Height of Meter Base & FEMA questions

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mivey

Senior Member
Also if its thats high the power company wants a platform with handrails stairs made to access it out of Galvanized metal to service it.
A common sense thing would be a remote read meter. Some type of reliable access (nothing fancy) still needs to be there for periodic manual checks and maintenance.


and what would be the purpose of this since 99.5 % of city the meters are at 5-6 feet off grade per NEC code
So FEMA can avoid disaster recovery costs. If it is a rare occurrence then it is silly.
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
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Originally Posted by Coconut Sunrise

and what would be the purpose of this since 99.5 % of city the meters are at 5-6 feet off grade per NEC code
NEC doesn't have any meter height requirements. If you have any height requirements it will be per POCO request, or maybe local AHJ rules/amendments.

FEMA could be considered an AHJ for this particular aspect, or local AHJ can set some rules here. I do agree it is not right to change the rules once the permit has been applied/issued.

If FEMA wants to set the height, then POCO or local AHJ has to also agree with it. But that agreement may be influenced by the fact that FEMA may refuse help in the future if you don't comply with their request.
 

mivey

Senior Member
But that agreement may be influenced by the fact that FEMA may refuse help in the future if you don't comply with their request.
At worst they may refuse to pay for POCO replacement meters/bases. POCO replaces the meters every 10-15 years or so anyway so it may not be a big deal, depending on the size of the area relative to the POCO size.

Customer's insurance should cover the service but maybe not. Chalk it up to the price for living in such an area.

Personally, I'd rather let the customer choose: I could possibly get FEMA money at 15 ft or I could tell FEMA to mind their own business and replace it myself when needed.
 
I got an Email from the FKEC electrical engineer this afternoon stating that in Monroe County they are Approving the watertight meter sockets and Disconnects for their Applications. Now we are in the city so I will ask if they will allow this since county is allowing it. However i can not find the MFG of Such a Item with online search. I would love to read on the product and print info out on it to submit to city. Does anyone have any insight on this or know the mfg name ?

Again thanks for all the Info here in resolving this.


Coconut Sunrise :thumbsup:
 

mgookin

Senior Member
Location
Fort Myers, FL
I remember when I was asked to approve a temporary CO for a new Home Depot the pad mount tranny was in what had become a retention pond, and at the bottom of it. The EC told me that when the tranny was set there was no retention pond on the drawings; he was correct. I called my POCO contact and they showed up quick and told me that the tranny was submersible. I asked them to open it and they did. It was indeed submersible. We put that issue to rest.

This was as we were under a hurricane warning during the 5th of 7 hurricanes to whack us in a 2 year period and HD was anxious to open the store. So the moral here is, when POCO says something is submersible, they can probably prove it.

Have you asked the POCO engineer what meter sockets are submersible?
 
I will contact them in the am, the engineer that forwarded me the Info was related to county, so in Am I plan to contact the County person to see if they have a Data sheet on the product, I hope that a water tight Meter Socket exist sure will make a lot people lives easier as the City Ordinance states that any future work on old any older services will be Mandated to meet the requirement also. Thats a lot of Potential Meter sockets.

Coconut
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
Never seen or heard of a water tight meter socket.

Also would not be surprised if water tight means something different then submersible.
 
Meter Base

Meter Base

The meter base can be below flood according to FEMA in a VE zone. All breakers and equipment must be above the base flood plus whatever freeboard they have adopted. I do these daily....
 
MS inspector

thats great however each Community sets it own RULEs Based of the FEMA recommendation ....I spoke to a guy at FEMA in Atlanta and he confirmed the recommendation to have meter base above Flood.

Also I spoke to Monroe county inspector and he said a Nema rated 6 or 6p meter base will also be approved to be below flood
However I have not found a MFG of such a product....I asked the inspector if he had the name of MFG or any literature Filed with them about a NEMA 6 Meter base. the Nema 6 P rating is acceptable for submersion.

Coconut
 
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