RV campground service question

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tennsims17

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Location
Tennessee
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Electrician
I mainly handle residential and smaller commercial so my knowledge is lacking in this area. Any help is very much appreciated. If my company can avoid hiring and engineer for this project that would be great.

Customer has an existing 240v 200a meter and 2 disconnects. They are having 20 RV campsites.
Going off of 50A pedestals that would be 240,000VA/ 1000A.
Utility company would obviously have to install a new transformer. Question is this.
What would be the best way to do this?

Would we need to have a 1000A 240v service (3 wire) transformer, utility company CT meter, and run to 2- 500 A panels?
Or what would be the most efficient way to achieve this.

Again I appreciate the input of those who know more about this than I do.
 
Firstly you need to use 16,000 va per mobil home unit....16000x20 = 320,000VA

Then you have a demand factor of 25% for 20 units Section 550.31
 
Dennis Alwon said:
Firstly you need to use 16,000 va per mobil home unit....16000x20 = 320,000VA

Then you have a demand factor of 25% for 20 units Section 550.31
Click to expand...
Dennis Alwon said:
Firstly you need to use 16,000 va per mobil home unit....16000x20 = 320,000VA

Then you have a demand factor of 25% for 20 units Section 550.31
Click to expand...
I was under the impression that when dealing with less than 36 RV campsites the demand factor was 100%
 
Dennis Alwon said:
Firstly you need to use 16,000 va per mobil home unit....16000x20 = 320,000VA

Then you have a demand factor of 25% for 20 units Section 550.31
Click to expand...
Dennis, the OP has an RV site, not mobile home. That should be 551.73, which says
2400 volt-amperes
per site equipped with only 20-ampere supply facilities;
12000 VA if 50A.
 
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I feel like I got a little off topic.
Customer has an existing 240v 200a meter and 2 disconnects. They are having 20 RV campsites.
Going off of 50A pedestals that would be 240,000VA/ 1000A.
Utility company would obviously have to install a new transformer. Question is this.
What would be the best way to do this?

Would we need to have a 1000A 240v service (3 wire) transformer, utility company CT meter, and run to 2- 500 A panels?
Or what would be the most efficient way to achieve this.
 
You are overlooking the 45% Demand Factor in Table 551.73(A)

IF these are all 50 amp sites your calculated load will be a little more than 400 amps.
 
tennsims17 said:
Would we need to have a 1000A 240v service (3 wire) transformer, utility company CT meter, and run to 2- 500 A panels?
Click to expand...
NO!

You virtually never size a service to the cumulative ratings of the equipment, but apply demand factors to make a more rational size. Go read 551.73.

(the demand factor for 20 sites is 45%, so even if you did use 12kva per site, that's 12k * 20 * 0.45 = 108kva)
 
(the demand factor for 20 sites is 45%, so even if you did use 12kva per site, that's 12k * 20 * 0.45 = 108kva)

108,000/240 = 450 amps
 
I truly appreciate the help. I got a lil mixed up, first week back after surgery.

So what do you think would be the most efficient way of setting this up. Normally I like to sizebup in case of future add on.
600amp meter main? Run to 2- main panels and branch into the 20 individual meters?
Or possibly 1 large 600amp panel.
Each pedestal will need to be metered.
Which the customer does not care of it is a metered pedestal or if we install meters on a load center wall we will build
 
zbang said:
Even for only a 500 amp service, can or will the PoCo install that? At what cost? That could scupper the whole project.
Click to expand...
Here, POCO would likely use a 50k pot.... their diversity factor is far more lenient than 551.73 :)
 
zbang said:
Even for only a 500 amp service, can or will the PoCo install that? At what cost? That could scupper the whole project.
Click to expand...
As I was informed, pretty much anything over 200A the local utility company will have to CT.
And the location is actually in the middle of nowhere near titponville tennessee
 
I agree with Dennis.. 3 panels... when you break the load up to separate panels your diversity factor is different on each panel.
In your case, 7 circuits per panel would have a .55 diversity so the panel would be loaded at 192 amps.
 
tennsims17 said:
Each pedestal will need to be metered.
Click to expand...
That adds one hairball- what submetering equipment is planned? That could affect the panel and pedestal arrangement (if not individually metered, it's common to use a single 150-200 amp feeder and tap it at each pedestal; that can save a ton of money).

tennsims17 said:
And the location is actually in the middle of nowhere near titponville tennessee
Click to expand...
And that's another. My question is really about whether they have the existing capacity to run these new loads or if they would need to run new primary lines from miles away (at your expense); the only way you're going to find out is to talk with an engineer from the utility.
 
So as of now nothing is planned, have reached out to poco to have engineer come out.
Right now we are at the stage of planning out.
Customer stated for us to do whatever is easiest for us. But as I don't have experience with such large projects I wanted to better inform myself and get some advice from more knowledgeable people.
 
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