100 amp people advice needed.

[Notsolostfish]

My house is old, when i bought it 2 years ago, i had to rewire it, get a bigger panel, put things on their own 20 amp breakers. My worries now is i have 3 tanks in total one is 80, one is 16 and my first saltwater tank coming by the end of march. And i want to be ready in terms of the electrical part.

My electrician said its going to cost me 3k+ to get a 200 amp service. Should i get it? Or do you guys think i will be fine?

 

[Sean Clark]

Why do you think that you need to upgrade your electrical service in the first place?
100 Amps is a lot of power. Your house being "old" is not does not explain the need.

In your first statement you claim that you had to rewire your house and get a bigger panel.
In your second statement you claim it is going to cost you x to get an upgraded service.

One does not get a larger panel without upgrading the service. The two are linked. 100 amp service has a 100 amp panel, 200 amp service has a 200 amp panel...

Maybe the new panel is physically larger than the old one, going from a fuse to a breaker system, while maintaining the same service load to the house.

Either way you do not need that kind of power to run three tanks.

 

[Notsolostfish]

Why do you think that you need to upgrade your electrical service in the first place?
100 Amps is a lot of power. Your house being "old" is not does not explain the need.

In your first statement you claim that you had to rewire your house and get a bigger panel.
In your second statement you claim it is going to cost you x to get an upgraded service.

One does not get a larger panel without upgrading the service. The two are linked. 100 amp service has a 100 amp panel, 200 amp service has a 200 amp panel...

Maybe the new panel is physically larger than the old one, going from a fuse to a breaker system, while maintaining the same service load to the house.

Either way you do not need that kind of power to run three tanks.

Sorry i meant getting a larger panel to fit more breakers.

 

[mdb_talon]

I am making an assumption your saltwater tank is reasonably sized and not running massive chillers a a several 500w halides. Again assuming a normal setup a 20amp circuit is plenty to run a salt system and a couple freshwater tanks. I would recommend splitting it up between two circuits if at all possible....not because of load but just to have things like a heater and wavemaker on each circuit for example. Not essential and most don't run this way but it just nice if it possible.

 

[Sean Clark]

Sorry i meant getting a larger panel to fit more breakers.

Well, I would just say that breaker panels are sized to suit the service load provided to that panel.
Generally you can not simply swap out the panel to allow for additional breakers. That would allow for additional load which will require additional capacity.

This is probably why it has a $3K price tag attached to it.

I highly doubt that you need more power for your three tanks.

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

can you run a dedicated 20 amp service to the tank? that would be nice to GFI at the breaker. Other than that your fine.

 

[Pistondog]

My house is old, when i bought it 2 years ago, i had to rewire it, get a bigger panel, put things on their own 20 amp breakers. My worries now is i have 3 tanks in total one is 80, one is 16 and my first saltwater tank coming by the end of march. And i want to be ready in terms of the electrical part.

My electrician said its going to cost me 3k+ to get a 200 amp service. Should i get it? Or do you guys think i will be fine?

Youll be fine.
Have electrcian put in gfci outlet at each tank.

 

[KStatefan]

You would need to look at the total load on your panel to determine this.

 

[brclark82]

20A per circuit is probably fine as long as it’s all balanced….20A is 2400 watts which should be more than enough for heaters and lights and pumps etc for your tanks even with a few more things on the cirtcui…overall you have 12,000w so depending on air conditioner, electric dryer, electric water heater, electric range etc…if they are all electric and none gas you could run into issues running all at the same time depending on age and efficiency but you’ll just have to see what you’re usage is.

100A will more than likely get the job done but you may have to occasionally be mindful of your usage (ie don’t run your electric dryer while you’re usuing your range while the a/c is running)

Switching to led lightbulbs in your house and using led tank lights can save a pretty significant amount of wattage as well

 

[mike550]

@charbel101 for reference my 120 averages 200W which would be roughly 1.7A. I’m using DC devices for return pump and powerheads and LED lights. When my 300W heater kicks in the power jumps to 700W so about 6A. Hope that will help you with power calcs

That said, we upgraded to 200A service, and have absolutely no regrets. Around us 200A is the norm you probably won’t have to worry about power loads again.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

My house is old, when i bought it 2 years ago, i had to rewire it, get a bigger panel, put things on their own 20 amp breakers. My worries now is i have 3 tanks in total one is 80, one is 16 and my first saltwater tank coming by the end of march. And i want to be ready in terms of the electrical part.

My electrician said its going to cost me 3k+ to get a 200 amp service. Should i get it? Or do you guys think i will be fine?

I upgrade homes to 200amp services every week. 3k$ for Florida prices is almost spot on, and a good price. We are about 2300-5k depending on equipment and service drop wires copper vs aluminum For a new meter, riser, panel, and service drop wires. They will also be required to install surge protection (100$) this is a service I suggest, there are a couple of other factors that may apply, like how your circuits are branched together and if this is aluminum wired house, but best thing to do electrically is to start with a new panel and service, and since you only want to do these things once, I suggest to upgrade to the largest allowable service for residential (can go larger for larger homes) which is 200a, with that a 200amp meter can is needed but having all this done at one time is best.

