Electrical Guru's
 

Or anyone that has dealt with electrical equipment, is Schneider Electric - Square D a reputable brand for breakers and breaker panels? Just cruising Home Depot's site, looking for the panel for my garage. This is one of the only ones I can find thats a an empty panel with 24 spaces. And its a sub panel, so thats another bonus, instead of a full service panel. They don't list anything like that from Siemens or Eaton. I've never heard of Schneider/Square D before.

I got square D in my garage...I will check the brand of box...

square d is a big brand name, pretty much the biggest next to eaton. Did you get ahold of Kelly yet to see what she can get you? She will set you up with a good price and you can pick it up in Calgary on 32 ave

And yes Eaton makes panels like that also,,,

Its been 14 years when I installed this box...I bought the box from Roma and all that I could tell its made by the Square D company..I wanted to go with stab lock,but at the time they didn't have any breakers..so went with square D, 24 breaker box...As I remember...the square are more expensive or was that the other way around...My house has stab lock...

I sent her a message. Looking at the lights at this point. Just started looking at the panel. I'll have to do more snooping first and get my list compiled. Looking at 5x15A 120v breakers, 1x15A 120v GFCI breaker, 6x20A breakers and 4x50A 240V breakers. I'll have to do a sub panel as well, but I'm slowly piecing it all together.

I don't think it's possible to over do it when it comes to breakers in a shop, better to have more than you need, nothing worse than blowing breakers trying to run power tools!

Tate, Kelly never got a message from you. Try calling her, do you have the right number? BTW, Stab-Loc is Federal Pioneer,, which is basically the cheap of the cheap,, kinda like the lada of the electrical world.... in my garage I have ran both of my AC units on my motorhome, off of a extension cord, off of a 15 amp breaker and it didnt blow... that is no bueno

so square d and semens are the best in every way for industrial purposes I have square d in my shop love the fact they can hold over current Amperage for motors and welders and the like far better than others . I have had to replace far fewer square d brakes and semens than stab-licked and feral pioneer .
also the sub panel with a ---- amp double breaker will work for your main disconnect in the shop feed from the main service panel in the house . put in a bigger supply breaker in the house and a slightly smaller one in the shop that way the shop trips first . as most have found you get the compressor kicking in, the welder and grinder, then you turn on a light and pop your in the dark having to trudge all the way to the house ,this way your just going to the sub panel much easier in the cold. square d also has a orange flag that shows when its tripped so the less mechanically inclined can find which one it is .My boss called once long time ago while i was diving in the Caribbean hustled back to the main land though it was some big emergency at work no the printer was down popped the beaker as it fried itself had stab lock changed that panel the next week back

Square D and Eaton are the 2 biggest names

Square D = Schneider
Eaton = Cutler Hammer
FPE (Federal Pioneer) = Stab Lock

I personally like cutler Hammer,, I guess because that is what I sold when I worked at Westburne, that and it is the biggest name in the Industrial world.. FPE is the biggest name in the residential world because it is cheap and nasty... and Square D is pretty big in the commercial world because it is sold by EECOL and Nedco

Hey Tate

Are you still looking for a breaker panel?

I just hauled home a barely used Seimens EQ loadcenter. It's a 40 breaker panel that was temporarily installed in a house and removed. There are no breakers in the panel but it does have a 100 amp main installed in it.

The sparkies at the house we are working on pulled it out and put in a bigger panel so they for the most part turfed it.

It's yours if you want it.

Jeff

Thanks Jeff, but I picked up a sub panel load center last week. I guess I shouldn't have jumped on it so quickly.

Tate, you get all of your trucks inside your garage yet?[laugh] Nice garage buddy.

I've backed my truck in once, and it didn't have a roof on it yet. Its starting to fill up, although most of it is wood. Had my friend come by tonight with a kubota back hoe and dug a trench 120 feet long for my gas and electrical. Just need to hand trench about 2 metres from the house to the trench. Maybe I can get those lazy bums to actually come and install my boiler and gas line, like I've been asking for the last 6 weeks.

I worked for Eaton/Cutler Hammer for 20 years and Schneider/Square D for another 5. Schneider is a French company. Cutler Hammer is based out of Milwaukee and Pittsburgh

They're all good really.

If you use Square D, don't use the home line. Use the QO breakers. Siemens is an excellent brand as well. There are several other manufacturers who will plug right into a Siemens panel, Murray is one that comes to mind. But when it all comes down to it, I still prefer the Cutler Hammer. And I still use it. I just put in a CH sub panel too.

I Worked in High Voltage for about 10 years, then moved to Electronic controls. High voltage for me was 500K on down. Worked in the generating plants, Hydro, Coal, Nat Gas, and Nuke. Maybe that's why I'm bald now [laugh]