Upgrading to 200 Amp Service....basic questions.

[mayhem]

Not sure if its a concern or not, but make sure your grounding is good for 200 amps too. When I built my house I hired a local electrician based on multiple recommendations from people whose opinion I trused. House was to be wored for 200A, dud put in a 100A rated ground and a tiny little breaker panel...among other screwups and lack of returning my calls this is why I replaced him with another electrician.

We were glad we caught the bad ground before we poured the basement floor over it.

 

[mainemaul]

200 amp panel at HD is around $160. 100 amps were around $70.
Find a guy who just got outta Electrical Tech to do the installation. These guys are up on the most recent codes and work cheap for cash. The kid I hired charged me $50 from weatherhead into the building and new service panel and wired a couple outlets and lights close to the panel.
I just bought a combination commercial residential building 6 months ago and have been going through the whole upgrade process myself.

are you serious?

 

[jharkin]

Not sure if its a concern or not, but make sure your grounding is good for 200 amps too. When I built my house I hired a local electrician based on multiple recommendations from people whose opinion I trused. House was to be wored for 200A, dud put in a 100A rated ground and a tiny little breaker panel...among other screwups and lack of returning my calls this is why I replaced him with another electrician.

We were glad we caught the bad ground before we poured the basement floor over it.

The inspection didn't catch it? Our old 100amp was just grounded to the metal water main. For the new service they retained that, and added a supplemental ground rod outside (code minimum I beleive is 2 8ft ground rods OR 1 ground rod + water main).

 

[mayhem]

We found and fixed it pre-inspection.

 

[burnham]

Not sure if its a concern or not, but make sure your grounding is good for 200 amps too. When I built my house I hired a local electrician based on multiple recommendations from people whose opinion I trused. House was to be wored for 200A, dud put in a 100A rated ground and a tiny little breaker panel...among other screwups and lack of returning my calls this is why I replaced him with another electrician.

We were glad we caught the bad ground before we poured the basement floor over it.

The inspection didn't catch it? Our old 100amp was just grounded to the metal water main. For the new service they retained that, and added a supplemental ground rod outside (code minimum I beleive is 2 8ft ground rods OR 1 ground rod + water main).

2 ground rods even with the copper water main. the logic is you may change to a plastic service sometime down the road.

 

[seige101]

Not sure if its a concern or not, but make sure your grounding is good for 200 amps too. When I built my house I hired a local electrician based on multiple recommendations from people whose opinion I trused. House was to be wored for 200A, dud put in a 100A rated ground and a tiny little breaker panel...among other screwups and lack of returning my calls this is why I replaced him with another electrician.

We were glad we caught the bad ground before we poured the basement floor over it.

The inspection didn't catch it? Our old 100amp was just grounded to the metal water main. For the new service they retained that, and added a supplemental ground rod outside (code minimum I beleive is 2 8ft ground rods OR 1 ground rod + water main).

2 ground rods even with the copper water main. the logic is you may change to a plastic service sometime down the road.

Copper water main and 1 ground rod if you can prove 25 ohms to ground or less. Most electricians will not spend the several grand for the tester and we just drive 2 rods and don't have to prove the resistance. The extra 6' of copper, ground rod, acorn clamp and labor to install it is probably right around 20 bucks.

 

[jharkin]

Maybe our code inspector is lazy? Only one rod + the main and it wasn't questioned.... hmm