600 amp residental service

[arnettda]

From experience what is the best way two do a 600 amp residental service. 400 amp for main house and 200 amp for garage/ guest house?
- I could use a 600 amp Ct cabinet and then 3 200 amp disconects?
-600 amp Ct cabinet and 1 200 amp disconect and then a 400amp Disconect or panel?

Buildings are being bid out soon, I was hired to put in New service and backfeed existing cabin. Current underground service needs to be moved for excavating.
Thanks

 

[augie47]

Unless local or POCO regulations prevent it, the 200 amp service conductors to the guest house could feed from your CT cabinet to the guest house panel/disconnect as long as the guest house is not attached to the main house and your conductors do not enter the main house. I believe (2) 200 amp panels in the main house will prove to be less expensive than (1) 400, if load distribution allows.

 

[Cow]

I agree with the setup Augie mentioned, but definitely run the setup by your poco and AHJ. I wouldn't be surprised if the AHJ wanted a disconnect beside the CT can before you ran unfused conductors to the guest house.

 

[kwired]

I agree with the setup Augie mentioned, but definitely run the setup by your poco and AHJ. I wouldn't be surprised if the AHJ wanted a disconnect beside the CT can before you ran unfused conductors to the guest house.

If the guest house is a separate building there is no reason it can't have a separate service. Even if supplied by same meter as the main house. A meter is not a service disconnect, it may be the utility's service point, but the load side is still service conductors until reaching a service disconnect.

 

[Strife]

Is this a single resi house? I understand it has a garage/guest house, but 600A for a single resi seems WAAAAY out there. It seems to me the engineer didn't bother to do his/her homework on demand. Unless we're talking a 10 some million dollar mansion, I really don't see the need for a 600A service.
I mean 600A means 180KVA, taking out 80KVA for AC(which is way out there) and considering the rest of the load gets calculated at first 10KVA at 100% then then rest at 40%, we're talking over 300KVA connected load?????
I've done 30 stories towers with 600KVA or so.

From experience what is the best way two do a 600 amp residental service. 400 amp for main house and 200 amp for garage/ guest house?
- I could use a 600 amp Ct cabinet and then 3 200 amp disconects?
-600 amp Ct cabinet and 1 200 amp disconect and then a 400amp Disconect or panel?

Buildings are being bid out soon, I was hired to put in New service and backfeed existing cabin. Current underground service needs to be moved for excavating.
Thanks

 

[Dennis Alwon]

Is this a single resi house? I understand it has a garage/guest house, but 600A for a single resi seems WAAAAY out there. It seems to me the engineer didn't bother to do his/her homework on demand. Unless we're talking a 10 some million dollar mansion, I really don't see the need for a 600A service.
I mean 600A means 180KVA, taking out 80KVA for AC(which is way out there) and considering the rest of the load gets calculated at first 10KVA at 100% then then rest at 40%, we're talking over 300KVA connected load?????
I've done 30 stories towers with 600KVA or so.

I did a house with 600 amps many times. Huge house and all electric heat, etc. Get's pricey. I am looking at a pool house now that is about 5,000 sq. ft with a heater for the pool area with 35kw heat strips. There are 200 lights, kitchen , laundry, pool equipment, a second heating system, heat for the pool, spa etc. I think this will be a minimum 400 amp service & possible a 600 amp service. This pool house is for a residence on the property which already has a 600 amp service on the house, tennis courts , outdoor swimming pool, 5 dw, 3 kitchens etc.

 

[hillbilly1]

We did one quite a few years back that was 480 volt three phase, dont remember the actual size of the service, but had two 75 kva transformers in electrical closets. Owner called it a lodge to get around the voltage limitations in residential, even though it was only a three bedroom. (mighty big bedrooms though) full commercial kitchen in the basement, chandeliers so heavy they were hung with log chain. Looked at one in the Domincan Republic that had a 1200 amp three phase service to it. People can get real crazy when money is not an issue.

 

[kwired]

We did one quite a few years back that was 480 volt three phase, dont remember the actual size of the service, but had two 75 kva transformers in electrical closets. Owner called it a lodge to get around the voltage limitations in residential, even though it was only a three bedroom. (mighty big bedrooms though) full commercial kitchen in the basement, chandeliers so heavy they were hung with log chain. Looked at one in the Domincan Republic that had a 1200 amp three phase service to it. People can get real crazy when money is not an issue.

The only voltage limitation in dwellings is in 210.6 for luminaires and some cord and plug connected loads. There are requirements for 15 and 20 amp 120 volt receptacles. Outside of those requirements you can supply the dwelling with 13.2 kV if you wanted.

It is not very common to supply dwellings with anything other than 120/240 single phase but if there is enough load to make something else more feasible then nothing prohibits that.

 

[cowboyjwc]

Worked on a former pro basketball players house one time had a 1200 amp stand up section.

Other than that, I've never seen more than a 400A service on a single family residence, but we also don't have a lot of all electric homes out here either.

 

[iwire]

Worked on a former pro basketball players house one time had a 1200 amp stand up section.

Other than that, I've never seen more than a 400A service on a single family residence, but we also don't have a lot of all electric homes out here either.

My ex boss had a 1200 amp single phase service ......... 26,000 sq ft home.

I doubt it needed it.

 

[kwired]

I have done a few homes where there was 3 or 4 - 200 amp main breaker panels each with its own set of service conductors supplying it as is permitted by 230.2 along with 230.40. This effectively made these services 600 or 800 amps capacity, even though 400 was likely enough. It still cost less in each of those instances to not put in a 400 amp main switch and gutters, taps, etc. The 200 amp main breaker panels are needed anyway so that part is a wash, unless you want to spend more for 400 amp main lug panels.

 

[arnettda]

I have done a few homes where there was 3 or 4 - 200 amp main breaker panels each with its own set of service conductors supplying it as is permitted by 230.2 along with 230.40. This effectively made these services 600 or 800 amps capacity, even though 400 was likely enough. It still cost less in each of those instances to not put in a 400 amp main switch and gutters, taps, etc. The 200 amp main breaker panels are needed anyway so that part is a wash, unless you want to spend more for 400 amp main lug panels.

Using a 400 amp panel would make installing a whole house generator easier than say two 200 amp panels? Exspecially if I was going to have sub panels out of the 200 amp panels?

 

[kwired]

Using a 400 amp panel would make installing a whole house generator easier than say two 200 amp panels? Exspecially if I was going to have sub panels out of the 200 amp panels?

If you have the load and the generator to power it. Last big home I did had 4 - 200 amp panels. The owner still has not installed a generator but was planning on installing one someday. We only ran circuits that we would desire to be powered by a generator to one of the panels and left room between a main disconnect and the panel to install a 200 amp transfer switch someday. The other panels are main breaker panels all the supply conductors go directly to POCO padmount transformer with CT metering at the transformer. This house could likely have been supplied with 400 amps but a main switch and gutters, taps, etc would have cost more than just installing the main breaker panels and two more runs (maybe only 75 feet) to the transformer. Now if you have more than 6 panels you have to do it differently as you are limited to six service disconnecting means.