Looked at a restaurant building today that had its electrical stripped out while closed. The place had a MCC for all the fans and such, around 16 compartments. Biggest wire to a compartment was #6 most of it was #12-#10. 120/208Y. I know its impossible to price without specs, just wondering ballpark how much is a replacement for this thing? 30K?
Super rough cost for a MCC?
- Thread starter Todd0x1
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Buck Parrish
Senior Member
- Location
- NC & IN
I swear I was thinking 30 k before I got to the final part of your post. Also It might depend on how good of terms you're on with the local AHJ.
Will the insurance cover it? We had a customer his insurance had it in the fine print that they will not cover copper theft.
Will the insurance cover it? We had a customer his insurance had it in the fine print that they will not cover copper theft.
- Location
- Illinois
- Occupation
- retired electrician
I would expect about $2000 to $2500 per bucket.
- Location
- Tennessee NEC:2017
- Occupation
- Semi-Retired Electrician
It was pretty good size. 15k sq/ft. All the refrigeration lines were cut too. I'd hate to be the owner of that property...
petersonra
Senior Member
- Location
- Northern illinois
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- Semi-retired engineer
$5 k per section
Section as in per bucket hole and bucket? Or vertical section?
I'd also be curious how a value engineered replacement consisting of a panelboard + gutters + control panels with IEC devices (oversized for increased lifetime) compares cost wise to replacing the mcc.
petersonra
Senior Member
- Location
- Northern illinois
- Occupation
- Semi-retired engineer
Vertical section.
I would bet good money I could design a motor control panel that was less money but this is one of those times when having the mcc maybe makes more sense. Hard to tell without taking a close look.
The go/no-go for me with deciding to use a MCC or not is if the motors have VFDs. The drives tend to take up a ton of space in a MCC, and I would rather locate the drive near the motor rather than in a central location. If it was worth adding drives to your motors, I would use a panelboard rather than the MCC.
I haven't designed a MCC for projects outside of a few industrial process lines in many years. The panelboard/switchboard with VFDs is typically less expensive than a MCC, and usually provides more flexibility in the motor control and electrical distribution design.
I haven't designed a MCC for projects outside of a few industrial process lines in many years. The panelboard/switchboard with VFDs is typically less expensive than a MCC, and usually provides more flexibility in the motor control and electrical distribution design.
petersonra
Senior Member
- Location
- Northern illinois
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- Semi-retired engineer
It is crazy expensive to put the drives near the motors though because of the field labor. We usually build them up in a motor control panel so it is all factory wired up and there is only the field labor of running wires from the panel to the motors. I don't like putting the drives out by the motors because usually they need to be in a box and the box eats up space that most people do not have. plus then you have to run ethernet out there along with power. Just too much field labor.
- Location
- Illinois
- Occupation
- retired electrician
That sounds very low to me. Typically a section will have six 12" buckets. I would expect more like $12 to $15k for a section.
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA
- Occupation
- Electrical Engineer
I was an MCC specialist for a while in the early 80s and had a guestimate value of $2k per section that worked out every time I checked it. Years later when buying MCCs, I found it to still hold true. But that was in the days before VFDs, Soft Starters and smart MCCs were available, it has changed now. I agree with Bob's $5k per section number, but only if it is all hard wired electro-mechanical starters and feeder breakers. Adding a VFD or Soft Start and networking changes that drastically. A couple of years ago I tried to see if I could come up with a new formula, starting off with $5k/section, I couldn't make it work to be useful, too many variables now.
I'm a big proponent of pu8tting smaller (up to 150HP) VFDs in MCCs, especially now with all of the emphasis on safety and arc flash protection. But to each his own.
I'm a big proponent of pu8tting smaller (up to 150HP) VFDs in MCCs, especially now with all of the emphasis on safety and arc flash protection. But to each his own.
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