"BIOSMonkey" wrote in message
...
I am finishing my basement, and am in the process of doing electrical.
I did a load calc and came up with 181A, but my main panel is 150A.

So I need to upgrade to a 200A main panel. When I asked an
electrician about it he implied it was a really big deal, and the
"whole house needed to be brought up to code". I don't know what he
means by that? The meter is CL200 which I believe means it is rated
for 200A service so it looks like you just need to change the panel.
What am I missing?

I know that if the buried service cables were sized only for 150A then
I am in trouble and am looking at some big bucks to change, but as I
said the meter appears to be 200A rated. Could the utility have
installed cables for 150A anyway? That seems incredibly dangerous if
they did since someone might assume the system could handle 200A!


Did you do your load calculation according to Article 220? If you figured
181 continuous amps than a 200 amp service will not be adequate. The main
breaker is only rated for 80% continuous load (3 hours or more) which is 160
amps.

In New Jersey one of the power company's has all of their residential
service feeders rated for a maximum of 310 amps. They don't want to be
bothered every time someone upgrades a service. The electrical contractor
does the connection at the house. Check to see if your power company has
info on a website.