2 family service

[dodge1478]

I am an electricican, who has done commercial/industrial since I got into this field in 1990. I have some residential experience.
mostly small jobs adding circuits etc.
I have a costomer who bought a rather large single family home, that has a 100 amp service.

this customer has now broken the house into two appartments, and wants to seperate the two floors (each with its own meter).

my question is this: do I have to upgrade the service to a 200 amp and install a two gang meter socket (2-100amp meters), and add another 100amp panel witch i can move the first floor circuits to?

or

do I I leave the 100 amp service mast and just install a 2-gang 100amp meter socket, with a new 100amp panel for the first floor?


like I said I don't usually do residential, but this is a very good customer of mine.

 

[Rewire]

Check with the POCO and find out what they require it can be done several ways

 

[charlietuna]

The first thing you better determine is your new total load??? Are you adding kitchen capabilities to the new "APPARTMENT"? You may not have a choice but to increase the service size. And if you do, then you can start figuring out what size service, what size mast and where to located it !

 

[dodge1478]

No loads are being added, in factloads are being removed (electric range changed to gas.

 

[growler]

No loads are being added, in factloads are being removed (electric range changed to gas.

It doesn't matter. You are going to find out that most of this will be decided at the local level. There is no national policy for this sort of thing.

Did they get a set of plans approved for the transition from single occupancy house to duplex apartment. There may be zoning issues.

There is one area around here where I would need an underground service for this ( all new service connections to be underground). In other areas I could leave the service as is and just split up the load.

You need to start talking to your local building department before you get in to deep. That's what they are there for, they can answer this sort of question. It's best not to have any surprises later in the job.

 

[charlie b]

You still need to perform a service load calculation for the building, and for each separate unit. Article 220 gives you a couple ways to do this. I would do both the standard calculation and the optional calculation, then use whichever gives you the smaller service load. I suspect, however, that you will discover that the calculated load will be higher than the present 100 amp service can handle. That is because the calculation methodology is very conservative, and makes us provide the building with more than it is ever likely to use.

Welcome to the forum.