Electrical – AIC rating for residential 100A main breaker

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I'm having an electrician replace my 2-unit meter main Zinsco panel with a new Siemens WP2211 panel. There will be two 100A breakers for the two units in the complex. The panel lists the following acceptable breakers:
QP, QPH, HQP, HQPH, MP-T, MP-HT. The QP and MP-T have a 10 kA AIC, the QPH has 22 kA and is only about $15 more than the QP. The HQP at 65 kA is three times the price, and presumably overkill.

Given that this is a service entrance, I assume the amount of short circuit current available from the utility is pretty substantial.

Is there a recommended value for residential service entrance breakers? I'm leaning towards the 22 kA QPH.

Thanks

Christian
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Best Answer

You'll have two services there.

As you say, according to PG&E, they design their facilities so that 10KA of short-circuit current is not possible for new single family drops. However, being a duplex with 2 meters, I could imagine them supplying twice the capacity.

That would be 20KA. Since only one service will have a problem at a time, the worst-case assumption is that each service needs to handle that independently.