AboutRick Miell Expertise Past County electrical inspector, hold St. of Colorado Master license, will try to answer any electrical question with Code related answers.
Experience State of Colorado Master Electrician. Past County Electricial Inspector (15 years)
Question I have a few question on understanding the service panel. The main breaker has 100 on it; does this mean I have 100 amps service?
I was also wondering about how all the breakers add up. I have 15 breakers on the panel; 5 are 30 amp, and 10 are 20 amp. Does all that add up to anything(10*20=200 & 30*5=150 for 350)? Is 350 amps worth, under a 100 amp main breaker, the right number? I know that all those amps wouldn't usually be used at once, but would the main breaker just trip if that happened?
The last question is that if I do have a 100 amp breaker, should I upgrade? I'm not sure what houses built today have in them.
After looking at the panel, I have a safety concern, but I will put that in a seperate question form.
Thanks
Answer Hi KC.
If your main device is rated 100amps, then that is what your service is rated. While true that if all loads were on and pulling the maximum at the same time, the main would trip, this rarely happens.
The size of your service is dependant on your loads. If you have appliances which are electric, such as range, dryer, water heater, a/c unit, hot tub, etc..., you might consider upgrading. However, if you haven't had problems before this, you probably will be ok without doing anything, unless you decide to add additional load(s).
If your concern about the safety of the equipment is valid, and it would call for replacement of this equipment, I would suggest you upgrade to 200amp, which is probably the most common size of electrical service installed today, with the exception of new mega-custom homes.
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