Hello again,
Maybe most of you mis-understood my question regarding this topic. My
question is if you have 200amp service at your main panel in the house
because code says you have to. This must mean that the house requires
it (i.e. safty, longevity and large famlies 4,5,6?. . . can use alot of
electricity at any one time). Now, add shop power to the equation.
200amp supplied to house from electric company.
100 or 200amp breaker added to main panel then routed to sub-panel in
shop.
If you are really using all 100 or more amps in the shop you are only
leaving 100 or less amps for the house right?
If the house is running a few of the major appliances (i.e. lager
family, clothes dryer, hot water, central heat and air, stove. . .) you
could over draw your total 200amp service right?
So back to my question, if you have only 200amp service then you have
problems? Does this mean you need two electric meters from the power
company (i.e. two services). Or do they just rip out the main 200amp
main breaker add a 300 or 400amp breaker and jack up the power to your
house from the transformer on the pole? Does the tranformer have enough
amperage to supply your house and your neigbors house (i.e they usually
share transformers between two houses) and your shop? I have seen the
electric company swap the transformer from a lower voltage to a higher
voltage because of this (i.e it was on the end of a feeder line from the
sub-station).
So is it two services or just tap another 100 or 200amps from the
existing house service?
One last thing. a friend of mine has two 200amp services one for the
house and one for the barns (yes, more then one barn 5 in all probable
12,000 sq ft total). I won't even attemp to tell you how many air
compressors, welders, 500watt halagon lights, street lights, shop
lights, wells (yes, more then one well and one is a 3hp), grinders,
drills, lathes, I am sorry but I am tired of listing things. Anyways
what I am tring to say is between the both of us running as much stuff
as we can at any one time I have only seen the lights flicker once or
twice. The only time I have seen the breakes trip was when I shorted
out a tabel saw because of a bad plug and when the baried cable 10ga
450+ ft was cut while digging a hole because he baried the wire under
the water lines and did not use condit. Note, this is probably dangerous
but the barns are far from the house and each other so he won't lose it
all at once when it burns down. The moral to this story is I don't
beleive any one person shop is going to ever match what my friend has
accomplished with one 200amp service.
Finally, in are county the power company will add an additional service
to a home shop for free including the meter and light pole if needed.
The End,
Michael Leach
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