Hi,

I'm remodeling my kitchen/hallway/powder room combination.

On the one hand, I just had a new 200amp service put in and a new
40circuit box installed and it's only half full. And it's also only
40ft away from the kitchen, on average.

But I still want a subpanel for the kitchen. My main rationale is
neatness, It's an old house and there are several generations of ad
hoc electrical improvements and I have literally tens of dead wires in
the walls that go nowhere, there are wires from the 30's, 60's and
80's, etc. It is especially messy around the new box. I would have to
have 10 or so more wires running all the way back to the box. So
please, don't talk me out of doing a subpanel, I'm committed to doing
it (I have additional reasons for doing it, too).

Here's what my kitchen will have:
1. A dual fuel range (requiring 30amps for the oven)
2. A heater/vent combination in the power room.
3. Possibly an underfloor heating mat
4. Microwave/convection oven/garbage disposal/toaster oven/tv/dvd/
outlets galore

Main question:
How many amps should I have going into the subpanel?

And then there is something I don't get: does the subpanel have it's
own main breaker or does it rely on the breaker that it comes off of
in the main panel?

Many thank in advance,

Aaron