I am planning to wire a new house.
I am going to have a 200Amp combo/main with 40 branch circuit breakers outside and one 200Amp subpanel inside. I will have all of 120 volt circuits in the indoor subpanel and all the 240 volt circuit on the outside panel. The only reason i have two sets of 40 circuit panels is for future expantion.

Do you think i should have one main outside and all the branch breakers inside? or should i have everything outside?

house is about 3000 sqft.

Thank you
Edward

Did you mean to say that the indoor panel will be 200 amps? If so what panel are you using outside? I have never seen a 200 amp CSED with sub feed lugs that had room for more that 16 breakers. Most of the homes we wire have 400 amps services but when we do use a 200 service we usually install a 100 amp panel inside the house. All of the general lighting, small appliance circuits, etc go in the 100 amps panel and the large loads (A/C, oven, pool, etc) go in the main.

Curt

200Amp/40circuit meter main combo outside and 200Amp/40 circuit inside. I was thinking about this tonight i think this is overkill.

i think i will install a 125A or 150A 30 ckt inside and a 200 40 circuit outside.

Thanks for the reply

What panel are you planning to use that accepts a 200 amp or 150 amp breaker? Most of them do not accept breakers larger than 100 amps.

If you do the load calcs you will see that a 100 amp feeder to the inside panel is more than enough to supply all of the 120 loads in a 3000 sqft dwelling. If you just looking to have more circuit space you can still supply a 200 amp 40 circuit panel with a 100 amp feeder.

Ok……I just did a quick load calc for a 3000 sqft dwelling. If you supply all of the general lighting circuits, (2) small appliance circuits, (1) dishwasher, (1) disposal, (1) microwave, (1) laundry and (1) furnace your load on that panel will be about 65 amps.

So far i have (19) 120 volt circuits and (5) 240 volt circuits.

I am a SQUARE-D FAN and i think i will have a 200Amp 40 circuit meter main combo and a 125 Amp 24 circuit for the load center.

Thank you for your replies

Wondering why you have the need to divide the panels?

If I was looking at this, I'd tend towards a 200A service, Main D/C @ the meter (if required by local Code), and a 40 space panel inside. If the local Code didn't require the outside D/C, I'd just make my choice a 200A Main Lug panel inside.

I think you'd have plenty of room with a 40 space - if you needed to, you could break off a subpanel to the garage / work area for your 240v (other than heat/AC/dryer/stove). Why have a separate panel for the 240 if you don't need to? KISS would keep all the 'lectrical stuff' in one space for the homeowners ease of service.

JMHO
DougW

Edward,
Most Square D CSED's are only listed for a 100 amp max breaker. If you give me the catalog number of the panel you would like to use I will check the max breaker size.

Doug,
What Edward is describing is pretty normal for our area. We always have a disconnect in the same enclosure with the meter and often have distribution in the same panel too. A meter/main with a 200 amp remote panel is possible but it is often very difficult to run a large raceway or 4/0 SER cable to the remote panel with the way our houses are built. We seldom have basements but when we do they are finished. By having distribution in the exterior panel it makes it easier to add pool, hot tub, and A/C circuits in the future.

Curt

Curt,
It is SC2040M200C which is 100Amp max branch breaker. This is semiflush installation. If i do a surface installation then i can use SC3040M200RS which allows 125Amp Max

Edward