I am not an electrician, I monitor electrical use for a school district and try to figure out ways to reduce consumption and/or cost.
These two are not always the same because of how the utility bills us.
So given: an auxiliary building with say a 240v sub panel fed by a 60 amp breaker in the main distribution panel. We will be adding some equipment in that building.
The discussion is whether to upgrade the sub panel. An upgrade would entail a separate meter and hence an additional monthly meter charge and demand charge.
The building is almost exclusively 120volt circuits.
I contend that that 60 amp breaker in the main gives 60 amps per leg. We know which things will be on at what times.
By judicious use of balancing the legs I contend we could theoretically be running a total of 120 amps worth of equipment at one time.
(We don’t need that much, only about 60-65 but we want some slack)
My supervisor says we are limited to 60 amps.
Which is it?
These two are not always the same because of how the utility bills us.
So given: an auxiliary building with say a 240v sub panel fed by a 60 amp breaker in the main distribution panel. We will be adding some equipment in that building.
The discussion is whether to upgrade the sub panel. An upgrade would entail a separate meter and hence an additional monthly meter charge and demand charge.
The building is almost exclusively 120volt circuits.
I contend that that 60 amp breaker in the main gives 60 amps per leg. We know which things will be on at what times.
By judicious use of balancing the legs I contend we could theoretically be running a total of 120 amps worth of equipment at one time.
(We don’t need that much, only about 60-65 but we want some slack)
My supervisor says we are limited to 60 amps.
Which is it?