I own a VERY old house and the wiring is a combination of fuse boxes
and small breaker panels and some individual breakers, sort of added
as they were needed. I am considering a replacing all this and
rewiring. My question is: is the power coming into the house standard?
Can I buy a 200 amp breaker panel and then have 200 amp service or is
this determined by the wires and meter running into the house?

On 2008-04-09, Jrludi wrote:

Can I buy a 200 amp breaker panel and then have 200 amp service or
is this determined by the wires and meter running into the house?

The latter. Wayne

yes, yes, and yes.

s


"Jrludi" wrote in message
...
I own a VERY old house and the wiring is a combination of fuse boxes
and small breaker panels and some individual breakers, sort of added
as they were needed. I am considering a replacing all this and
rewiring. My question is: is the power coming into the house standard?
Can I buy a 200 amp breaker panel and then have 200 amp service or is
this determined by the wires and meter running into the house?

"Jack" wrote in message
...
Jrludi wrote:
I own a VERY old house and the wiring is a combination of fuse boxes
and small breaker panels and some individual breakers, sort of added
as they were needed. I am considering a replacing all this and
rewiring. My question is: is the power coming into the house standard?
Can I buy a 200 amp breaker panel and then have 200 amp service or is
this determined by the wires and meter running into the house?
Call your electric company and they'll tell you the existing capacity, if you
need larger feeder the electric company will install the larger feeder from
the street to your meter at no cost to you, past the electric meter it is all
your responsibility.

Where I live, 150 amp is free, 200 amp cost $150 from the utility.

"Jrludi" wrote in message
...
I own a VERY old house and the wiring is a combination of fuse boxes
and small breaker panels and some individual breakers, sort of added
as they were needed. I am considering a replacing all this and
rewiring. My question is: is the power coming into the house standard?
Can I buy a 200 amp breaker panel and then have 200 amp service or is
this determined by the wires and meter running into the house?

The service size is determined by the size of the service entrance
conductors. These are the wires that you own, that bring electricity into
your house, as gfretwell said, the utility owed wires, both overhead and
underground are sized by different authority. In a garden variety single
family home, you will have one service disconnect, which will be sized for
the entrance conductors as well. Who pays for a service increase varies
wildly from one location to the next. you need to contact a local
electrician or the utility company to get this information

Jack wrote:
Jrludi wrote:
I own a VERY old house and the wiring is a combination of fuse boxes
and small breaker panels and some individual breakers, sort of added
as they were needed. I am considering a replacing all this and
rewiring. My question is: is the power coming into the house standard?
Can I buy a 200 amp breaker panel and then have 200 amp service or is
this determined by the wires and meter running into the house?
Call your electric company and they'll tell you the existing capacity,
if you need larger feeder the electric company will install the larger
feeder from the street to your meter at no cost to you, past the
electric meter it is all your responsibility.

Are you sure you didn't mean to say re$pon$ibility.

In article , wrote:
Call your electric company and they'll tell you the existing capacity,
if you need larger feeder the electric company will install the larger
feeder from the street to your meter at no cost to you, past the
electric meter it is all your responsibility.

If it's an underground installation, anyway.

For overhead installations, typically the power company handles everything up
to the rain head at the top of the service mast; everything from there onward,
including from the rain head to the meter, is the homeowner's responsibility.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.

In article , "S. Barker" wrote:
yes, yes, and yes.

Wrong, wrong, and wrong.

The OP's questions in order, with *correct* answers:

Q: Is the power coming into the house standard?
A: No. Not in terms of the service amperage provided, anyway. Many older homes
have service laterals that are capable of providing only 60A. Some newer ones
go as high as 400A.

Q: Can I buy a 200A breaker panel and have 200A service?
A: Not if the feed from the power company isn't capable of providing 200A.

Q: ... or is this determined by the wires and meter?
A: It's determined by the lowest-capacity component in the chain: power
company transformer, power company service lateral, service drop from the
lateral to the meter, meter and meter base, feeder from meter to service
entrance box, rating of service entrance box, rating of main breaker. To have
200A service, *all* of these components must be rated 200A or higher.

s


"Jrludi" wrote in message
...
I own a VERY old house and the wiring is a combination of fuse boxes
and small breaker panels and some individual breakers, sort of added
as they were needed. I am considering a replacing all this and
rewiring. My question is: is the power coming into the house standard?
Can I buy a 200 amp breaker panel and then have 200 amp service or is
this determined by the wires and meter running into the house?



--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.

On Wed, 09 Apr 2008 22:38:02 GMT, Doug Miller wrote:
In article , wrote:
Call your electric company and they'll tell you the existing capacity,
if you need larger feeder the electric company will install the larger
feeder from the street to your meter at no cost to you, past the
electric meter it is all your responsibility.

If it's an underground installation, anyway.

For overhead installations, typically the power company handles everything up
to the rain head at the top of the service mast; everything from there onward,
including from the rain head to the meter, is the homeowner's responsibility.

That's only if you have the meter mounted at the top of the service mast.

In article , AZ Nomad wrote:
On Wed, 09 Apr 2008 22:38:02 GMT, Doug Miller wrote:
In article ,
wrote:
Call your electric company and they'll tell you the existing capacity,
if you need larger feeder the electric company will install the larger
feeder from the street to your meter at no cost to you, past the
electric meter it is all your responsibility.

If it's an underground installation, anyway.

For overhead installations, typically the power company handles everything up
to the rain head at the top of the service mast; everything from there onward,
including from the rain head to the meter, is the homeowner's responsibility.

That's only if you have the meter mounted at the top of the service mast.

Ummm.... no. Maybe you should think about that a little more.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.

And _I_ stand corrected. I can admit when i'm wrong. I sped read the
message and totally fouled up the answer.


s


"Doug Miller" wrote in message
...
In article , "S. Barker"
wrote:
yes, yes, and yes.

Wrong, wrong, and wrong.

The OP's questions in order, with *correct* answers:

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

I want to thank everyone that responded to this post! I had no idea
there would be so much involved. Like I said, this is a very old house
and it has NO main breaker. The power comes down to the meter on the
outside and from there runs into the basement where it goes into
several different boxes. It's very hard to trace what's going where.
Some of the original wiring is still present in the house, in one of
the upstairs bedrooms there is an outlet that has one round, sideways,
recepticle, and another bedroom still has a pushbutton lightswitch. I
think I'm gonna end up calling an Electrician for this one. Thanks
again!

Additionally, I was told by the utility once that if you change to 200 amps and
don't notify the utility, you may be responsible if the transformer blows. They
check for sufficvient capacity when you notify them, and replace the transformer
if needed.