Then I would look into running dedicated circuits to your aquariums if needed.

I can answer more if needed I saw this and thought I could throw two cents at it for you, and say this sounds like a good call from your electrician.

 

[mike550]

I upgrade homes to 200amp services every week. 3k$ for Florida prices is almost spot on, and a good price. We are about 2300-5k depending on equipment and service drop wires copper vs aluminum For a new meter, riser, panel, and service drop wires. They will also be required to install surge protection (100$) this is a service I suggest, there are a couple of other factors that may apply, like how your circuits are branched together and if this is aluminum wired house, but best thing to do electrically is to start with a new panel and service, and since you only want to do these things once, I suggest to upgrade to the largest allowable service for residential (can go larger for larger homes) which is 200a, with that a 200amp meter can is needed but having all this done at one time is best.

Then I would look into running dedicated circuits to your aquariums if needed.

I can answer more if needed I saw this and thought I could throw two cents at it for you, and say this sounds like a good call from your electrician.

Didn’t realize this is Florida. @charbel101 if you‘re going to do the upgrade consider adding an automatic backup generator for critical circuits at the same time.

 

[Auto-pilot]

Honestly unless you were somehow blowing the main circuit breaker I wouldn't worry about it. I was running two tanks with a 60amp panel for quite a while and I never had any problems. If you don't have any more slots in your panel and wanted to run a dedicated circuit you can always add a sub panel.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Honestly unless you were somehow blowing the main circuit breaker I wouldn't worry about it. I was running two tanks with a 60amp panel for quite a while and I never had any problems. If you don't have any more slots in your panel and wanted to run a dedicated circuit you can always add a sub panel.

This is not ideal, and not a common suggestion, but if your doing good that great.

Again @charbel101 I would stick with your electrician it seems to be the best bet, and adding things like whole house generators are an excellent idea for sure! But first thing is first like I said, a new service will benefit you in the long run especially depending on the condition and manufacturer of your current panel, you may even see a difference in you home insurance or avoid being dropped due to a non insurable panel manufacturer like Murry.

Stick with professional advice when it comes to electrical, and get multiple opinions. Good luck.

 

[Auto-pilot]

This is not ideal, and not a common suggestion, but if your doing good that great.

Again @charbel101 I would stick with your electrician it seems to be the best bet, and adding things like whole house generators are an excellent idea for sure! But first thing is first like I said, a new service will benefit you in the long run especially depending on the condition and manufacturer of your current panel, you may even see a difference in you home insurance or avoid being dropped due to a non insurable panel manufacturer like Murry.

Stick with professional advice when it comes to electrical, and get multiple opinions. Good luck.

Just saying if there ain't no problems why fix it. 3k is a lot of money to throw at a house when he's already replaced the panel 2 years ago. I would agree that a sub panel is not ideal. I wouldn't upgrade my service to 200 amps just for a new tank, maybe an add on or something similar not a new tank.

 

[AlaskaMatt]

I just upgraded the service at a house I’m flipping here in Washington from 100amp to 200amp and it ran me about 3.5k. It sounds like you’ve gotten solid advice on whether or not to do it and not being an electrician I’m hesitant to weigh in. We did it to our house as it was required with the appliances we were running (including a 50amp car charger). I definitely don’t regret making the upgrade and I’m finding these things tend to get more expensive over time so doing it sooner than later might be beneficial.

 

[Dburr1014]

This is not his first salt water tank. It's just bigger than the old one.
Dedicated circuit is the way to go.
If my memory serves me right, you are in Massachusetts. Probably the same price range as Florida.

 

[Notsolostfish]

This is not his first salt water tank. It's just bigger than the old one.
Dedicated circuit is the way to go.
If my memory serves me right, you are in Massachusetts. Probably the same price range as Florida.

I have dedicated circuit. But we added a treadmil lately. And in the summer we run 5 windows aca, and 2 dehumidifers.

 

[Paul B]

I can guarantee you that you will never use even 150 amps even if you have electric heat in an old house.
Here in New York the power company won't even allow you to get a 300 amp service in a home.

(Master Electrician 50 years)

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

I can guarantee you that you will never use even 150 amps even if you have electric heat in an old house.
Here in New York the power company won't even allow you to get a 300 amp service in a home.

(Master Electrician 50 years)

Of course a house doesn't use 150a most 1200sqft houses run about 10-20amps on each leg ( i assume your house is similar in size with the current 100amp service) thats why most full size trailers have 50a hook ups even more only have 30a and will still have 100a internal panels. That's not the point of a 200a service.

Be careful the NEC changes every 3 years or so, it's easy to lose track of them all in 50yrs.

NY might not let you have 300a services, we have houses with 400amp quite often, usually having a 200amp sub panel in another part of the house, or feeding another house on the property.

Again i would contact a licensed and insured professional, although this is a good platform for general information and opinions.

(Journeyman electrician for 15+yrs and still in the field )