400 or 200 Amp Service

[kwired]

Do whatever you wish. If you don't want to get POCO or inspector involved down the road, then installing the second 200 amp now gets you past that part if you need it later down the road. Otherwise you essentially only have a 200 amp service if you do what you say you wish to do. How POCO and/or AHJ determines the size for rate purposes, inspection fee purposes, etc. may still vary some from location to location, but if you install a single 200 amp main breaker to supply all loads - you can not use more then 200 amps for very long without it tripping - so you have limited yourself to making 200 amps all that is available. If POCO wants to charge you a higher rate for a higher capacity service - if saving $$$ is the main goal here you may want to change other equipment as well to get on a lower rate - of course you still need to look at return on investment before making this decision. Most residential services usually are at same rates whether 100 amp or 600 amps, but throw in something larger then that or a three phase supply and they may put you in a different rate classification.

 

[growler]

Have 2 - 200 amp main panels located in garage that are being fed by 4/0 Al conductors. Each panel is wired to the meter but am unable to look in the meter to see how it is done(double tapped or double lugged). Well under 200 amps needed for a 1400 sf house that has been upgraded from baseboard heat to heat pump.

The change from baseboard heaters to heat pump will save on the power bill but the load calculation for a heat pump with back-up heat strips may be very close to the same as baseboard heat.

Normally a 1400 sq ft house will calculate to under 200 amp service but it still the load that counts and not the size of the house. A tankless water heater is one thing that will put a heavy load on even a small house or a large hot tub.

You really need to do a load calculation to see what size service is needed.