No main? I read about those before but never seen one. Can you explain it to me? I seem to remember some reason for it but....
Picture a regular panel with both buss bars severed horizontally halfway down the panel. The top half consisting of 12 spaces is filled with six 2 pole breakers. One of those six breakers is a 2 pole 60, the wires off the load side of this breaker hit some lugs feeding the bottom half of the panel. This half consists of all the single pole breakers for lights and receps, etc. Those six breakers are legal and referred to as the six disconnect rule, with six throws of the hand you can shut off all those breakers and kill the whole panel. Make sense?
Aceman is correct, there is no main. All the electricians are legit ad have included the permit prices in the estimate. The real question is how big of a service pannel can I put in the garage?
It could be be the same ampacity as the house panel if you were so inclined.
Aceman the guy that suggested the 125 amp pannel didn't say if it was just because of available spaces or ? The estimate says #3THHN feeder and a 1 1/2" conduit if that helps.
#3 Thhn copper is good for 100 amps, not 125. Hopefully, he meant 100 amp panel even though I still think that might be more than you're needing anyhow. It's really all about how much extra capacity you want.
Normally the utility wires are smaller than the wire for a 200amp service. I think they get by because the wire is outside and doesn't run as high a temperature.
That's part of it, the other part is the utility sizes their wires and transformers to the actual load. Not the fact that you have a 200 amp panel, you automatically need 200 amps of power.
