I have a 60 year old, 1000 square foot house that has had its electric box messed with two or three times. There is one breaker box in the bed room closet that is from the fourties, then, on the outside back to back, there is another one from the eighties. I called an master electrician that has been doing electrical work since the sixties, super nice guy, and he said I would need a new drop line coming in, a 200 amp wire coming down the main conduit and a new 200 amp breaker box. He said he could up grade all that for $800 - $1000.00 and get all circuts in one box outside. My question is, at home depot I saw a whole row of 100 amp and 150 amp boxes but only two 200 amp ones. Do I relly need a two hundred amp one and why the difference between them?

 

Absolutly not. A 100 amp box is more than enough, unless you have elec. heat, and a massive AC unit.

 

The price difference between an 100 amp to 200 amp service upgrade is minimal, and you will have plenty of room(capacity) for add on's down the road (finished basement, garage, etc.).
New electrical codes have reduced the amount of load allowed per circuit, thus increasing number of circuits required.

 

200Amp service is the standard for new homes and upgrades today, at least in my area. That's because people have so much more than demands power than before. Between your self-cleaning oven, central AC, home theatre system, 6x100W dining room chandelier, daughter's blow dryer, clothes iron, electric lawn mower, garage space heater and indoor steak grilling grill, modern living can really draw power.

BUT - on a reno of such a small house (no offence) there's no absolute need to upgrade your service. In fact, it may be useless in your case. The difference between a 100Amp box and a 200 is just the size of the box and the number of breaker slots so you can have more independent circuits. But if you're not re-wiring the whole house, splitting the outlets and lights onto more circuits, then each existing circuit is going to carry exactly the same maximum anyway. The added capacity would just let you have more of your circuits loaded to maximum at one time before the main breaker trips. Have you ever tripped the main breaker? Doubt it.

Mind you, the cost savings is going to be minimal. The electrician still has exactly the same work to install a new box, the same number of breakers to install. As far as I can see, the only savings you'll see is not having the electric company come replace the drop. You might save $200.

Edit - Crash67 makes a good point - for the minimal added cost, you add capacity for future additions. Might be a good selling point some day.

 

All good points! I love FTE! You all got me thinking about what kind of draw I put on our electric system even though it's so small the mice are hunch-backed and claustrophobic!
We have two 220 volt electric heaters in the master bed room(used to be a garage), a dryer, oven, my 220 welder and a 15 year old that has more computers and electronics set up than NASA.Would probably be wise just to kick out the extra $200 and have more than enough. Labor is $65.00 an hour is that about average?

 

Does that $1000 include running all the new wiring from those sub-boxes to the new main breaker box ?

 

Go for the 200 amp you will cover yourself for later. I can't get a 100 amp inspected on a new construction and the wine in the old .

 

Go for the 200, they fill up fast.

 

Ok, now I will say. GO FOR THE 200 amp.

 

I am not sure on how to post pictures in a post so I added some to my galley of a 200 amp panel and a 100 amp panel. I am currently finishing a basement with the 200 amp panel and am adding 6 more breakers to the box plus a 100 amp breaker for service for the garage that leads to a sub panel. As you can see once I am done adding the other breakers the panel will be full expect for 2 spots. If it was me I would get nothing less then a 200 amp panel, but it sounds like you could get by with a 150 amp panel with some room to upgrade later. At my place we only had a 100 amp panel and just added a hot tub (240V/50 amp breaker) so we upgraded to a 200 amp panel, all I can say is that it is much easier to do it right the first time around! In this case bigger is better.

Hope this helps

 

I would also go with a 200 amp box. A 100 would do just fine for you, but when it comes to electrical, especially for the service entrance wire and Main box, overkill is always better, if you are redoing it anyway. Labor is going to be the same any way you slice it. Doesn't take more labor to install a larger amp wire or box. And its not that much more to upgrade.

 

Yep, I'm convinced! going with the 200. The quote of $1000 includes bringing in the wire from the really old box to the new and separating two outlets that are currently on one breaker that trips every time we use the microwave wile washing dishes. So I guess I'm probably getting away easy...

 

good choice.... never go low on electric. water heater, welder, dryer, electric heaters....you can easily over amp a 100amp main