Breaker position

[Fred B]

I've heard several opinions over the years so I thought I'd pose it here.
Large load breakers
1 place at top of panel (nearest the main)
2 bottom of panel (farthest from main)
3 doesn't matter?

What do you do? And justification for your positioning of the breakers?

 

[infinity]

Doesn't matter at all so do whatever makes you warm and fuzzy. The stabs on a panel bus may have limits as to the size of CB's opposite each other but that doesn't really matter much in residential panels.

 

[ptonsparky]

Doesn’t matter.

 

[James L]

What's a guy supposed to think about feed-thru lugs on the bottom of the bus

Hint: the whole bus has the whole rating

Most generally, I pick one side or the other for my 15s, then I put my 20s on the other side. Then I put my 2-pole breakers on both sides to fill the panel evenly left-to-right.

But it has nothing to do with electricity, it has everything to do with OCD

I try one or both of the following:

1) put larger numbers at the top, and descend to smaller numbers.

2) group like circuits, sush as electric furnace next to heat pump, wall oven next to cooktop, etc.

 

[LarryFine]

I prefer stacking the 2p breakers on one side, highest to lowest, and the 1p breakers on the other side.

Most enclosures support this, too, with a few large KOs on one side and many 1/2" KOs on the other side.