Undersized power?

[Whiskeymike]

20 year old house here. We had a problem where upstairs lights were dimming, wife called power company, they sent someone out and they diagnosed it was a breaker in the panel outside. I replaced breaker, everything is fine. However while guy was here, he was shocked that outside panel had 125 amp coming in and suggested we upgrade the service at some point. We’ve never had any breakers pop or any issues. Only thing I can think of is occasionally a gfci circuit might be popped and we have no idea why.

2 questions. Is there a reason to upgrade the service if I’m not having issues or adding additional consumption? Second, could the gfci popping a couple times a year be caused by the service level?

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Well were gonna need a lot more info before we can answer your question.

You would need to provide electric loads such as dryer range pool heating ac etc etc

Also sq footage of house

 

[Whiskeymike]

Sq footage is 3500 sf. Water heaters, stove, heater are all propane. Almost all new appliances, 2 fridges, 1 freezer. Two AC units, brand new.

Shop is completely separate power.

 

[yeldogt]

Was always told 100amp would get you any two -- dryer/AC/ stoveven .... but not all three. Going 125 to grab the third was the same as 200 around me so that's what people did .. 200. We did 100amp in our rentals w/ gas appliances. Electric cooktops and ovens -- AC unit.

refrigerators and freezers use very little power -- and lighting as well. Dishwashers and garbage disposers are also more energy efficient. AC units as well.

My guess is you are in no danger of overload.

 

[mbear]

If your GFCI trips , it's a completely different issue . As long as you are not having issues with low voltage , AND you are not planning on adding any significant load to the panel it's probably just fine as is .

 

[BillK]

If you have been in the house for a while and you are not having any other problems then I don't see why you would worry about upgrading. I agree that the GFCI problem is unrelated to the size of the service.

 

[nh_yota]

My parents' previous house was 4100 sq ft with electric stove, dryer, central air and in-ground pool with 2 pumps, all on 150A service. Never had any problems even during the summer when everything was running at once.

Some people assume that every house needs a 200A service at a minimum but that's not true.

 

[strutaeng]

20 year old house here. We had a problem where upstairs lights were dimming, wife called power company, they sent someone out and they diagnosed it was a breaker in the panel outside. I replaced breaker, everything is fine. However while guy was here, he was shocked that outside panel had 125 amp coming in and suggested we upgrade the service at some point. We’ve never had any breakers pop or any issues. Only thing I can think of is occasionally a gfci circuit might be popped and we have no idea why.

2 questions. Is there a reason to upgrade the service if I’m not having issues or adding additional consumption? Second, could the gfci popping a couple times a year be caused by the service level?

My parents' house where I grew up from the 50s still has the original electrical service. They a 3 ton AC, 2 refrigerators, 1 deep freezer and a smaller fridge, clothes washer. The range, furnace, and dryer are gas. They've never had a problem. The entire block is the same way. I think electric services back then were like 60A, LOL.

200A is more for like an all-electric home or for adding a subpanel to garage setup. If you are not tripping from overcurrent (like the 125A MAIN breaker tripping) you are fine.

 

[mike93lx]

I'm on 100a with two fridges, a freezer, electric dryer, 2 ton ac and a well. Probably have never used more than 60a other than when the welder is running.

Its important to note that generally, the Poco won't change the feeder to your house unless you justify the demand. All you get with a service upgrade is larger wiring from the overhead through to the main breaker.

 

[cmandp]

I was going to say that everyone now a days seems to think you don't have enough if you don't have 200A service.

Our house here is about 2200sqft with an electric dryer and stove. Water heater is gas, heat is from radiators with a gas furnace, no central AC but we do use a 10,000btu window unit downstairs and a couple of 4000btu upstairs in the summer. Garage is feed from house too although there's nothing more than light out there currently. We only have 100A service.

Now since the main panel is still fuses and the service entrance is the same age we will probably upgrade when we have a new panel put in since it should probably be replaced anyway.

But point is with 125A service as long as you don't need to replace the panel or service entrance for some reason I don't think it's worth the hassle to upgrade to 200A for the sake of upgrading.

 

[Zeke]

125 here with 3 ton AC, and plenty of 20 amp circuits. In fact, I put in a sub panel to help out the crowding of the main and got rid of a few slim breakers so I could put in AFCI's. It's no secret I believe in AFCI's but that's another topic.

