Can a 200A Breaker Be a Service Disconnect

Seven-Delta-FortyOne said:
I pop meters all the time.
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You must not be in PG&E territory. They know when meters get pulled and will threaten legal action and sometimes cut service off to the customer.

Firefighters in my area have never pulled meters. In my opinion its a pretty stupid way to de-energize a service that is under load or could potentially fault during a fire.
 
Our POCOs won't allow us to pull meters anymore either. One of them cites a case of an electrician pulling a meter and the jaws came out with the meter. Can't recall if their was any shocking or other damage but do remember the lineman had to come and take it loose at the transformer. That stopped the meter pulling with them. I imagine the others just followed suit.
 
Seven-Delta-FortyOne said:
Wo

Wonder why that is? Maybe liability or fussy POCOs that don’t want “their” stuff touched?
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CT metering possibly enters the picture some. Though not too common for residential applications, at least for 400 amp and less, it maybe has been an issue a time or two when they pulled a meter then later found out that doesn't always disconnect power from the structure?
 
curt swartz said:
Firefighters in my area have never pulled meters. In my opinion its a pretty stupid way to de-energize a service that is under load or could potentially fault during a fire.
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In the average dwelling with self contained metering, I don't see it as being too big of an issue. Firemen are already wearing sufficient PPE for arc flash, it may be shock hazard that possibly isn't going to be covered by their gear to OSHA standards anyway, what they have is still going to be pretty effective. Not very often is there any extreme high available fault current at single family dwellings. Multifamily maybe, but you likely have a main on those instead of turning off multiple main breakers or pulling multiple meters in an emergency situation. 320 amp sockets - usually have bypass and the bypass handle also opens the jaws - actually somewhat safer to pull those - if you use the bypass lever to release jaws and then flip handle again after pulling meter. But unless they know what they are doing is possible they don't throw the handle afterwards - which ultimately still leaves power inside the building. So it kind of still comes down to having qualified persons assure them there is no power. Maybe wouldn't be a bad idea to have some qualified on staff? Volunteer fire departments possibly do already have qualified individuals within their members at times?
 
infinity said:
Not much of an advantage. If the EM disconnect is not service equipment then you only need 3 conductors between it and the panel. Also if the panel is on the inside then the GEC's can land there instead of in the disconnect on the outside. This is convenient for service upgrades where all of the GEC's are already on the inside and therefore would not need to be extended by irreversible means to the outside.
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Good explanation. I would not call this "not much" though; seems like a big advantage, in some houses, where the water meter's a long, difficult, or impossible run.
 
curt swartz said:
You must not be in PG&E territory. They know when meters get pulled and will threaten legal action and sometimes cut service off to the customer.

Firefighters in my area have never pulled meters. In my opinion it’s a pretty stupid way to de-energize a service that is under load or could potentially fault during a fire.
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Depends on who you talk to at the poco’s too. I’ve pulled meters in one Georgia Power jurisdiction, and get cussed out. Another jurisdiction, I would call to have them pull it, and they would say “can’t you pull it? “ We will come out and re-seal it. You just can’t win!
 
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