200 amps per pole? So that would actually be 400 amps @120 vac, 200 amps @ 240 vac, or the much more likely combination of both?

Interestingly, most 200 amp panel are actually serviced by 4 100 amp breakers, two per pole, with the throws all ties together by a tie bar.

Thanks.

You should always confirm the panel capacity by looking at the main breaker(s). That will tell you exactly what the total capacity of the panel is.

If there is any doubt to what you are looking at just post a picture of it.

Oh and in the 120vac sense its not indescriminantly 400amps, you would have to load the circuits perfectly balanced, meaning circuits on one lerg of the service are pulling 200amps, circuits on the other pulling exactly 200 amps.

Loading one at 50 amps and the other at 350amps will pop the mains on the overloaded leg.

Of course, we all know you should never try to do this. Never plan to exceed 80% of the rated load of any single circuit or the combined circuit capacity of an upstream protection device. 80% is the max.

This research is leading into the install of an outlet for an electric brewery and hopefully also a welder. Logic tells me to go welder shopping and then install and use that style of plug and receptacle for the brewery. Brief research leads me to believe that welder wiring is a bit different than that for your dryer/range/furnace/etc. Anyone have firsthand knowledge on that?

Lakewood said:

jeepinjeepin said:

This research is leading into the install of an outlet for an electric brewery and hopefully also a welder. Logic tells me to go welder shopping and then install and use that style of plug and receptacle for the brewery. Brief research leads me to believe that welder wiring is a bit different than that for your dryer/range/furnace/etc. Anyone have firsthand knowledge on that?

I have a 220vac outlet that I use for an arc welder, a mig welder and my brew rig. I have a 4-wire 2 phase with neutral and dedicated ground as the wall outlet, it can support any type of electrical connection. The brewery uses the same 4-wire installation, while the welders are both 3-wire, but each use different plugs. I just have conversion cords that I made that plug into the 4-wire outlet and conver to the various 3-wire (no neutral) configurations.

That's what I was finding. I was hoping to get out of making short adapter extension cords.

Lakewood said:

jeepinjeepin said:

Lakewood said:

jeepinjeepin said:

This research is leading into the install of an outlet for an electric brewery and hopefully also a welder. Logic tells me to go welder shopping and then install and use that style of plug and receptacle for the brewery. Brief research leads me to believe that welder wiring is a bit different than that for your dryer/range/furnace/etc. Anyone have firsthand knowledge on that?

I have a 220vac outlet that I use for an arc welder, a mig welder and my brew rig. I have a 4-wire 2 phase with neutral and dedicated ground as the wall outlet, it can support any type of electrical connection. The brewery uses the same 4-wire installation, while the welders are both 3-wire, but each use different plugs. I just have conversion cords that I made that plug into the 4-wire outlet and conver to the various 3-wire (no neutral) configurations.

That's what I was finding. I was hoping to get out of making short adapter extension cords.

you can put a 4-wire plug on the welder, one of my welders didn't even come with a plug, just a pigtail. if you put a 4-wire plug on a 3 wire pigtail, then just connect to the two hots and the ground. leave the neutral floating. (don't tie the neutral and ground together)

There is that too. I'd have a hard time cutting a sealed, stress relieved plug off to replace it with a different style repair plug. I'll just have to wait and see. It does look like I will wire up a 50 amp 4 wire receptacle when I decide to move forward with this. That will give maximum flexibility in the future. So what if I have to make sure the dryer and range are off before firing up the brewery?

jeepinjeepin said:

So what size wire for a 50A circuit? It would be short, maybe only 2-3'. 6awg copper for the 2 hots? What about the neutral and ground?

I'll have to check the IRC tonight to give you the right answer, its been a while since I did any electrical work. The guys at your local homedepot should know the answer though.

I figure I might as well throw up a couple pics. The shot inside the panel is from before I changed to a matching sized ground wire.

And it works!