Need 100 Amp @ ~200 feet

[parallon]

Hi all. I just put up a new shop in my back yard, and I am looking for suggestions on what I would need to get power to the shop. My house has a 200A service, and the distance to the sub-panel in the shop will be about 200 feet from my house's sub-panel. I talked to a couple of electricians, and they said for a 100A run to the shop that I would need 2 AWG aluminum direct burial. Based on the voltage drop calculators I have found, they say that I cannot get more than 61 feet at those specs with a 3% voltage drop. Southwire's calculator also says that 2 AWG aluminum may not carry 100A. According to Southwire, I would need 300 kcmil to meet my needs. What is an acceptable voltage drop? I read somewhere that someone had to install a transformer because of the distance. Would that be needed here?

And the reason I am looking at 100A for the shop is because I am planning on tapping off the shop sub-panel for a future swimming pool, since that will significantly limit the length of run to feed the pool's panel.

I plan on having an electrician do all the hookups, I just want to save a few pennies by trenching and burying the cable myself. Also, out of curiosity, how would you terminate such a big wire into the 100A main breaker?

Thanks in advance,

Mike

 

[Dennis Alwon]

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