Good morning to the ECN thinktank.
My question: yesterday we refed a cabinet shop main panel, the panel is a GE 100 main breaker 20 circuit box. It was fed from a pole mounted 100amp meter and 100 amp disconnecting breaker underground about 50 feet away, 2 #2 al hots and 1 #2 al neutral, ground rod at pole #4 bare copper to meter nuetral bar, no ground from pole to shop 50 feet away. this week the pole has to come down.
We had a 200 amp panel in a building near the shop just lights and 20 recept, total load 25 amps max, we installed a 100 amp QO breaker in this panel and ran 250' 2 #2 al and a #4 neutral in conduit underground to existing GE 20 circuit panel in cabinet shop, we drove 8' ground rod and ran #4 bare to panel in shop and left out ground wire between buildings,
the question is with that distance and 100 amp breaker feeding 100 amp main with #2 al rated at 100 amps which breaker is the first to trip, and is that wire adequate to keep good voltage in the shop, the shop only draws maybe 50 amps with all the stuff running , and is the placement of the ground rod near the shop the safest way to do this.
Something tells me that this circuit is only good for about 75 amps max should the main panel in the cabinet shop been downsized to have been fed with 100 amp breaker 250' away.
