200 amp panel and main breaker with 100 amp service

7

729Zoom

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Location
Los Angeles
Occupation
Retired
I have 100 amp service from the utility pole and had an emergency repair on my 45 year old 100 amp panel when a bus bar went bad. My electrician advised me to get a 200 amp solar panel so I would not need to change the panel again if I decided to upgrade. The panel has all 200 amp wiring and a 200 amp main breaker. He claims it is not a code violation to have a 200 amp main breaker with a 100 amp service (with small wires that I am sure are not even rated for 100 amps) but I read he should have used a 100 amp main breaker. He laughs at me and says "I don't know where you get this" when I told him I read it was a serious code violation and safety hazard. Is he right or do I need to demand he change the breaker to 100 amps?
 
More info is needed but if they left the 100 amp service conductors and changed the original OCPD from 100 to 200 then there is a violation of 230.90(A).

230.90(A) Ungrounded Conductor.
Such protection shall be provided by an overcurrent device in series with each ungrounded service conductor that has a rating or setting not higher than the ampacity of the conductor
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Meter main installs typically dont have service entrance conductors, so a 200A one would be OK. I you have separate conductors from meter to panel, those need to be rated 200A (or within 200A round up) if landed in a 200A main.
 
He installed a solar ready panel with a combined meter socket. All in one unit. So does this mean it's OK? And no need for a 100 amp breaker? I know he upgraded all the wires from the drop down to 200 amp.
 
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Then you kind of have a 200A service. What determines a 100 versus 200 amp service depends on a few things. It sounds like you have a 200A service now for where the NEC is in scope. The only remaining issues would be the power company if they want to upsize their wires or transformer. If you added no new load, then nothing needs to be changed. The problem is the future, if you decidecto add two Tesla car chargers and fail to mention to the power company you have new loads.

Does the power company know you upgraded your service? Around here they know and coordinate with the permitting people to make sure it was inspected and notice its size. We have different implementations here for 200A services depending if the house has gas or not and how much stuff is gas. I dropped my main breaker from 200 to 150 because the overhead and underground utility wires were so small I didnt want some new owner to push the supposed 200A service too hard. If those underground wires burn up, it will make a major mess of the driveway to fix it, poco responsibility or not.
 
I should clarify what I said in post 6 about meter mains having no service entrance conductors. That is probably the case if it is fed from underground. If overhead, then the service conductors in the mast are under the NEC and need to be 200A. Some pocos may even put some of an underground feed on you and those would be sized per NEC also. But the drop from the pole or an underground feed to the service delivery point are covered by power company sizing which is much smaller than NEC sizing.
 
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