balance breaker panel necessary?

[wuntunearlybko]

i am in the planning stage of getting my wiring done and had a couple of questions about load balancing the breaker panel. a friend of mine tells me that the power company charges by taking the high load leg and doubling it to charge for the power usage. that seems like a little too much work to me but there is no telling.

also, will it make a difference (esp since this is a sub-panel running off the main in the house) to balance the load as close as possible? This was his suggestion when i asked for opinions:

when installing the breakers and wiring to the panel, the loads need to be evenly distributed between the two 120VAC lines. 240VAC breakers wont matter since they pull off of both, but youre lights should be split. half going to an even number breaker, and the other half going to the odd number breaker. same thing with the outlets.it doesn't have to be perfect, but you want it as close to even as possible

thanks guys

-cutts-

 

[rlitman]

He's misinformed.
Just fill up the panel, and you will be balanced well enough.

 

[Falcon67]

Homeowners get billed based on kWh usage. Business can get billed based on peak demand. I would only look at the panel placement if I had some real high motor load 120V items. And if I did, I would look first at rewiring those motors to 240V and do away with the load issue.

 

[rlitman]

Homeowners get billed based on kWh usage. Business can get billed based on peak demand. I would only look at the panel placement if I had some real high motor load 120V items. And if I did, I would look first at rewiring those motors to 240V and do away with the load issue.

The peak demand is still across the incoming wires and does not involve the neutral (ok, it's a little more complicated with commercial, because it is 3 phase, but there is still just one number that's billed, and it has nothing to do with the balance).

 

[Stuart in MN]

It's good design sense to distribute the loads equally across the two legs, but it's not all that critical.

 

[pop pop]

How will you balance them when they are constantly changing?

 

[Stuart in MN]

How will you balance them when they are constantly changing?

That's a good point - in most houses the loads aren't all continuous. Someone will turn on a light in this room, then someone will watch TV in that room, and then someone will run a power tool in the garage. All you can do is make your best guess as how to distribute the various circuits across both legs of the service.

In real life, the actual loads at any given time are usually much less than the maximum anyway - if you don't count large loads like appliances or air conditioning, most of the time you'll have a few lights on, and a TV or stereo, and that's about it.

 

[wuntunearlybko]

ahhh, i had not thought about that true true! thanks guys for all the help.