Dave781
Member
- Location
- Massachusetts
- Occupation
- Contractor
Wishing to install 100 amp subpanel in a detached garage, in Massachusetts. Existing conditions inside the residential house are: 200 amp service panel (w/circuit breakers) with an exsisting 100 amp subpanel immediately adjacent to 200 amp panel. The 200 amp panel is 90% filled, but there is still reasonable room to install a double pole breaker and associated wire to feed the detached garage. I was told by one electrician that I cannot have 2-100 amp subpanels off the 200 amp panel. He said this within seconds of opening the panel door and by taking a glance at the number of breakers in the 200 amp panel. He did no load calculations or tried to assess the amount continuous loads on the 200 amp panel. I trying to understand if there is a specific code issue at hand or is this just an overly conservative opinion/assessment. There is no electric hot water heater, no electric heating or other large continuous loads on the existing panel. The detached garage will have a welding plug outlet, hard wired 20 amp/2-pole air compressor, 20 amp outlets, 15 amp lighting circuits etc. A 60 amp service could work in the garage, but I have all the stuff (wire & main breaker panel) for a 100 amp configuration. Is he concerned that future work/additions to the panel will over load the 200 amp panel. I gotten feedback from another guy just based on a quick conversation that said “multiple subpanels gets fuzzy, just stay with the 60 amp.” Just trying to understand the technical reason for his statement.