Residential home needs upgrade..I think

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Turbo1

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Well, I'm young, and not very smart when it comes to things. Seems the builder whom I bought my house from thought that it only needed a 150amp panel.

House is located in GA if it matters.

150amp disconnect outside by the meter. The aluminum wire running into the panel is rated at 150amps (2/0 iirc)

Problem is, I paid quite a bit more (25K) for a unfinished basement. I'd like to add a HVAC system to the basement, but the thought of all 3 units coming on at once in the summer while the water heater is on has me thinking we'll all be in the dark.....not to mention I run a fairly high powered welder in the garage that can pull 70amps all by itself.

I've been told that most POCO have 400amp service to the meter, and then it's up to the builder to go from there.
What I'm wondering, is it possible to simply upgrade the meter, and run some sort of dual feed into 2 seperate panels in the house? That way I'm not wasting a bunch of materials that are already there (or rewiring the panel).

I can get the wire fairly cheap, and the panel as well. Hell, I can run the wire to the meter as well (panel in unfinished basement)..... but I do know when I shouldn't be messing with something...and screwing with the meter...well, I dunno what I'm doing, and I like breathing :)

Basically I don't have thousands of dollars to spend on upgrading the service, but I can do a lot of the dirty work that takes time, etc..
I don't mind paying someone for their knowledge either, because as I mentioned before, I like breathing :)

Of course, if the wire running to the meter is only 150amp wire, I'm wondering if I can just run another 150amp wire along side it, etc...

????
 
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