A large 200A panel will have up to 42 spaces where a 100A will max out at around 24 except some 30 circuit copper bus panels.

In a house the largest meter base our power company will supply is a 325A but in a house you can set two 200A panels off of that. Above that and you start getting into bulky C.T. (current transformers) to meter your usage.

My next house on the farm will be a 200A service more than likely, or a 300A at the most!

Electrical contractor.

rlee6 · Mar 24, 2005

Thank you all for kindly helping me out. I checked my do-it-yourself book but could not find the kind of information I am getting from you folks. I think I am better prepared now to meet with the power company engineer.

By the way, sparkkky is a very good, representative name.