Comments/Advice on new service entrance.

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4x4dually

4x4dually

Senior Member
Location
Stillwater, OK
Occupation
Electrical Engineer/ Ex-Electrician
We are finally moving on our new home and the only part of it I'll be doing in the electrical...the only part I enjoy. I wanted to run my plan and a few questions by you folks that do this day in and day out and see if you all had any advice or comments for me.

What I want to do is have the poco run underground to pad xfrm behind the garage. I do not want another pole of overhead across my yard; nor do I want to run low voltage underground for 230 ft from the existing meter base that powers our current barndamineum. The initial load calcs based on NEC come to a minimum service of 202 amps. Total electric. Geothermal 4-ton unit. I'm debating bumping to a 320/400 meter since in the future we "might" end up with a pool and/or hot tub and my plan is to leave plenty of room for expansion. With that line of thinking, should I make the jump to the larger meter and spend the $$$ for 400 copper feeders or should I just stay with a 200A meter and go with it? Please talk me out of the 400A.

My plan is to come off the meter base to two separate 200A breaker panels. One panel will be on a 200A Generac ATS to my existing 22KW gen. The other will be on a manual transfer switch. This way if we are gone or asleep and we loose power, the ATS will power up only critical loads like fridges, freezers, and some lights and basically load shed everything else on the manual panel. Once we figure out what is going on we can make sure all the other loads are off and if we need something on the load shed panel such as the cooktop, we can manually power the other panel and use one or two items at a time (using breakers as the selection tool. I don't have enough generator to power the geothermal, two water heaters, plus all the critical loads.

Does this auto/manual setup make sense for load shedding without automating a bunch of it with electronic stuff? I'd sure love you all's advice....we'll...most of you all's advice. LOL

I appreciate any constructive critisism. I'm stiff drafting the electrical plan but I'll post up what I have thus far.

Screenshot 2022-10-18 114927.jpg

Screenshot 2022-10-18 121410.jpg
 
I'm finishing a house now that has 400 amp service on generator.

It's a little different from yours because it's all ATS. It has an apartment with 100 amp panel. It also has a hot tub.

I went from meter to a 200 amp 4-space panel for the hut tub and apartment. From there to a 100 amp ATS, and out to subpanel for the apartment, which means the hot tub is automatically shed.

Then from the meter went to a 200 amp ATS, and from there to a 200 amp subpanel for the main house.

If I were setting up your scenario, it would be very similar - 200 amp 4 space panel for 60 amp hot tub and 100 amp "critical power" ATS and subpanel, then a 200 amp MTS and subpanel for everything else
 
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No grounding lock nuts or grounding bushings? Looks like a concentric knock out. I know the enclosure will be bonded in the switch, but shouldn't there be bonding bushings and grounding lock nuts? Even on the chase nipple to the meter?
 
ritelec said:
No grounding lock nuts or grounding bushings? Looks like a concentric knock out. I know the enclosure will be bonded in the switch, but shouldn't there be bonding bushings and grounding lock nuts? Even on the chase nipple to the meter?
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A chase nipple is not a raceway
 
I've never heard anyone complain that their electrical service was too big. I would go with copper conductors and 400 A. Just my opinion.
 
Met with POCO Friday morning. They will run HV from pole to pad xfrm right outside the new house and the current bardaminium. I will feed two 200A services to the house and run a new 200A service to the existing that will replace the existing 200ft service from the pole. New underground will end up costing me around $6000 turn-key for them to do it. Pros is that now all LV services are right around 20 ft from xfrm to panel. It also allows me to power the barns tied in at the existing meterbase on the pole from the other end now and that will allow me to send power to both barns from the Generac. It ends up being a few grand more than me running all the LV services myself but gains me a bunch of flexibility and should eliminate almost any voltage drop. I'm not sure if I can pull the 4/0-4/0-4/0 from the existing service out of the 2" PVC. I'd love to pull it and use it for all my feeders and just replace it with some smaller wire. I don't need 200A back to the barns. I just need enough to power lights and one water heater.

I've pulled in many a foot of 500 with a greenlee tugger and some large rope.....but I've never pulled existing wire out. Ya'll got any tricks as to how to pull it out since it's obvious one can't wrap it around the pulley?

The layout:

Screenshot 2022-10-24 070317.jpg
 
I have pulled out wires with a tugger. Rig a pulley above the pull point. Use a nylon pull rope with half hitches on the wires. Pull using the cat head to control tension. Once the wire breaks free and moves it should go ok.
 
tom baker said:
I have pulled out wires with a tugger. Rig a pulley above the pull point. Use a nylon pull rope with half hitches on the wires. Pull using the cat head to control tension. Once the wire breaks free and moves it should go ok.
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Roger that. Thanks. I'll have to call the fellas I used to work with and see if I can borrow them and their tugger. I've contemplated using my tractor loader...but I feel like I'll just pull the conduit out of the ground since it has a 90 next to the pole. That scares me.
 
4x4dually said:
Roger that. Thanks. I'll have to call the fellas I used to work with and see if I can borrow them and their tugger. I've contemplated using my tractor loader...but I feel like I'll just pull the conduit out of the ground since it has a 90 next to the pole. That scares me.
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Yeah, you don't want to be in an episode of Tremors.
 
4x4dually said:
Roger that. Thanks. I'll have to call the fellas I used to work with and see if I can borrow them and their tugger. I've contemplated using my tractor loader...but I feel like I'll just pull the conduit out of the ground since it has a 90 next to the pole. That scares me.
Click to expand...
The tugger is much safer.Spend time on the rigging for the pulley. You will need some way to brace the tugger
 
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