abcd_43130
New member
- Location
- Ohio
I hope I qualify to post here. I am not an electrician, but I had my electrician out to look at my problem and his assessment is costly (he installed the electric in the pole barn). Before I call another electrician for a 2nd opinion, I would like to get an understanding of possible solutions. I do not intend to do the work myself, I just want an understanding of the situation and do not want to be "taken".
Situation: I have 200 amp service in my house. 1-2 years ago, I ran 100 amps out to my shed with direct burial cable rated for 100 amps into a small panel. I just tore the shed down and built a 40 x 24 pole barn with a workshop. The pole barn is approx 50' from the house. My builder/electrician said the old panel was to small, so I got online and found a large 200 amp breaker panel. I asked him if he can use a 200 am breaker panel even though only 100 amp is coming from the house. He said "yes".
All has been hooked up for a couple weeks now and I have not noticed a problem, although I may not have used all the breakers in the box to see if they work properly. Yesterday I go out and find that some of my outlets work and some do not. (I am not sure if they were all working properly earlier, but I think so). I called the builder/electrician back out today. He checked the panel and found that one wire coming in from the house has 120 volts while the other one only has ~24 volts. He said it must be a bad breaker from the house. We checked that and both wires from the breaker in the house were sending out 120V. He said it must be the cable from the house to the pole barn. He thought that was odd because the cable was recently run out to the shed and one side was still getting some voltage. He put all my current breakes on the side of the panel receiving 120V, which limits me to only half my capacity, but it still works.
Could the problem be that I am running from a 100 amp breaker to a 200 amp panel? What would cause a fairly new DB wire to be getting less voltage than the other wire? Should I be getting another opinion? Any insight to help me understand the situation would be appreciated.
Chris
Situation: I have 200 amp service in my house. 1-2 years ago, I ran 100 amps out to my shed with direct burial cable rated for 100 amps into a small panel. I just tore the shed down and built a 40 x 24 pole barn with a workshop. The pole barn is approx 50' from the house. My builder/electrician said the old panel was to small, so I got online and found a large 200 amp breaker panel. I asked him if he can use a 200 am breaker panel even though only 100 amp is coming from the house. He said "yes".
All has been hooked up for a couple weeks now and I have not noticed a problem, although I may not have used all the breakers in the box to see if they work properly. Yesterday I go out and find that some of my outlets work and some do not. (I am not sure if they were all working properly earlier, but I think so). I called the builder/electrician back out today. He checked the panel and found that one wire coming in from the house has 120 volts while the other one only has ~24 volts. He said it must be a bad breaker from the house. We checked that and both wires from the breaker in the house were sending out 120V. He said it must be the cable from the house to the pole barn. He thought that was odd because the cable was recently run out to the shed and one side was still getting some voltage. He put all my current breakes on the side of the panel receiving 120V, which limits me to only half my capacity, but it still works.
Could the problem be that I am running from a 100 amp breaker to a 200 amp panel? What would cause a fairly new DB wire to be getting less voltage than the other wire? Should I be getting another opinion? Any insight to help me understand the situation would be appreciated.
Chris
