Breaker Box in Shop, Amps, and Motors

I am confused on how much power I have available in the shop with the picture I am attaching. I am curious why they have the switch above breaker box with the two 200 amp time-delay fuses instead of coming right into breaker box? Then in breaker box, there is only a 200 Amp breaker. So do I have 200 amp service or 400 amp service in shop since there are two 200 amp fuses? Also wondering if I am going to have a seed treater installed with motor on it and two conveyors with 5HP, 1ph/230vt, will I have plenty of power? Power requirement on the spec sheet says need 64 amps total. I am guessing I will have plenty of power and plenty of room it looks like for electrician to install in breaker box. Will they just install like a 100 amp breaker to run to control box for treater and two conveyors? Also would I be better to get a phase convertor and go 3 phase for the motors or stick with single phase? Thanks for all the information.

 

Welcome to the forum..
How much power you have appears to be the least of your problems. I can't see all the details in your photos but it appears the disconnect is mounted too high, the neutral is not identified, PVC was used without bonding between enclosures and unprotected NMB cable is run for the branch circuits. I would suggest you call an electrician and have him/her look at what you have and what corrections need to be made.

 

You have a 200 amp service, not a 400 amp service. You didn't need the fusible switch since you have a 200 amp main breaker in the panel. Since you do have the 200 amp switch ahead of the panel, you should have a 4-wire feed from the switch to the panel. There are so many things wrong that I don't want to go on and on, but I know Missouri and I also know many rural areas have little if any code enforcement and inspection. Just curious though, what area are you in? You need a real electrician who knows the codes to correct the problems and wire the new seed treater. If you find an electrician who says there are no codes, send him packing and call another one. A REAL electrician will follow the NEC when in the absence of local codes and enforcement. It appears you have plenty of power available.

 

I am also at a loss why somebody would install the disconnect/fuses there when you have a main breaker in the panel and why it is so high? I also hope that the feeder that is coming up the post to the right of the panels has some overcurrent protection and is not just fed off of a transformer.

Yeah, you got some issues!

On the good side, I do not think it would be too tough for an electrician to fix it, and the only cost would be labor.

To your other questions: I see no advantage for getting a 3 phase machine unless you have three phase available, or the cost of the three phase machine is less than the single phase machine when you include the cost of buying the converter + labor to install it. Which I doubt.

You should have plenty of power available if everything is 200 amps, as you said.

 

Phase converters are generally used when you already have 3 phase equipment that cannot be changed to single phase. In your case, there would be too much loss within the converter to make it worthwhile to use a converter not to mention the inital cost and installation of a converter. You are definitely better off to just buy single phase equipment.