Is doubling smaller copper sub-panel feeders more economical?

[Eric Commarato]

Your an engineer and you have never heard of parallel runs hmmm. The biggest flaw in his plan is that he is thinking of doing this himself when his house burns down my insurance will go up. all because he wants to save a few cents a foot.

If you are talking about me? I never said I planned to do this or was going to do this my self. I am simply posing the question, trying to become educated about this. Isn't that what these forums are intended for? Keep your criticisms to yourself about whether I am trying to save a few bucks here or there, and how it might impact your insurance.

[Tommy Curtiss]

Please don't misunderstand me,,I am not implying anything about anyone,,I am here to help I am not here tell you you can't do what you are describing,,I am just saying it isn't legal by the NEC according to 310.4,anything smaller than 1/0 cannot be run as a parrallel conductor,,service entrance or circuit conductor,,doesn't matter,,but let's say that you could!!!

We are going to run 2 #6 to a panel per phase,,and we do,just for the math sakes we are going to buy #6thhn for say .50 per ft
the breaker you are coming out of your main panel is rated only for 1 conductor,,so we also have to buy 2 ft of #4 at say .80 a ft to splice those # 6's to,,plus the 2 splitbolt kurney's at about 6 bucks, a roll of rubber tape at 3 bucks and a roll of good electrical tape to complete the work,now we have one phase complete,,you got one more phase,and one neutral left,,but you can use #6 for the ground,,I think you get the point

so what have you got now,,panel feeders with multiple splices that may over time come loose,and by the way,,you arn't supposed to splice conductors in the panel,,and I didn't even get into buying a jbox's to mount outside on the panels,,,,so you arn't really saving anything,,fact is you are costing yourself,,time and money

I am now working in Iraq in the support of Iraqi Freedom and our US Military,I am a Master Electrician Inspector for the Dept. of Defence,I have seen more electrical crap in the last 8 months than you can imagine,,every trick in the book used,,,open style disconnects just barly outside the water area of a shower that our soldiers are using nightly,,oh by the way,,everything is 230/400 50hz 3 phase over here,and they don't believe in grounding,there have been several soliders lost their lives due to poor wiring practices.

So do things right,,don't cut any corners,,heck,,hire it out if you have to,,,you and I will both sleep better at night,,you will only miss the extra money once,,but you won't have to worry about it for years to come either