larry4406
Well-known member
Exactly. That's why I posted the pictures from the day job to better illustrate how the panels are paralleled.
Generator switch for house with two 200 amp load centers / panels
- Thread starter joe_pinehill1
- Start date
mike93lx
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Are those leviton panels?You have a typical "400A" service" as done here in Northern VA. Pictures below showing a typical "400A meter can" with SER running to the separate 200A panels (others here on the forum I believe are referring to this as a 320A meter can).
This is standard on all of our new homes here. These are pictures of a Dominion power meter can. Depending on where you are in northern VA, you might have NOVEC as your power provider but their meter cans and wiring are near identical.
You can see from the meter can lugs that the panels each get L1, L2, and ground. Dominion has not yet run the secondary to this can.
OP
joe_pinehill1
Well-known member
You’re probably right, I may have gotten half the story. Dominion came in the middle of the night to resplice.
OP
joe_pinehill1
Well-known member
I didn't plan on a stand by generator. Someone will have to be home to power up the generator, flip the interlock and connect power.
Square D QO
mike93lx
ALLIANCE MEMBER
I was referring to Larry's Pic. They look white and I don't think I have seen anyone beside leviton offer a white panel.
We have a similar layout here - house was wired with two 200A panels each as a separate SER off the meter. We have a whole house 14kW automatic generator off a 200A ATS. I decided we'd never exceed 200A so I moved the second panel to be a subpanel off the first, limiting the house to 200A service. The second SER goes into an entrance rated disconnect that is off. This was far easier for us and resulted in a true whole house standby generator instead of picking which loads. I do have load shedding set on a few circuits as we can easily exceed the generator output if the hot tub and car charger are drawing at the same time as other high draw loads (e.g., oven).
If we ever needed to tap the second 200A feed, we'd need to run from that disconnect to a new panel and feed the circuit from there.
We've been here more than a decade and have load center monitoring on all panels and subpanels and many circuits and have never come close to 200A of draw. For our circumstances, I'd do this again the same way.
Perhaps some of you with large garages or welding facilities or other particularly large draws need more than 200A but we don't come remotely close to that.
If we ever needed to tap the second 200A feed, we'd need to run from that disconnect to a new panel and feed the circuit from there.
We've been here more than a decade and have load center monitoring on all panels and subpanels and many circuits and have never come close to 200A of draw. For our circumstances, I'd do this again the same way.
Perhaps some of you with large garages or welding facilities or other particularly large draws need more than 200A but we don't come remotely close to that.
Innovate1
Well-known member
I never said subpanels don't make sense. I said feeding a 200A panel from a 200A panel doesn't make much sense - especially in the case of the OP where the panels are side by side. In some cases there might be a reason to do it but in most cases the subpanel is less amperage than the feeding panel. If you have a meter main of 200A then a 200A panel seems reasonable but even in that case the meter might feed more than one panel and often the subpanels will be rated smaller than the meter.It makes sense in many situations, especially when the "main" 200A panel is pretty far away from the structure. It's all about where you distribute the wire. You're basically saying "sub panels don't make sense".
There are two of us with 320A service serving 2 x 200A panels. That math is even worse.
I have a 320A service feeding 2 - 200A panels. As I understand it the derating is different on the meter base and the panels. Someone here posted the numbers and how they lined up but I don't have the reference handy.
wyliesdiesels
Well-known member
Seems to be a common problem with the wizard
wyliesdiesels
Well-known member
Thats odd. Why would the utility company have to repair wiring on the load side of their meter? Thats the homeowners responsibility.
wyliesdiesels
Well-known member
That would be a neutral not a ground
OP
joe_pinehill1
Well-known member
"The Utility Company had to come out, open the utility trench and resplice one of the feeds to his house." Dominion respliced the feed from the street transformer to the meter. The wire Dominion installed to the meter box failed.
wyliesdiesels
Well-known member
Thats not what you said in your previous post.
You said one panel lost power and the 2 panels have separate feeds from the meter. So if only one panel losses power, that indicated an issue with the feed from the meter to the panel not from the transformer (or lateral splice box) to the meter.
