Grounding - Meter by transformer

[dmga]

Hello all,

I came upon something new to me. A rural house with the meter socket out by a transformer. There is a 75 foot underground feed from the socket to the house 200 amp main panel. The meter socket has a GES via ground rods. Is the main panel in the house considered another building and therefore needs its own GES, or does the meter socket need to be moved to the house? I cannot find a reference to this in the code.

 

[augie47]

Locally we look at those installs as if there was no meter socket and install the GES system at the house accordingly.
POCO requies a ground rod at the meter and that is installed per their rules.
(250.50 or in the event someone wants to call the house a separate structure, 250.32 would still require the GES at the house)

 

[don_resqcapt19]

The code rules change at the service equipment. You can make as many neutral to earth connections as you want on the line side of the service equipment.

The service equipment at the house requires the same grounding and bonding installation as any other service.

No matter what the house will always require a grounding electrode.

The only thing that would change is if there would be a service disconnect at the meter. In that case, you would need to run an EGC with the ungrounded and neutral conductors to the house disconnect. The grounding electrode system is still required, but it would only be connected to the EGC at the house.

 

[dmga]

Thanks for the help. Will a disconnect be required at the meter?

 

[don_resqcapt19]

Thanks for the help. Will a disconnect be required at the meter?

Not by they code, but in our area the Rural Electric Coop, requires the meter and the the service disconnect at the meter, that is installed at the pad mount transformer. In that case, you need to run 4 conductors from the service disconnect to the house disconnect,
You would have to get that information from your utility.