help wiring a 100 amp subpanel

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Man, not trying to be a dick, but when you come to a growing forum asking about wiring, I have to ask.........
Are you stealing juice?
Honestly, if you don't know what you're doing, you should not take forum advice to wire a box that may or may not burn down your house.
Your questions and comments indicate you should not be messing around with this.

hxvoc said:

Just looking for a quick checklicst of everything i need to run a 100 amp subpanel. I am no electriciam but i got the just of it and will make sure power is off before beggining this mission. I already have a 50 amp 240 breaker in now that is running a feeder cable directly to an air compressor. I will be removing this breaker and replacing with a 100 amp double pole and running xx size feeder to a dedicated subpanel for my room.

What size feeder and what type will I need to do this?

Will there be any concerns with drawing 100 amps where the 50 amps was previously.

This is a commercial location and the main feed is running dirctly to a panel with no main breaker. this panel feeds another what looks like residental panel with a 100 amp main breaker. outlets and such are ran from this panel as well.

The main feed panel with no main breaker is where the 50amp breaker/compressor is located.

Everything looks like it is safe how it currently is, though I doubt it is code, and i had an electrician confirm all wire sizes used in this are correct.

Any help would be apreciated. If there are other questions you have concerning this please ask. I have spent countless hours looking at this and trying to decide the best way to go. I thought if I ran my own breaker, feeder and subpanel if I ever moved it would be almost like a plug and play circuit.

THanks guys!

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Ok, first of all in laymen's terms you want to get a 100amps from a 50amp trunk....man I'm not certain that YOU understand the audacity of your question!!! You can't teach common sense!!!

RIKNSTEIN said:

Ok, first of all in laymen's terms you want to get a 100amps from a 50amp trunk....man I'm not certain that YOU understand the audacity of your question!!! You can't teach common sense!!!

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In other words you will blow the shit out of it, and I do mean expolsive!!!

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Youll be fine,as long as your wire is sized properly,which u say it is. All your doing is adding a 100 amp service....just make sure that in fact there is no main breaker. U said its commercial so is it a 3 phase panel?

And nothing will explode thats why there is breakers. Dont think u guys understood

RIKNSTEIN said:

Ok, first of all in laymen's terms you want to get a 100amps from a 50amp trunk....man I'm not certain that YOU understand the audacity of your question!!! You can't teach common sense!!!

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I don't know what hxvoc went on to say in his subsequent posts, but his original question didn't seem to lack common sense to me. The way I read what you quoted (from hxvoc) was, He was REMOVING the air compressor circuit and wanted to run a new feed and put it in the spot that was once occupied by the compressor circuit. I come to that conclusion because he clearly asked "what size feeder, and what type will I need?"

What I got from the 50 amp to 100 amp question was regarding if he could actually put the 100 amp breaker in the panel in the spot that once had the 50.

To Answer those questions, without more details... Would be YES. In general you can put a 2P 100 amp breaker where a 2P 50 amp use to be. You need to inspect the bus bars where the breaker will attach. Look for signs of excessive heat and pitting or gouges. If the bus bar is in good condition you should be fine.

The size of the feeder has just as much to do with how far the circuit will run as it does with the amperage of the circuit. On a relatively short run I would use #3 CU thhn for the current carrying conductors and a #6 THHN for the ground... might get away with using a #8 for ground. But again, the distance of the circuit is an important factor.

And I mention thhn because I don't think you will find #3 in a romex type cable. --If it is even allowed in your locale. So you will need to run conduit. At least a 1" in EMT and probably a 1 1/4" if using PVC. The number of pull boxes needed depends on the number of bends in the conduit and the length of the run.


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Anyway, I don't see the point in chastising growers looking for electrical advice. Clearly the answer will sometime be to call an electrician, the job is not a DIY proposition. But belittling people who ask the question just shuts them up and depending on circumstances, they end up doing the work anyway with ZERO guidance. There was a grow house fire in Oakland CA last week. I wonder if that grower got chastised for asking for advice and ended up "Winging it" with zero guidance?

I think it's better to give the best answers possible, let the grower do their research and decide for themselves if the project is outside of their skill set.

Ya don't know why he deleted it when theres people that actually know what they r talking that r willing to help