Splice in a multi-mater bank

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sfav8r

Senior Member
Location
San Francisco Bay Area
We installed a 3 gang meter section as shown below along side a 2 meter section. The service is fed into the 3 meter and then we spliced over to the 2 meter section. The inspector is stating that the splices cannot take place anywhere there is a meter, meaning the splice must only be in the 8" section where there is no meter. I don't see any code section that addresses this. To me the entire enclosure is a wireway which means we should be able to splice anywhere as long as we don't surpass fill limits. Does anyone know a code section that addresses this issue?

Thank you
9293f35d-d8bc-4acf-8ba4-84e9b7ec0157_400.jpg
 
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david

Senior Member
Location
Pennsylvania
Here is a sample of the utility regulations in our area your area may have there own regulations

"shall not be used by the customer as junction boxes "

Meter sockets, metering transformer cabinets, and all other enclosures and switch boxes installed
on the line side of the meter shall be equipped with provisions to accept a Company meter seal
before connection will be made by the Company. Meter sockets, transformer cabinets, and other
meter service enclosures shall not be used by the customer as junction boxes - only service
entrance conductors are permitted. Metered and unmetered conductors shall not be installed in
the same conduit, enclosure, or raceway. All energized meter sockets shall be properly covered
at all times especially if the meter has been removed. Meter sockets and service conduits shall
not be recessed into the wall. Unmetered service entrance cables or service entrance conduits
on buildings, poles, or structures shall not be concealed or recessed.

edit: we are allowed to connect to lugs but the only splicing in meter sockets allowed here would be the utiltiy
 
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GerryB

Senior Member
Location
woodbridge, ct. USA
sfav8r said:
We installed a 3 gang meter section as shown below along side a 2 meter section. The service is fed into the 3 meter and then we spliced over to the 2 meter section. The inspector is stating that the splices cannot take place anywhere there is a meter, meaning the splice must only be in the 8" section where there is no meter. I don't see any code section that addresses this. To me the entire enclosure is a wireway which means we should be able to splice anywhere as long as we don't surpass fill limits. Does anyone know a code section that addresses this issue?

Thank you
Click to expand...



I just had something similar with a 3 gang meter like that. Because of my situation I entered the bottom right side of the meter with my service entrance, so the service conductors and the load wires from those meters were running together in that part of the meter. The inspector passed it, but the POCO didn't, saying you can't run metered and unmetered wires in the same "conduit, trough, or raceway" according to their guidelines. I said the meter is an enclosure and none of those things but to no avail. In your case though could you have changed the lugs to double lugs? that would have been easier then a bug and probably compliant.
 
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ike5547

Senior Member
Location
Chico, CA
Occupation
Electrician
Sfav8r,

Did "she" give you an NEC rule for disallowing this? Or is she enforcing something in the pg&e greenbook?
 
Smart $

Smart $

Esteemed Member
Location
Ohio
The inspector's point is not an NEC issue but rather one of the POCO, which more often than not does not want to see any line-side conductors in bus-fed meter sections... i.e. anything conducive to power theft that can otherwise be avoided.
 
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ike5547

Senior Member
Location
Chico, CA
Occupation
Electrician
Smart $ said:
The POCO involved with the issue GerryB had spec'd it via diagram. Note 1 says the trough shall not be used as raceway.

Electric_Service_Metering_Information_Requiremen.jpg
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It's pretty clear to me that the context of that note is referring to customer load conductors.
 
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Smart $

Smart $

Esteemed Member
Location
Ohio
ike5547 said:
It's pretty clear to me that the context of that note is referring to customer load conductors.
Click to expand...
Both line and load conductors are service conductors. As far as I can tell, all POCOs do not want any more wire conductor in any section than is absolutely necessary... period. Doesn't matter whether it is line or load.
 
kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
Smart $ said:
Both line and load conductors are service conductors. As far as I can tell, all POCOs do not want any more wire conductor in any section than is absolutely necessary... period. Doesn't matter whether it is line or load.
Click to expand...
And it is not necessarily about potential power theft either, they want to make sure their technicians have less chance of a wrong connection that may result in some bypass around metering.
 
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ike5547

Senior Member
Location
Chico, CA
Occupation
Electrician
Seems to me that the utility's techs would have to suffer from improbable levels of stupidity to accidentally bypass the meter.

OP works in a different environment than most are used to. San Francisco, where square footage, cubic footage and wall area are in extreme demand. It is very, very often difficult to maintain clearances to install extra wireways, gutters, and splice boxes. I worked in that city from the late eighties to 2011 off and on, but mostly there. In the past we've been able to get authorization for the more difficult situations one does often encounter there. Permission for things one might not necessarily do if conditions were typical.

We've got a new breed of ladies inspecting jobs in San Francisco that are often unsympathetic to the difficulties of the environment. Even incapable of recognizing these difficulties. Lack of hands on experience, spatial awareness and having misandrist tendencies.

I may be only imagining what OP is dealing with but nothing would surprise me. I have a lot of sympathy for people contracting there.

Glad I'm gone.
 
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GerryB

Senior Member
Location
woodbridge, ct. USA
ike5547 said:
Seems to me that the utility's techs would have to suffer from improbable levels of stupidity to accidentally bypass the meter.

OP works in a different environment than most are used to. San Francisco, where square footage, cubic footage and wall area are in extreme demand. It is very, very often difficult to maintain clearances to install extra wireways, gutters, and splice boxes. I worked in that city from the late eighties to 2011 off and on, but mostly there. In the past we've been able to get authorization for the more difficult situations one does often encounter there. Permission for things one might not necessarily do if conditions were typical.

We've got a new breed of ladies inspecting jobs in San Francisco that are often unsympathetic to the difficulties of the environment. Even incapable of recognizing these difficulties. Lack of hands on experience, spatial awareness and having misandrist tendencies.

I may be only imagining what OP is dealing with but nothing would surprise me. I have a lot of sympathy for people contracting there.

Glad I'm gone.
Click to expand...
Where did you get "she" from?
 
kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
ike5547 said:
Seems to me that the utility's techs would have to suffer from improbable levels of stupidity to accidentally bypass the meter.
Click to expand...

That is my thought as well, but (some) POCO engineers that make the specifications apparently don't always give the technicians enough credit for what they do know.
 
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