hello everyone. I am a electrical student going to college and there is something I dont understand. Lets say you have a 200 amp panel with 2 double pole 100 amp breakers in it and a double pole 40 amp breaker in it. Is this panel considered overloaded because the total breaker amperage equals 240 amps or is there a different way to calculate this. It just seems like you see this all the time. Thanks this is a great website and this is my first post
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- Thread starter fireryan
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The amperage total of all the breakers is not the total amps that is going through the panel.
Each breaker is installed to allow the maximum amount of current flow through that circuit. Chances are, it is much less than the rating of the breaker.
If your case, you may have at any given time only 30 or 40 amps going through the main.
Oh, and welcome to the forum!
Each breaker is installed to allow the maximum amount of current flow through that circuit. Chances are, it is much less than the rating of the breaker.
If your case, you may have at any given time only 30 or 40 amps going through the main.
Oh, and welcome to the forum!
1stYearElectrican
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- Newfoundland, Canada
Hi, I too just completed my college course and done really really well and may be of help to ya if ur having trouble with anything to do with school.
For a heads up You will surely get guidance in these forums to obtain ur answer BUT no one will answer them for ya and have you not doing ur work.
If we had to add up the total amout of amps of the breakers in the panel all residential would be 3-phase and have Transformers in the front yard
Now that would be a sight huh, guess no one would recieve a good radio signal :grin:
~FyE~
For a heads up You will surely get guidance in these forums to obtain ur answer BUT no one will answer them for ya and have you not doing ur work.
If we had to add up the total amout of amps of the breakers in the panel all residential would be 3-phase and have Transformers in the front yard
Now that would be a sight huh, guess no one would recieve a good radio signal :grin: ~FyE~
- Location
- New Jersey
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- Journeyman Electrician
The proper way to know what the load is on a panel is to do a load calculation based on Article 220. It has little to do with adding up to total amount of amperage on the installed circuit breakers within the panel.
fireryan said:
What is it you are trying to test?
Is there a problem you are attepting to solve?
If you indeed have laid eyes on such an installation, and it is indeed drawing more than 200a across the three circuits, then you have a problem. I was under the impression that your two 100a and one 40a breaker ina 200a panel was a rhetorical question.
fireryan said:
OK, take my house right now. I have a 100a service. All my breakers' amparages add up to 135 amps. But that does not mean I am consuming 135 amps. I doubt I have more than 15 or 20 amps of usage right now.
My computer desk is running stuff (tower, monitor, etc.). I hear my refrigerator running. There's several cordless phones with wall warts. There's also a little bit of power being consumed by things like my microwave & gas stove, stuff in my entertainment center (TV, DVR, VCR, etc.) in order for the clock to display the time, little things like that.
Now, by the time my fridge turns off, my air will come on. My furnace may run at 4 or 5 amps, and the AC compressor outside will maybe run 10 or 15 amps. Now I would have about 20 or 25 amps running through my service.
Granted, later tonight I may be running the microwave to make popcorn, but chances are, my dishwasher and disposal won't be running at that time either. It will cool down some, so my air will not come on as often, but I'll have the TV on, as well as some lights.
In short, not every load runs at the same time, and at 100% of the circuit ampacity. With a properly-sized and installed service, you would be hard-pressed to overload it, even with a major party going on.
D
dicklaxt
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Remember that post about "Diversity" a few days ago here's a classic example of load diversity.It is rare that breaker ratings will ever be reached. I typically use a .6 diversity in industrial sites and have not ever gotten in trouble that I know of.
dick
dick
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