I have some questions I am trying to knowledge myself in for my house so bear with me on the length as I want to provide as many details as I can.
First what I have going on:
I bought a house in the country and want to do some upgrades but need to know the reality I’m faced with I have the following electrical setup - I have a pole with my transformer about 40-50 ft to a main panel which is a Eaton MBE2040PV200BTS where my meter is located. Inside I have a 150amp breaker that feeds 3/0 copper up the hill a couple hundred feet to a secondary panel. This panel has a 100amp, 65amp, 50amp, 20 amp breaker inside. They serve in order: the house, sub panel for a spa(not in use), sub panel for Rv hookup(30amp in use), rv hookup (in use). The house has a panel where a 100amp breaker feeds the bus which has the stuff for the home. The only appliances that are electric are the washer/dryer, fridge, freezer, and the dishwasher everything else is gas.
Now to what I wanna do:
in the main service panel (electrician said it would be ok because of current wire gauge) I want to pull the 150amp breaker and replace it with a 200 or 225amp breaker. This is so I can upgrade the second panel to a 200 amp panel, I have a Siemens PW3040B1200CU to replace it with.
I then want to run power to a 30x30 barn 170’ away. The old owner had a 75amp breaker in the current second panel feeding a sub panel in the barn, but the electrician I had inspect the electrical said the wire was not rated for it, and reduced it to 30amps. I have it pulled and disconnected because I want more power, so I dug up the old line, glad I did as it was not close to code (too shallow, broken conduit, no glue on the bells, hand torched sweeps, etc.)
Now my question is what size panel can I safely run in the barn from the second Siemens panel with the 200amp upgrade? I want the maximum I can get there as I need power for welders, Kilns, lights, ventilation, etc. without overloading the whole system. Granted the barn will not be pulling it all at once all at one time. But one of my kilns pulls 50amps as an example, I usually run it at night
A friend of mine found me a overkill deal on wire to good to refuse, I was going to run 1/0-1/0-1/0-1 CU. But a construction friend got me a 250’ spool of 3/0-3/0-3/0-2 AL XHHN-2 for $700 on close out. I know it’s overkill since originally I only wanted about 100amps at the barn.
So the second question is again, what is the max panel I can run to the barn in that configuration? If I was ever hard up I considered that I could put everything in the storage containers and turn the barn into a ADU to help pay bills in a squeeze.
The electrician was prohibitively expensive for all this work so I am doing the trenching, conduit, pulling, and mounting of the sub panels myself. I was going to have an electrician upgrade the 150amp breaker to 200amp, and make all the connections so they are all torqued properly since I don’t have the tools. I need to know what I need to buy panel wise for the barn. And any other things I may need to have ready for the electrician so I can save some money.
If you have made it through my novel I’m sorry and thank you, hopefully I can get some advice. I really want my workshop up and running, my equipment has been sitting a year now.
First what I have going on:
I bought a house in the country and want to do some upgrades but need to know the reality I’m faced with I have the following electrical setup - I have a pole with my transformer about 40-50 ft to a main panel which is a Eaton MBE2040PV200BTS where my meter is located. Inside I have a 150amp breaker that feeds 3/0 copper up the hill a couple hundred feet to a secondary panel. This panel has a 100amp, 65amp, 50amp, 20 amp breaker inside. They serve in order: the house, sub panel for a spa(not in use), sub panel for Rv hookup(30amp in use), rv hookup (in use). The house has a panel where a 100amp breaker feeds the bus which has the stuff for the home. The only appliances that are electric are the washer/dryer, fridge, freezer, and the dishwasher everything else is gas.
Now to what I wanna do:
in the main service panel (electrician said it would be ok because of current wire gauge) I want to pull the 150amp breaker and replace it with a 200 or 225amp breaker. This is so I can upgrade the second panel to a 200 amp panel, I have a Siemens PW3040B1200CU to replace it with.
I then want to run power to a 30x30 barn 170’ away. The old owner had a 75amp breaker in the current second panel feeding a sub panel in the barn, but the electrician I had inspect the electrical said the wire was not rated for it, and reduced it to 30amps. I have it pulled and disconnected because I want more power, so I dug up the old line, glad I did as it was not close to code (too shallow, broken conduit, no glue on the bells, hand torched sweeps, etc.)
Now my question is what size panel can I safely run in the barn from the second Siemens panel with the 200amp upgrade? I want the maximum I can get there as I need power for welders, Kilns, lights, ventilation, etc. without overloading the whole system. Granted the barn will not be pulling it all at once all at one time. But one of my kilns pulls 50amps as an example, I usually run it at night
A friend of mine found me a overkill deal on wire to good to refuse, I was going to run 1/0-1/0-1/0-1 CU. But a construction friend got me a 250’ spool of 3/0-3/0-3/0-2 AL XHHN-2 for $700 on close out. I know it’s overkill since originally I only wanted about 100amps at the barn.
So the second question is again, what is the max panel I can run to the barn in that configuration? If I was ever hard up I considered that I could put everything in the storage containers and turn the barn into a ADU to help pay bills in a squeeze.
The electrician was prohibitively expensive for all this work so I am doing the trenching, conduit, pulling, and mounting of the sub panels myself. I was going to have an electrician upgrade the 150amp breaker to 200amp, and make all the connections so they are all torqued properly since I don’t have the tools. I need to know what I need to buy panel wise for the barn. And any other things I may need to have ready for the electrician so I can save some money.
If you have made it through my novel I’m sorry and thank you, hopefully I can get some advice. I really want my workshop up and running, my equipment has been sitting a year now.
