Apartment Buildings Services

[Electriman]

Greetings,

For properties with multiple apartment buildings, what is the NEC position on the number of service that we can have on each building. Thank you in adavnec

 

[Elect117]

You might need to have one main service disconnect for each building, one meter per apartment, a disconnect per meter for the feeders running to the apartments, etc.

 

[augie47]

230.2 notes possibilities for multiple services depending on building size, loads and, at times, POCO restrictions.
It all falls back to details for the specific job and POCOs input

 

[Electriman]

230.2 notes possibilities for multiple services depending on building size, loads and, at times, POCO restrictions.
It all falls back to details for the specific job and POCOs input

What I have see each service provides power to around 10 units.
Does that seem reasonable?

 

[augie47]

That would be unusual in this area but, again, it all depends on the specifics with your buidling. How big are the services ?
How many units are in the building ? Are there any fire walls, etc.
There should have been engineered drawings and if it passed inspection one of the alloances in 230.2 was likely.

 

[Electriman]

That would be unusual in this area but, again, it all depends on the specifics with your buidling. How big are the services ?
How many units are in the building ? Are there any fire walls, etc.
There should have been engineered drawings and if it passed inspection one of the alloances in 230.2 was likely.

The service is around 600A.
The units are 50 units.
Besides, there are a lot of old buildings that have multiple services but now they have to upgrade the service so they can be insurable. If we upgrade the service then we should consider one service for all units or we can also update the service size and keep the number of service the same.

 

[Electriman]

Any other update?

 

[infinity]

What I have see each service provides power to around 10 units.
Does that seem reasonable?

How big are these units? If seems like 50 units could be fed from a single service.

 

[Electriman]

How big are these units? If seems like 50 units could be fed from a single service.

They are around 1000 sq ft. But my question is during service upgrade should If a property has multiple service should I combine them in one or should I just keep the number of services?

Thanks

 

[infinity]

They are around 1000 sq ft. But my question is during service upgrade should If a property has multiple service should I combine them in one or should I just keep the number of services?

Thanks

IMO one big service is cheaper than multiple small services but it also depends on what the POCO can provide especially if it's 1Ø. Theoretically if each of the 50 units had a calculated load of 50 amps a single 3000 amp service may be more than adequate. If the apartments are 1Ø you may be able to use a 3Ø service that is even less than 3000 amps.

 

[electrofelon]

They are around 1000 sq ft. But my question is during service upgrade should If a property has multiple service should I combine them in one or should I just keep the number of services?

Thanks

Big factor is what the utility wants or allows. Utilities dont like to spend money, so I would guess if reworking and combining a bunch of services, they wont do it for free.