Hi,
I'm remodeling my kitchen/hallway/powder room combination.
On the one hand, I just had a new 200amp service put in and a new
40circuit box installed and it's only half full. And it's also only 40ft away from the kitchen, on average.But I still want a subpanel for the kitchen. My main rationale is neatness, It's an old house and there are several generations of ad hoc electrical improvements and I have literally tens of dead wires in the walls that go nowhere, there are wires from the 30's, 60's and
80's, etc. It is especially messy around the new box. I would have to have 10 or so more wires running all the way back to the box. So please, don't talk me out of doing a subpanel, I'm committed to doing it (I have additional reasons for doing it, too).Here's what my kitchen will have:
- A dual fuel range (requiring 30amps for the oven)
- A heater/vent combination in the power room.
- Possibly an underfloor heating mat
- Microwave/convection oven/garbage disposal/toaster oven/tv/dvd/ outlets galore
Main question: How many amps should I have going into the subpanel?
And then there is something I don't get: does the subpanel have it's own main breaker or does it rely on the breaker that it comes off of in the main panel?
Many thank in advance,
Aaron