Introduction
What part actually makes a 200-amp panel a 200-amp panel? With an almost infinite choice of panel types, ratings, sizes, and circuit quantity, we can lose track of what is all inside of a panel and how some of those ratings are achieved. In today’s episode of Electrician U, Dustin takes a look at and explains a few of the items that a panel is comprised of.
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Does the panel having a main breaker actually make it a particular size (say 200-amp)? Not necessarily. You can have a main breaker in the panel, or your panel can be an MLO (Main Lug Only), so the breaker by itself doesn’t define the panel rating. As a matter of fact, one of the panels Dustin uses in the video, you can actually remove the 200-amp breaker from the panel and put in a different size one (say, a 125-amp). That breaker is in there to provide overcurrent protection for the buss of the panel.
The bussing itself is actually what makes a 200-amp panel a 200-amp panel. The buss is the metal portion of the panel on the inside that “receives” and distributes what we put into it (electrically wise). This distribution takes place in the form of breakers that are either bolted to or snapped onto the buss. If you take a close look at the bussing, you will notice that the phases repeat themselves from the top to the bottom. So, in the case of a single-phase panel, circuits 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 10, and so on are on the same A phase, while circuits 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, 12, etc. are on the same B phase. Same is true for a 3-phase panel, except in lieu of skipping one row, you skip two for the additional phase that is added. Circuits 1,2 are on A phase, 3,4 are on B phase, and 5,6 are on C phase, then we start over and repeat for all the spaces available.
All the busses are rated equally within the same panel. So, in the case of our 200-amp example A, B, and C phase busses are all rated at 200 amps. But something to remember is that we do not just ADD all of those together and get a 600-amp panel. The reason for this is that many times we will use multiple phases on a single piece of equipment to make it function. If we were to have a 2 pole 20-amp breaker, the piece of equipment wired to it would be able to utilize 20 amps on A phase and 20 amps on B phase. Same would be true for a 3-pole breaker.
For most panels, the interior buss assembly is made to be removable so you could replace it if necessary. In some instances, it is better to leave the existing enclosure in place (along with the associated wiring, conduit penetrations, grounding, etc.) and just replace the offending buss portion. Each manufacturer is different, but in the example Dustin uses, a screw can be simply removed holding the non-metallic backplate to the enclosure and the entire buss/backplate assembly can be slid upward and removed.
There are many other parts that make up an entire electrical panel. There are lugs, ground & neutral busses, dead fronts, and panel covers to name a few, but the buss is what gives a panel is ampere rating. We hope that this has helped you to better understand panelboard composition and ampere ratings. Please continue to follow Electrician U as we are constantly adding new content for our viewers. Don’t forget to leave comments below in the comment section!!
#electrician #electrical #electricity #sparky life #national electrical code
Video
When we have a panel that we say is a 200 amp panel.
What are we actually talking about so you'll see this panel and this panel are the same thing: they're both 30 space panels, meaning you could put 15 breakers up on one side and 15 breakers on the other side uh.
This is a three phase panel.
That's a single phase panel you'll notice.
This one actually has a main breaker in it.
This is a 200 amp main this one doesn't.
So this is what we would call a main lug panel, just because there's only lugs here to use.
That is what we call an mbr or a main breaker mlo is what we would say for main lug only, but it does any of that does having a breaker mean that it's a 200 amp panel, just because there's a 200 amp breaker.
The answer is no, so you could have.
This is a breaker kit that actually can be removed, and then you can take a different breaker.
You could put like 125 amp if you want or 150 or something like that and slap it in there.
So that's just the over current protection for the actual panel for the bus.
So what we're really talking about? That's that's! The actual panel rating is this this little thing inside here you got all these little fingers and each one of these is a bust, so you'll notice, uh.
If we go a phase b phase c phase, we've got a phase.
They each come from the same direction, every three so the first fourth, eighth, every second fifth and ninth or eighth, sorry is all on b phase and then on c phase, you've got three, six, nine and so on.
So these things are kind of staggered in here, one after the other.
That means that there are actually three buses inside of this panel and each bus is rated for 200 amps.
That means, if you didn't, have anything on b, phase or c phase, all a phase can handle is 200.
Amps b phase can also handle 200, amps and c phase can hold 200 amps, it's essentially the same amount of material or the same amount of metal on each one of these buses.
So you can't say: oh well, then that's a 600 amp panel right because it can do 200 per uh, but that's not how electrical works a lot of times we're utilizing two buses at a time.
So if we have a whole bunch of 220 loads, you know like two pole loads, where it's like a two pole: twenty here, two full twenty here, two pole.
Twenty here we're gonna, be distributing the same amount of current on two of those phases at a time or if it's a three phase, breaker we're gonna, be sharing all three of those phases through a three pole breaker.
Equally, there's not gonna, be more current on one or less current on the other.
So for it to be a 600 amp panel we'd have to have a single bus, a single phase that was rated at 600 amps and then all the other ones would have to be rated at 600 amps as well, so the actual enclosure, the box itself, has nothing to do with the 200 amp thing.
The lugs don't have anything to do with the 200 amps.
The neutral bus doesn't have any to the 200 amps, the actual ground bus.
None of that stuff.
It has nothing to do with the 200 amps.
The the actual lugs themselves are sized based off of the conductor size that it can allow, but it's the same material essentially, so they don't ever come with an amputee rating for the lugs.
The only thing that's talking about the amputee rating is the actual load center, the actual uh guts of this thing or what we call the panel board now a lot of you might not realize that these things come out.
So sometimes, if you damage one, I actually did one time when I was an apprentice.
Actually, I think I had just gotten my residential wireless license and what I did is I I left one of the conductors like when I tightened them all down.
I didn't realize that I didn't get one of them all the way tight, so there was a little bit of an air gap and what it did is create a really a hot spot, because there was all this arcing and there was a very, very uh high.
Impedance point where current was uh heating up the insulation around the conductors and actually heated up this entire lug, so it was glowing red hot- and this is stupid- I know- but hey we all do dumb stuff when we're apprentices right, so we actually had to replace the entire panel board inside of that enclosure.
So you can actually get just a panel board if something's messed up with another panel, where you don't have to get the entire panel in order these from the supply house, but we had to take the existing panel board out.
We put a brand new panel board in you know, so we just got rid of that issue.
So these things actually just snap right into place each one of these little fingers lines up.
There's a screw right here, cut that screw tighten it down.
That's what holds it to the back, because there's little threaded holes in the back of this thing that holds it in place.
That is what a 200 amp panel actually means make sure you join discord.
That's where our entire community is moving over to we've got classes that instructors are leaving.
We've got a whole bunch of different courses.
We've got practice exams all this stuff for all of our members, but join discord because that's free now, if you guys, are more curious about how breakers work and what breakers are.
You should check this video out right here, um, if you're more curious about like the difference between single phase and three phase, and you want to understand what all of that means.
You should check this video out right here.
Love! You crazy people see you in the next one.
