200 amp panel Residential all gas appliances

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Braden8898

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I inspect a lot of Service changes and upgrades and I always come across projects where the contractor has installed a 200 amp panel in a 1,000 sf house that has all gas appliances. Is this now the standard to just install a 200 amp panel for residential applications? Or do the contractors not know how to size the service properly? Is this strictly for safety? Why are we putting such large panels in such small situations?
 
Supply and demand. 200 amp could be cheaper than a 150 or even a 100. Depends on the supply house. I bought 15 200 amp panels at the end of an inventory year cycle from the supply house because they were ridiculously cheap. They even had copper bus. I couldn’t have bought a 60 amp panel for what I paid for these 200s
 
Our go to size is 200 amps unless we need more than it is 400 amps. We never look at 150 or 300 amps.... Yeah we can probably save a few bucks but as stated above a 150 amp main breaker panel is a special order around here and would cost more than a 200 amp panel. People are always adding things so we just go for the 200 amp panel especially with car charger etc.
 
Around me its been the standard for some time. 200amp sells- home buyer thinks they are getting more. Plus it cheaper because 200amp panels sell so much. Even a 400amp home gets 2-200amp panels.
 
On a service upgrade there is a higher profit margin on a 200 service. The labor is about the same and you end up with slightly more expensive material cost but the up charge from a 100 or 150 amps to 200 amps can be significant.
 
While the Dominion Energy Blue Book still shows a 100 amp 120/240 service (they also show a 100 amp 120 volt service), I have not seen a new rersidential 100 amp service installed around here on a single family home in over 30 years. And the economies of scale make the 150 amp panel a no show also. The cheaper 200 amp panel ofsets the cost of the larger SEU for a 200 amp panel.;)
 
The only reason the upgrade in my last house was a 150 amp panel was my electrician told me that the overhead from the POCO would have to be up-sized for a 200 amp panel. It was more hassle than I was looking for.
 
gadfly56 said:
The only reason the upgrade in my last house was a 150 amp panel was my electrician told me that the overhead from the POCO would have to be up-sized for a 200 amp panel. It was more hassle than I was looking for.
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??

There are 200 amp services all over the country fed from #2 aluminum, #4 aluminum, even open wire #8 CWC...

I can’t understand why you were told that.

Your service size isn’t determined by the POCO service drop.
 
gadfly56 said:
The only reason the upgrade in my last house was a 150 amp panel was my electrician told me that the overhead from the POCO would have to be up-sized for a 200 amp panel. It was more hassle than I was looking for.
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They go by service demand (load letter) not by service rating. I've done many upgrades where they did not upsize the drop or lateral, even on a 200-to-400 amp.
 
Hv&Lv said:
??

There are 200 amp services all over the country fed from #2 aluminum, #4 aluminum, even open wire #8 CWC...

I can’t understand why you were told that.

Your service size isn’t determined by the POCO service drop.
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150A panels were on special at his supply house for less than a 200 because nobody wanted them. :happyyes:

-Hal
 
Around here 150A is the norm for a service change, as 200A would require a new GEC and the building department and the POCO tends to do unholy financial things to the customer for infrastructure fees.

New houses, 200A without batting an eye. Should bat an eye more often, as I had to swap a main breaker to 150A to appease the POCO recently.
 
Carultch said:
"11" has no units. It's an arbitrary scale for mapping inputs. You could keep the same dial, and relabel it 1 thru 10, and it would mean exactly the same thing to the end user.
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Maybe, but “11” is cooler...:cool:
 
George Stolz said:
Around here 150A is the norm for a service change, as 200A would require a new GEC and the building department and the POCO tends to do unholy financial things to the customer for infrastructure fees.

New houses, 200A without batting an eye. Should bat an eye more often, as I had to swap a main breaker to 150A to appease the POCO recently.
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Welcome back....:cool:
 
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