Electrical Question

[Dave Hammelef]

Help Creekers. If I am to have a 100 amp sub panel, should it not be feed through a 100 amp 220V circuit breaker?

The reason I ask is as many know I am having an addition done, and they are to move my old 100 amp box to the addition and they put in a 200 amp box in the old spot. Then run a line to feed the 100 amp box. They are doing the work as I type and It looked to me he was only putting on a 50 amp 220v circuit breaker?????

Whats Up????

Dave

[Todd Burch]

If you ordered 100 amps, ask them how you are supposed to get that with a 50 amp breaker. Duh!

Todd.

[Steve Roxberg]

I can check when I get home, but that doesn't sound odd to me. Seems mine was the same way.

One thing to watch our for is in the subpanel. The neutral and the ground in the Subpanel should be isoloted from one another. In the main panel they are tied together. I'm not an electrician and hired one to put in my subpanel. After researching some codes and what not it became obvious that the panel had been put in wrong.

Ask about, and pay attention to how the neutral and ground bars are placed in the sub.

Are the panels made by the same folks?

[Kevin Gerstenecker]

Dave,

If you are feeding a 100 amp sub panel from the 200 amp main panel, you will indeed have to run the feeders from the main to the sub using a 100 amp, 2 pole breaker. Since the feeders from the meter base will have to be upgraded to 3/0 feeders, you can save the feeder wire to your current 100 amp panel to use to wire the sub panel. There is also the option of running the feeders for the sub panel from the main lugs on the new 200 amp panel, and then utilizing the 100 amp panel as it was before, with the 100 amp breaker for the disconnect to the sub panel. The method of feeding the sub with the 100 breaker from the new main panel is the preferred method, however. If your electrical contractor is feeding the sub panel with a 50 amp breaker, they are incorrect in doing so. Hope this helps you out some.

[Steve Roxberg]

Well, I checked and mine is in fact a 100Amp breaker connecting the subpanel.

[Dave Hammelef]

As the electrician was leaving tonight, he said almost in passing that they will be changing out that breaker later but that he only had that one with him and for whats on the other panel the smaller one would be ok.

Thanks all. Its been a bit crazy and I thought I was losing my mind for a second.

Dave