Best residential load center

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MRI

MRI

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Hi all.....I am building a new house, hopefully my last one. I am looking for recommendations on the load center, I was initially intrigued with Leviton’s newest panel but I think I will pass on this unproven equipment.

So, if you were (or are) wiring your own home, which load center would you install and why? Does one manufacturer have less nuisance AF trips than Others? Right now I am strongly considering Cutler Hammer CH.

TIA,

Mark
 
Square-D Homeline, hands-down! That is the ONLY panel I ever install when I do service upgrades, and I have done hundreds! I have installed a Siemens before, but only when the customer requested such. I consider Siemens to be second-best. But I don't like G.E. or any other brand of panel available. I consider them to be of poor quality.

Keep in mind that Michigan doesn't require AFCI breakers at all, and many other states only require them for bedroom circuits. I have worked in such a state, and never had any problem with nuisance tripping on Square-D ones.
 
MRI said:
Right now I am strongly considering Cutler Hammer CH.
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The old Cutler CH panels that were installed 50-60 years ago are holding up well. I have never had to replace one. I don't remember any recalls on any of their breakers.

If cost is a factor I would go with Square D Home-line because the breakers are much cheaper when buying a lot of them.
 
I'm with Jeff. I like homerline. I like Siemens too. Homeline has the plug on neutral which is nice, but that cancels out with their annoyingly long afci's. IMO QO is overpriced and not worth the money. The breaker guts are the same, other than the red trip indicator.
 
Ya know, i just complained about QO being too pricey, but if you really want the best, put in a real panelboard. I like Siemens panelboards. I was on the verge of doing that in my house, but went with homeline. Ill def be putting a Siemens panelboard in my shop though.
 
I was Square D electrician, I started use the Eaton BR series a few years ago. I like the smaller AFCI CB's, they are easy to work with and readily available in 90 perscent of the supply houses in my area. Square D seems to now only be available in the box stores so not much choice.
 
You didn't need to come here you got it right C-H C-H are very good panels.
 
I almost always install Eaton BR products. CH is fine, but the one thing I don't like about it is that it trips to "off" instead a center "tripped" position. Makes it harder to tell what happened.
 
I'm in the process of a major remodel on my own house. I installed a SquareD 200 amp meter/main. I installed a SquareD 400 amp main lug panelboard next to the meter-main. I went with 400 amp to have the ability to install PV and battery back feeds in the future. The panelboard supplies (2) 100 amp feeders and a couple other heavy loads (ovens, future EV charger, etc.).

I was originally going to go with HOM load centers since I could not justify the cost increase for QO load centers and breakers. I had my power guy at the wholesaler add the QO load centers with breakers onto the panelboard quote to see if it helped with the pricing. The pricing for the QO came back less than I get HOM even with the contract SPA pricing set up on the account. I went for the QO.

Over the years I have used pretty much all the manufactures. Back in the mid/late 80's Challenger was my primary line. GE was the secondary line. Between then and now have I used a lot of Siemens and Eaton BR. Basically use which ever brand the wholesaler can get me the best SPA price on.

I was using Eaton CH for a short run and it seemed like good equipment but my supplier dropped the line and not many local suppliers carry it.

From my experience I would rank the manufactures in the following order.
(1) QO (its #1 due to copper bus and thinner breakers)
(2) HOM
(3) Siemens and Eaton BR are tied
(4) GE

As others of said my biggest complaint against SquareD is the size of the AFCI breakers. I'm told they need to be this big to fit inside the thinner QO body but wish they would make a different smaller circuit board for the HOM.

I know GE AFCI's have a following due to having fewer "false" tripping issues. The GE AFCI's don't have the GF component. I feel if an AFCI breaker is tripping do to a GF condition the issue should be found and not covered up by a breaker that doesn't look for the problem.

For commercial panelboards and switchboards I rank.
(1) IEM (best construction)
(2) SquardD (best breakers)
 
curt swartz said:
I'm in the process of a major remodel on my own house. I installed a SquareD 200 amp meter/main. I installed a SquareD 400 amp main lug panelboard next to the meter-main. I went with 400 amp to have the ability to install PV and battery back feeds in the future. The panelboard supplies (2) 100 amp feeders and a couple other heavy loads (ovens, future EV charger, etc.).

I was originally going to go with HOM load centers since I could not justify the cost increase for QO load centers and breakers. I had my power guy at the wholesaler add the QO load centers with breakers onto the panelboard quote to see if it helped with the pricing. The pricing for the QO came back less than I get HOM even with the contract SPA pricing set up on the account. I went for the QO.

Over the years I have used pretty much all the manufactures. Back in the mid/late 80's Challenger was my primary line. GE was the secondary line. Between then and now have I used a lot of Siemens and Eaton BR. Basically use which ever brand the wholesaler can get me the best SPA price on.

I was using Eaton CH for a short run and it seemed like good equipment but my supplier dropped the line and not many local suppliers carry it.

From my experience I would rank the manufactures in the following order.
(1) QO (its #1 due to copper bus and thinner breakers)
(2) HOM
(3) Siemens and Eaton BR are tied
(4) GE

As others of said my biggest complaint against SquareD is the size of the AFCI breakers. I'm told they need to be this big to fit inside the thinner QO body but wish they would make a different smaller circuit board for the HOM.

I know GE AFCI's have a following due to having fewer "false" tripping issues. The GE AFCI's don't have the GF component. I feel if an AFCI breaker is tripping do to a GF condition the issue should be found and not covered up by a breaker that doesn't look for the problem.

For commercial panelboards and switchboards I rank.
(1) IEM (best construction)
(2) SquardD (best breakers)
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IEM using GE, or Eaton/ C-H guts? Seen them with both.
 
Was a Square D only electrician but not so much after replacing this panel (actually replaced this with another Square D)..... have only been installing Seimens lately
 

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ritelec said:
Was a Square D only electrician but not so much after replacing this panel (actually replaced this with another Square D)..... have only been installing Seimens lately
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Classified breakers will do that. Not sure that was the case here, but I've seen plenty of burnt QOs with none Square D breakers.
 
They were QO breakers in a QO panel. I still think they're great and believe in the equipment, just came down a notch and realized they are just another panel board and breaker.
 
ritelec said:
They were QO breakers in a QO panel. I still think they're great and believe in the equipment, just came down a notch and realized they are just another panel board and breaker.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that all brands, even bolt ons and DIN rails can burn up. Don't let one QO sour your preference. :)
 
ritelec said:
They were QO breakers in a QO panel. I still think they're great and believe in the equipment, just came down a notch and realized they are just another panel board and breaker.
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Did you figure out why those breakers burned that bad. I have never seen a panel in that bad a condition unless there was a reason.

I have seen a panel in a pool house that was like that after all the chemical ate away the bus.I have panels exposed to moisture and one in a restaurant where flour dust was getting into the panel so bad it was forming a coating on the bus. I have seen panels in apartments where some idiot painted (over sprayed) the bus causing poor connections.

Think maybe someone had that panel in the back of a pickup during a rain storm before it was installed?
 
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