Talk to your electrician that will be installing your meter base, and get his input. If you put a 200 amp panel in the shop, you will have plenty of room for more breakers if you add more electrical load in the future. A 320 amp meter base is designed to support two 200 amp panels. The service wires from the power company go into the topside lugs of the base. On the load side of the meter, there are 3 double lugs....2 hot lugs and a neutral lug. The electrician puts 3 wires going to the 200 amp panel in your house in one side of each lug. Then he will put 3 wires going to a 200 amp disconnect mounted beside the meter base. Those wires can't run straight to the shop panel because they have to be protected by a breaker. At that point, you can get the inspection done on the house electrical. Then you can wire the shop separate, and run wire to the shop from the bottom of the 200 amp disconnect breaker mounted by the meter base. I hope this makes sense. Sometimes I don't explain things well....lol. I have worked for the power company for 42 years, and hooked up a lot of new services for people with the above scenario.