Thats why i was confused
larry4406
Well-known member
larry4406
Well-known member
Thank you. I just corrected my post.
gkw4815
Member
I have dual 150 amp main panels tied to a 320 amp meter base. One interlocked 50 amp breaker in each panel. One 50 amp inlet with hots split to each breaker, neutral and ground tied to one of the two main panels.
Over 120 hours of running on this setup through various outages and has always worked perfectly. No issue with parallel neutral paths because there's only a single 6awg neutral wire run from the inlet to one of the panels.
Another option would be fully-independent interlocked inlets for each panel. This provides flexibility for future expansion (ie if you get a really big portable generator, like a GP17500e, two inlets would allow to to use all of its running amps instead of being limited to 50 amps).
Over 120 hours of running on this setup through various outages and has always worked perfectly. No issue with parallel neutral paths because there's only a single 6awg neutral wire run from the inlet to one of the panels.
Another option would be fully-independent interlocked inlets for each panel. This provides flexibility for future expansion (ie if you get a really big portable generator, like a GP17500e, two inlets would allow to to use all of its running amps instead of being limited to 50 amps).
OP
joe_pinehill1
Well-known member
I've learned a lot from the thread. Seems like the manual 10 breaker transfer switch that I installed in 2005 on my old house maybe obsolete and less expensive option for my need is a lockout bracket .
mike93lx
ALLIANCE MEMBER
I dont think I've ever heard of dual 150's on a 320a service. Any idea why 150's were picked?
gkw4815
Member
Beats me, they're original to the 1986-built house. We bought the house a few years back.
There were some other oddities with the house electrical, but most have been resolved.
jar944
Well-known member
Sigh.. not standard enough apparently.
acer66
Well-known member
Why so big?
manwithtools
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Electrical service needs are constantly increasing - electric ranges instead of gas, possible multiple car chargers, big houses with large HVAC loads, etc. About the only load going down is lighting due to LED's.
mike93lx
ALLIANCE MEMBER
I bet some of it is just to allow for the breaker spaces that are needed in newer large homes. I don't need more than 200a service, but there are more circuits than I can fit into a single panel.
Also, it just goes along with the excess that people expect in larger homes.
Three zones of hvac, a huge pool heat pump, electric range, electric dryer and still, 200a would do it, but 320a is cooler
acer66
Well-known member
I see and it makes sense that someone describing a 3k sf house as small now here.
OP
joe_pinehill1
Well-known member
We have 2200 ft ranch, our model normally has one panel, but I added a 100 amp sub panel in the basement to make future work easier, so the builder used 2 panels in the garage.
AP514
Well-known member
How about a 50A manual transfer switch ?
Reliance 50-Amp Manual Transfer Switch
Is this any different then what was linked on page 1?
acer66
Well-known member
It is in bigger and bolder fonts!!!
The simplest way to avoid lots of mickey mouse **** and possible future hazards is to put an interlock in each panel with a separate 30 or 50a power inlet box for each.
Then make a splitter cord "Y" to connect from gen to one or both PIBs. The splitter cord has one plug end and 2 recept ends. They are either both 30 or both 50a. Cordage sized accordingly. Use a 4-11/16" sq box to splice or pvc j-box.
All of the permanent wiring is code compliant and only the "Y splitter cord" is custom.
Then make a splitter cord "Y" to connect from gen to one or both PIBs. The splitter cord has one plug end and 2 recept ends. They are either both 30 or both 50a. Cordage sized accordingly. Use a 4-11/16" sq box to splice or pvc j-box.
All of the permanent wiring is code compliant and only the "Y splitter cord" is custom.
jar944
Well-known member
Yeah a single 200a panel isn't close to large enough for all the circuits on these (average for the area) houses. I have 200a service and a 100a sub panel and the amount of appliances rooms and areas that should be on dedicated circuits (but are not) is ridiculous and i'm gas for the stove, water heater and lower furnace. The rest of my neighbors on my street all have 320/400 and are 2-3k sqft smaller (but 100% electric).
AP514
Well-known member
Humm... Must have missed that post.............