400 Amp Service Three 200 amp panels

A

artist43050

Member
Location
Ohio
Occupation
Home Owner
We have a 400 amp service and are going to add solar.

Currently the service feeds Two 200amp panels in the house and a 150 amp panel in the barn with the taps to accomplish that in the meter base.

The contractor is saying we need to eliminate the feed to the barn and pull the barns electric out of one of the house panels as the total of the breakers feeding off the meter equal 550amps (200+200+150).

It seems as though the electrician who did the upgrade to 400 amps explained how he was able to feed the 3 panels directly when he put it in but I cannot find the NEC he sighted at the time.

Does anyone have any insight into this?
 
tortuga

tortuga

Code Historian
Location
Oregon
Occupation
Electrical Design
artist43050 said:
The contractor is saying we need to eliminate the feed to the barn and pull the barns electric out of one of the house panels as the total of the breakers feeding off the meter equal 550amps (200+200+150).
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Sounds like something a car salesman whom just got a sales job at a solar company would say, definitely not a design engineer.
When dealing with any professionals like doctors, lawyers, engineers etc I like to ask them where they graduated from.
One time I was meeting a 'Engineer' from the local power company to look at a service, when I asked him where he went to engineering school and turned out he had a degree in marketing.
 
LarryFine

LarryFine

Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
Location
Henrico County, VA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
artist43050 said:
The contractor is saying we need to eliminate the feed to the barn and pull the barns electric out of one of the house panels as the total of the breakers feeding off the meter equal 550amps (200+200+150).
Click to expand...
That's irrelevant. This isn't a math problem.

Ask him what the "load calculations" show.
 
Dennis Alwon

Dennis Alwon

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
artist43050 said:
We have a 400 amp service and are going to add solar.

Currently the service feeds Two 200amp panels in the house and a 150 amp panel in the barn with the taps to accomplish that in the meter base.

The contractor is saying we need to eliminate the feed to the barn and pull the barns electric out of one of the house panels as the total of the breakers feeding off the meter equal 550amps (200+200+150).

It seems as though the electrician who did the upgrade to 400 amps explained how he was able to feed the 3 panels directly when he put it in but I cannot find the NEC he sighted at the time.

Does anyone have any insight into this?
Click to expand...
Get an electrician to do a load calculation. The contractor, I assume builder, doesn't know what he is talking about.
 
E

Eddie702

Licensed Electrician
Location
Western Massachusetts
Occupation
Electrician
As the others said it's a load calculation thing. The sum of the breakers means nothing. A three-family house I replaced 3 60 amp fused panels and installed 3 100-amp panels with a 3-gang meter socket and a 4/0 aluminum service drop. perfectly legal and done all the time.
 
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