Upgrading service from 200 amp to 400 amp

padiyguy · Oct 31, 2022

I don't have much room around my current 200 amp panel and want to upgrade to 400 amp. I'd have an electrician do the work but I am just trying to educate myself a bit before talking to one.

There is not much room around the current panel/service entrance to put another panel. I have a 100 amp breaker on the current panel that runs to a sub panel. I was thinking of having the subpanel be the other 200 amp panel. I would have to upgrade the cable running to it, that wouldn't be a big problem. What does the code say about this setup where I have 2 x 200 amp panels, one is very close to the service entrance and the other is farther. Is it even allowed? I imagine I would have to have a disconnect or something by the service entrance?

Thanks

Megawatt · Nov 1, 2022

padiyguy said:
I don't have much room around my current 200 amp panel and want to upgrade to 400 amp. I'd have an electrician do the work but I am just trying to educate myself a bit before talking to one.

There is not much room around the current panel/service entrance to put another panel. I have a 100 amp breaker on the current panel that runs to a sub panel. I was thinking of having the subpanel be the other 200 amp panel. I would have to upgrade the cable running to it, that wouldn't be a big problem. What does the code say about this setup where I have 2 x 200 amp panels, one is very close to the service entrance and the other is farther. Is it even allowed? I imagine I would have to have a disconnect or something by the service entrance?

Thanks

As long as you have a 200 amp main panel then there is no problem feeding a 200 amp sub panel. I’m assuming that you have a 100 amp sub panel and you cannot exceed the amperage of the panel board rating. To start with you will never pull 200 amps but if you want to upgrade your sub panel then you need to replace the panel with a 200 amp and pull new wiring. You would need three 2/0 copper wire, then a # 6 equipment ground. You wouldn’t even qualify for a 400 amp system. If you did and can even find a 400 meter it would cost you a huge amount of money for this kind of install. Good luck