VirutalElectrician
Senior Member
- Location
- Mpls, MN
- Occupation
- Sparky - Trying to be retired
My power comes in under ground and up into the meter socket thats on the outside of the house. The panel is directly behind the meter socket.
The main panel is a 200a QO panel, 32 space, with 1 open space. The panel already has 3 tandem breakers, and 2 sub panels.
One sub panel is fed off a 100a breaker and goes 20' away to the original panel in the house. Other than the kitchen, there isn't much of a load on this panel. All the heavy stuff like the AC, laundry, etc, was moved to the main panel.
The other is fed from a 90a breaker and goes to the garage. Its about a 70' run of 2-2-2-4 MHF. The main load here is a 60a boiler for heat in the winter.
I would like to have some way to connect a generator up to all this mess.
It looks like I have 4 options:
1) Manual transfer switch: Not feasible because of the 2 sub panels. There's things I want to run in the kitchen and garage during an outrage.
2) Generlink: Poco is not willing to allow it at this time. They don't like fact that it's an electronic switch instead of a manual switch. But they said they've gotten enough requests for them now that they ordered one to research it.
3) Manual Interloc. This would seem to be my cheapest option. I have the skills to do this myself without hiring it out. But it would mean one more tandem breaker and using up my last slot.
4) Lastly, I had the thought of replacing the outdoor meter socket with a combination outdoor meter socket and outdoor panel. Something like the Leviton LP420-MC. This would allow the generator breaker to go outside, and not take up space inside, the garage feed comes in right under the meter socket as well, so that could be easily moved to the new panel, and I'd have room for future circuits.
Thoughts? How many hours labor am I looking at to replace the existing meter socket with a load center and tie in the old panel?
You would think someone would make a meter socket with a generator inlet and manual cutover switch already to go, but I couldn't find anything.
The main panel is a 200a QO panel, 32 space, with 1 open space. The panel already has 3 tandem breakers, and 2 sub panels.
One sub panel is fed off a 100a breaker and goes 20' away to the original panel in the house. Other than the kitchen, there isn't much of a load on this panel. All the heavy stuff like the AC, laundry, etc, was moved to the main panel.
The other is fed from a 90a breaker and goes to the garage. Its about a 70' run of 2-2-2-4 MHF. The main load here is a 60a boiler for heat in the winter.
I would like to have some way to connect a generator up to all this mess.
It looks like I have 4 options:
1) Manual transfer switch: Not feasible because of the 2 sub panels. There's things I want to run in the kitchen and garage during an outrage.
2) Generlink: Poco is not willing to allow it at this time. They don't like fact that it's an electronic switch instead of a manual switch. But they said they've gotten enough requests for them now that they ordered one to research it.
3) Manual Interloc. This would seem to be my cheapest option. I have the skills to do this myself without hiring it out. But it would mean one more tandem breaker and using up my last slot.
4) Lastly, I had the thought of replacing the outdoor meter socket with a combination outdoor meter socket and outdoor panel. Something like the Leviton LP420-MC. This would allow the generator breaker to go outside, and not take up space inside, the garage feed comes in right under the meter socket as well, so that could be easily moved to the new panel, and I'd have room for future circuits.
Thoughts? How many hours labor am I looking at to replace the existing meter socket with a load center and tie in the old panel?
You would think someone would make a meter socket with a generator inlet and manual cutover switch already to go, but I couldn't find anything.
