Official Luthiers Forum!

As some of you know I am doing some rewiring work.

Currently I have a 200A service coming into the house and the panel is full. An electrician came in a few months back and added a 60A sub panel just so we would have a little breathing room and installed a 220 circuit for my bandsaw and sander.

I am now looking to add a bunch of new circuits and prep a better shop. This includes a 28A Table saw, at some point in the future a 50A wide belt sander (and this doesn't count the compressor and dust collectors needed) a 3-5 hp dust collector, maybe a CNC machine at some point, a large disk sander... etc. etc.

Obviously that 60A sub panel is not going to get me to first base.

Does anyone know how much service there is coming into residential homes? Someone told me that they bring 600A into the house. Does this sound right? Could I realistically have an additional 200A panel added without having to upgrade my electrical service?

And... if electrical service upgrades are needed, what is involved with that, and (ball park) what kind of investment is that?

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

You can replace the 60A sub-panel with a 200A panel. Really all it does is give you more spaces. You won't be running all that stuff at once, and would never max out a full 200 Amps of usage all at once, so it's not a big deal.
You'll probably need to replace the cable between the panels to handle the larger amperage though.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

You can add a 200A sub panel off of your main panel BUT you need to add a 200A breaker in the main panel to feed the sub panel. Then, as Don said, you will need to run a larger cable to supply the sub panel rated for 200A.

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tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

Do you think I can keep the 60A sub panel I have now (thinking for extra circuits around the house, for when i finally get around to finishing the basement, etc.)

and add a 200A sub panel for the shop?

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Brock:
Chances are that your existing 200A service will not accept a full 200A breaker for another subpanel, it mechanically won't fit . Most services will only accept a 100A breaker for subpanels. That will be sufficient for your additional machine loads in the shop. You are only going to use one machine at a time unless you plan on hiring employees (!?!?)........naaahh, bad idea!!

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The Biggest Little City, Nevada
www.hammondguitars.com
I love building guitars!

One thing to keep in mind is that you only need lots of power if you plan to run everything at once. I had a very similar problem for my shop but concluded that as long as I could run my air compressor, one major piece of equipment (planer, table, band saw, etc.) and my dust collect that I would be ok for most situations. So far it has never been a problem. It is also important to note that some equipment pulls the most amount of amps at start up. To help my situation I converted most of my large machines to 220V since it cuts the amps in half. This usually just requires changing a few wires and really help.

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Brad
Avon, OH

Mike might be correct when he says it may only take another 100A panel. The easiest thing to do is go to your local Agent Orange or Papa Smurf store and ask them what you can add. They usually have knowledgeable people in the electrical departments. If that's the case, you may be able to add 2 100A panels. You might have to re-route a circuit to one of the new panels to create the space though.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

yeah, I was thinking about routing a couple of the circuits into the sub panel. To open up some room to put the new sub panel breakers in.

You guys are right though... I won't be running many of these machines @ the same time. Probably just 2. The machine and the dust collector.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Exactly. A friend of mine is a cabinet maker / Corian fabricator who works out of his substantial basement workshop. He has more tools than I'll ever dream of, and comes nowhere near using up his 200A service all at once. He had a very large panel put in to afford him a lot of circuits for the house and the shop, and that's the real key. You just need more spaces.

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

BTW, this past spring I added a 100A sub-panel to my primary 100A service panel, giving me more spaces than I'll ever need.

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."