This wire is hot!

[highhopgod]

Our landlord is in the process of moving the electric panel in the building for our brewery. He has posed the ? to us asking us how much juice we need.

I am assuming we should shoot for 200 amp giving us room to grow. I am thinking 100 amp may get us buy but down the road we could blow breakers if the power is not up to par. Any one have an advice on how much juice we would need for cooler, 7-14bbl brew house (steam fired bio diesel) the rest would be computers, lights and such.

Cheers!
Dan
Cortland Beer Company, Inc.

[BrewinLou]

Let me ask you this, how much space do you have to grow? Do you bottle now, or have plans or room to? We have 30 bbl Specific Mechanical system with bottling line, steam boiler, a big cooler, huge chiller, planned for growth and went with 800 amp service. It is very expensive so get what you need now.

[South County]

Ditto, 3-phase is 3X the cost so do it now. Were going with 400amp service for a typical 15bbl micro in about 4000 sqft. I wouldn't go any less.

[highhopgod]

wire

we do have lots of room to expand, we do plan on bottling down the road. So i guess i am looking way beyond 200 amp service?

[Staffbrewer]

Amps

I would go for 800 amp service. If you are going to be bottling at some point its better to have it now. My air compressor needs a 100 amp circuit by itself.

[NailCreek1]

I am an electrical contractor. The cost difference between a 3 phase 400 and a 3 phase 800 Amp service can be huge. It depends on a lot of factors also. You need to know what type of service you currently have. Your 100A panel may only be a subpanel off of the larger main service, which may be single phase or 3 phase. If this is the case, then it may be less expensive for the landlord to offer you a larger subpanel than replacing the entire building service. Knowing the details of the main service will let you better negotiate your power needs. If you supply more details about this, I can better advise you of your realistic options as far as the impact on the cost to the owner.