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3 answers

double 70 amp service, put simply means you have 2 phase 70 amps, which is the equivalent to a single 140amp service, generally for a standard house this is plenty. i gather the house is getting oldish and the reason allot of houses used to have 2 phase power was due to old stoves being 2 phase stoves. This is very very uncommon in all new stoves, most are 1 phase and large commercial maybe 3 phase hence why most houses these days only have 1 phase supplies. Some houses these days use 3 phase power to run air conditioners.

Basically I'd be pretty happy with 2 phases 70 amp supply. I definitely would not consider upgrading this unless you are blowing your 70amp fuses or circuit breakers. If this is the case i would even get an electrician to come out and check your power consumption on each phase as sometimes its just a matter of moving a circuit or 2 o the other phase to balance them a little better. Also if you are tripping breakers/ blowing fuses for just a single circuit this is in no way related to your 2 phase 70amp service and by upgrading it wont fix your problems, If this is the case modify your question and I'll talk you through what might be your problem and what you can do

Finally, i don't really know why the other 2 response before me mentioned anything about series wiring as this s never done for a house as it doesn't work with loads that are changing. I could explain more but its just absurd to think this might be down in a house. ALL house wiring from a fuse box is parallel

2007-07-16 01:00:45 · answer #1 · answered by plzsome1helpme 2 · 0 0

"amp service" usually refers to the size of the circuit panel you have for the home. "double 70 amp service" then, I would assume means that you have TWO 70 amp circuit panels to run the home, or perhaps the home and a garage, or outbuilding.

It's not a problem, and having more circuits than less is always preferable. Youre breakers will last longer, and you'll run the risk of overloading a circuit much less, if you have more circuits to work with.

When we bought this house, it had a 60 amp service...That was the very first thing we did to it... we replaced it with a large 200 amp service, new meter base, and the electric company even put in a heavier duty transformer out on the pole.

You should be able to find those circuit panels, and the rating will be inside them. If you removed the wall covering you could determine exactly where the wires are running from. For example... is one circuit panel fed thru the other (in series), or are they both run to the meter base with their own wires (parallel).

With parallel circuit panel, then one can go completely out, and the other can still be working. If they are hooked in series, then the first may continue to run if the second is out, but if the first goes out, they both quit.

Hope this helped

2007-07-13 15:47:43 · answer #2 · answered by thewrangler_sw 7 · 0 1

Generally, in today's world you see 100 or 200 Amp service to most homes, older homes had 50 Amp service, if I recall correctly.

Double 70 Amp service must mean you have two panel boxes in your home. Each one operates on a 70 Amp Service line. This implies, part of your home is operated on the one panel box, and the remainder of the home is operated on the other. This type of setup, from what i have seen, is more common in the old farm house style home. The main house is operated on one panel box while the barn is operated on the other, with the shut off to the barn being in the main house, and still have a shut off in the barn in case of equipment problems.
Often after the barn has been renovated into living quaters the panel setup remains the same.

However, others may know more on this so let's see what they have to say.


BTW : They "Have" to run parallel because in parallel the currents will add. However, in a series the voltages will add; hence anything connect to the second panel box in series to the first will no longer have 120 volts. If both are 120 volt panels the devices connected to the second box will have 240 volts since Voltage Adds in Series.

2007-07-13 15:47:30 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0 1

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