Adding meters off a tap

T

Tsull048

Member
Location
Boonton, NJ, USA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
Hey I just got my license a few months ago. I've been doing service work for many years I didn't do work that required inspection often. I have a job where there are 2 panels that are not in the same room or near the meters. The customer wants the panels to be metered. There is a 200 amp fused main switch for the building. From the switch the conductors go into a trough and they tapped the conductors to go to the meter, then back down into their respective panels. I wanted to use 1 existing meter socket, come off the load side, exit the enclosure to feed a new feed through breaker. I would do all the bonding and gec there. I want this to serve as service disconnect/ocpd. That way the existing uf on the load side of the breaker would be a feeder and I can avoid a massive rewiring project. When I was getting prices from the guy at the supply who Is an intelligent guy he said aren't we putting the breaker ahead of the meter nowadays? I searched through 230 and it looks like the meter can be ahead of the disconnect.

I just want to make sure I'm doing this right and he made me start questioning what I wanted to do. Am I missing something? Thanks for any help.
 
augie47

augie47

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Tennessee
Occupation
State Electrical Inspector (Retired)
Someone else summed it up well the other day by stating as far as the NEC is concerned the meter is just a hump in the conductor. You can pretty much put them anywhere in the circuit.
If I understand your plan correctly there may be a flaw. Once you add the disconnect the load side will need neutral-ground separation thus a 4 wire cable.
On the other hand, I see nothing that prevents you from adding a meter in the existing cable as is IF POCO has no objections,.
 
F

farmantenna

Senior Member
Location
mass
do mean individual meters for each panel? Where I live I have never seen the meter after a disconnect. Only when there is a CT cabinet is it a cold sequence switching arrangement
 
G

ggunn

PE (Electrical), NABCEP certified
Location
Austin, TX, USA
Occupation
Consulting Electrical Engineer - Photovoltaic Systems
farmantenna said:
do mean individual meters for each panel? Where I live I have never seen the meter after a disconnect. Only when there is a CT cabinet is it a cold sequence switching arrangement
Click to expand...
Multifamily residences can have a meter bank after a service disconnect, can't they?
 
T

Tsull048

Member
Location
Boonton, NJ, USA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
Yea individual meters for each panel. I downloaded poco meter requirement they have a drawing of the ocpd before the meter so that's what I'll do.
 
electrofelon

electrofelon

Senior Member
Location
Cherry Valley NY, Seattle, WA
Tsull048 said:
Yea individual meters for each panel. I downloaded poco meter requirement they have a drawing of the ocpd before the meter so that's what I'll do.
Click to expand...
I am a bit confused. A drawing would really help. How many meters were there originally? And how many do you want to add? Sounds like there is a service disconnect ahead of all the meters so you wouldn't be connecting a gec after one of the meters - everything downstream from the service disconnect is a feeder or feeder tap. Have you discussed this with and got approval from the power company? I would not do any work until I had.
 
T

Tsull048

Member
Location
Boonton, NJ, USA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
electrofelon said:
I am a bit confused. A drawing would really help. How many meters were there originally? And how many do you want to add? Sounds like there is a service disconnect ahead of all the meters so you wouldn't be connecting a gec after one of the meters - everything downstream from the service disconnect is a feeder or feeder tap. Have you discussed this with and got approval from the power company? I would not do any work until I had.
Click to expand...
That's the conclusion I came to, everything after the 200 amp switch would be feeders. I'm pretty sure they do all the bonding in the trough, with gec then used rigid nipples to make the ground and tapped off the grounded conductor to make the neutral. I wanted to remove the panel directly next to the switch and just put a breaker in that feeds a panel downstream. Also, the customer wants an additional sixth meter. There is no room hopefully they will let me put it on the other side of the wall. Waiting for them to get back to me. (Power company)
 
kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
ggunn said:
Multifamily residences can have a meter bank after a service disconnect, can't they?
Click to expand...
Often needs to be in a manner that is acceptable to the POCO though.

Most them don't want easy access to unmetered conductors, so a typical safety switch as the service disconnect is not acceptable as NEC still requires access to the overcurrent devices. A disconnect that is an integral part of a meter center usually doesn't allow access to anything but the fuseholders if it has those or the main breaker handle if it has a breaker and therefore is NEC compliant as well as acceptable to many POCO's.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top