Electrical wiring concern with my PB

[skamp]

Here is my take on it. The electrical sub already has to do the following to bring electric to the panel.

1. Cut a hole in the brick to bring service from main panel to the outside.
2. Run conduit through the brick and out to the EasyTouch panel 5 feet away
3. Run two 30 AMP and a 15 AMP run through conduit. I also forgot to mention they are running a 15 AMP circuit to my outdoor kitchen and I have another sub for my patio cover that needs to run a 15 AMP circuit. I assume this would require 2 x 10/3 cables (220 service for pumps, etc, 1 x 14/2 (pool lights), 1 x 14/3 (dedicated run for outdoor kitchen) and a #6 ground (must run seperate ground as you cannot bond ground to the neutral in a sub panel).

If they install it as a sub panel he still has to do all the steps above the only difference is the hole in the brick will need to be slightly larger to accomodate the larger conduit, the wires which would now be 3 x #2 and a #6 ground (the retail cost of these wires for a 5 foot run is less then $20.00. There would also be an additional 100 AMP breaker that costs $33.00 at Home Depot. I would be more then happy to buy the wire, breaker and conduit.

For the above change, the charge I would consider fair is $100-150. That would be about $50-60 in parts and $50-100 in extra labor which to be honest is no more work. Maybe 10 minutes more for a pro.

I have thought about adding a 100 AMP sub panel to the outside of my house for the electrical sub to use but that is an extra $30.00 out of my pocket for the panel.

As far as overloading the service, a sub panel or multiple sub panels are not a problem. You can basically have an unlimited number of breakers regardless of the service. The key thing is you cannot draw more power then you have. In my case I would not run the pool equiptment if I was welding but having an additional 50 or 100 AMP breaker in the panel that not being used is no risk. My original server was 125 AMP's I doubt I was every using more then 90. I have a gas range so that is 40 AMP's right there that is connected in the panel but not used. I upgraded to 200 AMP's to have a ton of headroom so the wire would not heat up from being close to max load.

I will have a conversation with my PB today. I will let you know how it goes.

Thanks!

Steve