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Bcwewire

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I have auto body shop that needs to upgrade from a 400 amp 240 volt service, to a 3 phase 480 v. What would be the best way. It has been a while since I have installed a three phase service. The current service is under ground feeding a 320 amp base then into two 200 amp panels.
 
Bcwewire said:
I have auto body shop that needs to upgrade from a 400 amp 240 volt service, to a 3 phase 480 v. What would be the best way. It has been a while since I have installed a three phase service. The current service is under ground feeding a 320 amp base then into two 200 amp panels.
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First thing is to check and see if 480V 3 phase is available near your building or if your power company will provide the 480V 3 phase power if not presently there.
 
Chances are you will still be needing a fair amount of 120 volt and even 240 volt loads. I'd leave existing as is as much as possible, especially if changing this out while the facility is in use. Just set new 480 volt service in different spot, if they want it all under one meter or POCO requires only one source - then you eventually have to separately derive the 120/240 from your 480 volt service, hopefully POCO will let you temporarily use the existing while building the new.
 
kwired said:
Chances are you will still be needing a fair amount of 120 volt and even 240 volt loads. I'd leave existing as is as much as possible, especially if changing this out while the facility is in use. Just set new 480 volt service in different spot, if they want it all under one meter or POCO requires only one source - then you eventually have to separately derive the 120/240 from your 480 volt service, hopefully POCO will let you temporarily use the existing while building the new.
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I'll add that it would behoove the business to analyze the rate structures for each and compare his cost for each scenario. It may or may not be more economical to have a single 480 with derived 240/120 compared to 2 individual services.
 
kwired said:
Chances are you will still be needing a fair amount of 120 volt and even 240 volt loads. I'd leave existing as is as much as possible, especially if changing this out while the facility is in use. Just set new 480 volt service in different spot, if they want it all under one meter or POCO requires only one source - then you eventually have to separately derive the 120/240 from your 480 volt service, hopefully POCO will let you temporarily use the existing while building the new.
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Most utilities only allow one service per building, but if you leave the existing during construction, I don't see where the utility would have a problem. The changeover would be the bigger deal, since the existing service would have to be removed and a new transformer, service drop and metering section would have to be installed. They may allow a temporary power pole to keep the building powered, though. That's how we would handle it.
 
We just did this at 2 different schools. Our local utility would not provide 2 different services to the same address. There were even 2 different buildings at each school (the school and the boiler house), and they would not install provide 2 services, even if they went to different buildings.

They did leave the 208V service in place while we installed the 480V service. The contractor set a stepdown transformer and got all the wiring ready, and the changeover to replace the older service with a new feeder was pretty quick and easy.
 
Most of your answers will be power company related (availability, costs, metering, etc.) so that would be my first step.
My initial question would be "why?".
(Would it be more cost effective to transformer a 208 to 480 if the load is limited)
(I've actually had folks want to change to 480 because "it will reduce my bill in half")
 
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