Never popped the main although I do have some problems with the single 20A to the garage. Too much out there including a full size refrigerator, washer, dryer and power tools including a 1.5 HP compressor. That's all substandard and it will get upgraded.

Point is that I have no problems within the house with 125 A service.

 

[Whiskeymike]

Ok, thanks guys. It didn’t make sense to me either to upgrade everything if we aren’t having problems.

This panel feeds a sub panel in the garage that controls different parts of the house, mostly all lights and outlets.

 

[James-W]

My parents' previous house was 4100 sq ft with electric stove, dryer, central air and in-ground pool with 2 pumps, all on 150A service. Never had any problems even during the summer when everything was running at once.

Some people assume that every house needs a 200A service at a minimum but that's not true.

If you are doing new construction I don't see a reason for NOT running a 200 amp service. When I built my garage the power company ran the power to the garage for free. There was no extra cost for 200 amp service. The only cost difference was I had to buy a 200 amp service panel instead of a 100 service panel, and that cost was very minor. By getting the 200 amp service I should have plenty of power for all my future needs, no matter what I decide to get. I am not saying I will ever need that much power, but in the event that I do need it, I have it available.

 

[nsula_country]

When you are all electric and new construction, electrical service is a fraction of overall cost. Much cheaper to future proof than to upgrade later.

2011, new house, 2200 sqft. 320 amp service.

2016, new shop, 4200 sqft, 2400 sqft enclosed. 200 amp service.

And yes, I was told both were oversized. But electric heat and electric tankless water heaters need short, but adequate requirements of high current.

CT

 

[machsnell]

So what is the reason that his lights are dimming?

I have the same issue where my lights dim when the heat pump kicks on.

I thought I had read there could be an issue on the poco side within transformer?

Sorry to hijack but curious.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[wyliesdiesels]

So what is the reason that his lights are dimming?

I have the same issue where my lights dim when the heat pump kicks on.

I thought I had read there could be an issue on the poco side within transformer?

Sorry to hijack but curious.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

It's called voltage sag.

When a high draw appliance kicks on it will draw a lot of current which temporarily causes the voltage to dip.

The lights in my house dim when my ac kicks on. Its normal.

 

[larry4406]

It's called voltage sag.

When a high draw appliance kicks on it will draw a lot of current which temporarily causes the voltage to dip.

The lights in my house dim when my ac kicks on. Its normal.

Maybe you need a hard start kit for AC unit?

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Maybe you need a hard start kit for AC unit?

Not gonna waste my money on that.

It happens at every house ive lived in.

 

[Bert_]

So what is the reason that his lights are dimming?

I have the same issue where my lights dim when the heat pump kicks on.

I thought I had read there could be an issue on the poco side within transformer?

Sorry to hijack but curious.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

Combination of the length / size of the secondary wire to your house and the transformer size. Both of those are sized by the utility and are not really determined by service size but rather the load. This is also a good reason why you should inform your utility if you are adding large loads even if your service panel has plenty of capacity. Sometimes they need to bump up to bigger transformer.

It's not uncommon to see several houses with 200A services being fed by a single 25KVA transformer (will do about 100A continuous). If overhead they like to use 2/0 PAC to go down the block around here. This is because most homes never come close to maxing out a service.

Lights dimming a little when heavy equipment starts is normal and not a problem. If the lights STAY dim then something is probably undersized or a bad connection and you should look into the problem.

 

[Farmall450]

If you have been in the house for a while and you are not having any other problems then I don't see why you would worry about upgrading. I agree that the GFCI problem is unrelated to the size of the service.

This. Appliances and lighting are only getting more efficient.

 

[TractorJeff]

My parents house was a 60 amp service with lots of 14 ga on four 15 amp fuses plus a couple of sub-disconnects. Basically the basement/cellar lights dimmed when the water pump or table saw turned on.
When the service upgrade was done mostly for the Shop addition a lot of the house circuits got split and new wire was ran to balance the loads.
My current house has a dated 200amp only because I think the original owner knew he was going to Air Conditioning and a Welder outlet plus an electric range/stove.
I don't believe it was the norm back in 1975?