Ever Seen the Neutral Skip the Meter Socket?

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DSamson

DSamson

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San Francisco, CA
I'm bidding a job where I plan to replace the main circuit breaker panel.

The existing installation has the grounded (neutral) conductor coming 1) in from the overhead, 2) passing through the meter socket without being connected to anything, and 3) terminating at the neutral bus in the main CB panel.

Then there is a bonding jumper that runs through 1) bonding bushing on the line side of the meter socket, 2) through a bonding bushing on the load side of the meter socket, and 3) to the neutral bus in the main CB panel.

I'm just trying to price the job right. If I have to reroute the neutral to hit the lugs in the meter socket, I'll have to disconnect the overhead and I have to price that in. The service conductors are adequately sized for the load, so there's no independent reason to replace them.

It seems like the existing installation satisfies 250.24(A)(1), but I've always landed the neutral in the meter socket first.

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks
 
Never seen a neutral bypass the meter, but I've seen plenty where the hots have been routed past it.
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Sounds like the service raceway is bonded but not the meter base enclosure. Should be able to run properly sized bond(250.66) from neutral bus to meter enclosure, if you don't want to change meter base.
 
It's okay (in SF) to bypass the meter and land the neutral straight in the panel. If the conduits enter and exit the meter without threaded hubs you'll have to do some bonding in the meter enclosure.
 
DSamson said:
Then there is a bonding jumper that runs through 1) bonding bushing on the line side of the meter socket, 2) through a bonding bushing on the load side of the meter socket, and 3) to the neutral bus in the main CB panel.
Click to expand...

Also, you can get rid of the bonding jumper from ground bushing (2) to neutral bar (3) if you install a ground bushing on the conduit as it enters the main panel, if you'd like to.

You'd still need to keep bushings (1) and (2) bonded together and also to the meter can.
 
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If I am reading you description correctly all the service conductors run through the meter socket, just the grounded/neutral conductor is no attached to the lug in the socket. You have the bonding bushings that connect to the service riser going in and out of the meter socket.
I don't see any need to change this,although it seems easy enough to just pull the neutral back into the meter socket and terminate it there them run it in to the main breaker panel. No need for new service conductors, except maybe a little piece of neutral from meter to panel.
Just expect that if the San Fransicko inspector sees it he/she will come up with some reason that you will have to change it. So you may what to think about adding it into the job.
 
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