Can I upgrade my panel from 150A to 200A?

[EVer Hopeful]

I have a Square D main panel with a 150A Service Disconnect, but looking at the labelling, I see the box is rated up to 200A

I'm not sure (nor am I about to try and find out!) what the service lateral is from the street to the meter, but it could be aluminum and I have no idea what gauge it is anyway. The service from the meter into the panel is copper, but I can't see the gauge on any of the pics I took.

I'm assuming this 150A limitation was done because the supply from the meter to the panel is smaller than 3/0 ... or that's all they had on the truck that day

Is it even worth looking into? It doesn't even look like that Service Disconnect is easy to replace and would need the meter pulling first anyway

 

[Sophias_dad]

Doesn't hurt to ask. I imagine the electric company will have the feeder line gauge in their records. There's definitely no guarantee that the feeder is big enough to support 200A. Even if it DOES support 200A, its a good bet your line from the meter to your panel(and service disconnect) will need to be replaced.

 

[sleepydoc]

Yes, you can upgrade your service.
Yes, it will cost you.
yes, you should ask your electrician; they will probably recommend you leave things as they are.

The amps listed on the box generally has to do with the size of the main bus. As @Sophias_dad said the wire from the street to the meter and from the meter to the panel will probably need to be changed out. It would be very unusual for them to down-size the main disconnect unnecessarily.

 

[naD alseT]

Just as a 'data point' for consideration. My house was built in the mid 80's. Underground Electrical feed is from the back yard. It had a 100 amp breaker box. I upgraded to 200 without needing to have the underground feeders upgraded. So, back in the 80's when things were tight, they still used a large enough feed to the house to support 200 amp. Potential promising news for you. I did not have to contact the power company. The electrician who quoted the work scoped out the feed line as part of the quote.