jaylectricity
Senior Member
- Location
- Massachusetts
- Occupation
- licensed journeyman electrician
I have a customer who is in charge of a 6 unit building. Just a little background: It looks like it was a 4 unit building with 4 front doors in which 2 went directly up stairs to the second floor. Then it looks like they finished half of the basement into two studio apartments.
He wants to add a common meter so he can build a laundry room in the other half of the basement. The meters are in the basement. There isn't a whole lot of room where the service comes in to the panels. I'm sure I can find a way to make it work but there are some issues that I'm concerned about.
I think I asked a question about this situation but at the time we were talking about replacing the entire service and changing each of the fuse panels to breakers. When I talked to the inspector he said if we were going to be changing the service he wanted the meters outside. This was going to be a huge project that I likely wouldn't have been able to do because I don't have a crew and hiring a helper wouldn't really make the job go much faster. I would have to have shown up at 6-7am to turn off the electricity and get the entire service changed by 7pm or so to minimize the inconvenience to the tenants. What's worse is that they are on housing assistance which tends to make them more willing to call the state and complain about the landlords. The property manager decided to leave things be, but he would still like to add a meter and panel for a laundry room.
Issues:
1. Do you think the inspector would allow me to add a common meter to the inside of the building since I am no longer changing the entire service?
2. I will be putting the common area lights to the new panel, am I required to add smoke detectors throughout the common stairwell?
3. There is no main switch or overcurrent protection for the entire service, just a main fuse/breaker for each of the six panels. Will that present problems for me?
4. If I recall correctly, it is 2/0 copper coming into the meter bank, there is a water ground that I'll have to add a jumper to hit both sides of the water meter but no ground rods. I'm pretty sure I need to but can anybody verify that I will be required to add them and where exactly the grounding conductor should be terminated?
Anything else that I'm not thinking about would be greatly appreciated. This customer is a good customer but sometimes him and I are caught in the middle with the owners when it comes to justifying what money to spend and how necessary things are. If something is required that will cost a lot of money they will try to find a different way of doing things, hence why they didn't go ahead with the entire service change.
He wants to add a common meter so he can build a laundry room in the other half of the basement. The meters are in the basement. There isn't a whole lot of room where the service comes in to the panels. I'm sure I can find a way to make it work but there are some issues that I'm concerned about.
I think I asked a question about this situation but at the time we were talking about replacing the entire service and changing each of the fuse panels to breakers. When I talked to the inspector he said if we were going to be changing the service he wanted the meters outside. This was going to be a huge project that I likely wouldn't have been able to do because I don't have a crew and hiring a helper wouldn't really make the job go much faster. I would have to have shown up at 6-7am to turn off the electricity and get the entire service changed by 7pm or so to minimize the inconvenience to the tenants. What's worse is that they are on housing assistance which tends to make them more willing to call the state and complain about the landlords. The property manager decided to leave things be, but he would still like to add a meter and panel for a laundry room.
Issues:
1. Do you think the inspector would allow me to add a common meter to the inside of the building since I am no longer changing the entire service?
2. I will be putting the common area lights to the new panel, am I required to add smoke detectors throughout the common stairwell?
3. There is no main switch or overcurrent protection for the entire service, just a main fuse/breaker for each of the six panels. Will that present problems for me?
4. If I recall correctly, it is 2/0 copper coming into the meter bank, there is a water ground that I'll have to add a jumper to hit both sides of the water meter but no ground rods. I'm pretty sure I need to but can anybody verify that I will be required to add them and where exactly the grounding conductor should be terminated?
Anything else that I'm not thinking about would be greatly appreciated. This customer is a good customer but sometimes him and I are caught in the middle with the owners when it comes to justifying what money to spend and how necessary things are. If something is required that will cost a lot of money they will try to find a different way of doing things, hence why they didn't go ahead with the entire service change.
