Trimmed for brevity....
>>I just so happen to have a 100 amp panel. It looks a little different
>>from the other subpanel I had though. It looks like it's meant to be
>>the only panel in the house. My old one didn't have a 60amp breaker in
>>it. It relied on the breaker in the main panel, with the feed wires
>>going into screw terminals on the bus bar. This one has a 100 amp
>>breaker in it. It looks like I can't remove it. Am I missing
>>something?
>
> What you're missing is the notion that this is *exactly* the kind of panel > you
> want for a subpanel in your shop - in an emergency, if you want to kill > all
> the power in the shop RIGHT NOW, you have the disconnect right there at > the
> subpanel. You don't have to go back to the main.
>
Sounds good, except if the lights are fed from the subpanel.....
Even with a main lug subpanel w/o the breaker on the incoming feed you can quickly kill all (or some) of the power by hitting the breakers.
I have a 60 amp main lug subpanel with 8 slots, 4 filled. I could kill all the power only marginally faster if I had a main breaker. Regardless of the setup, you have to recognize a problem, realize you need to kill the power, run over to the panel, open the cover and reach up and switch the breaker(s). I also have the option of just switching the circuits feeding the receptacles and leaving the lights up or vice-versa (though I do have a light on a separate circuit run directly from the main panel that I always turn on).
My 2 cents....
Tim