Three Phase with High Leg

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Old School Market

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Location
Missouri
Occupation
Electrician
We own an old school building that has three phase with a high leg service coming in to it. It costs extra every month to keep it and we do not have anything that requires 3 phase. I am wondering if there are any real advantages to keeping it.
 
I know of an old school building that was the same, they turned it into a sewing plant, then after that, it was turned into a furniture and appliance warehouse. Same situation, no three phase loads. New owner changed it to single phase, saved lots of money because it was now classified as a residential service, so price per kWh was much lower. Since lighting and receptacles were all 120, and forklifts were propane, very little had to be changed. Poco just changed the CT’s and meter, removed the other two transformers. 400 amp service.
 
Are all the panels 3 phase? Are there any 240 loads connected from A-B or B-C that might lose power if you cut back to 1 phase? That's how it is in my area, most buildings have a thing or two that would have to be moved to make everything work.
 
ptonsparky said:
No reason to. You should be able to maintain existing panels.
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Even keep same meter socket if it is a 320 or less class. Single phase meter will plug into three phase socket. May need to swap conductors around within meter though as I believe the single phase meter will plug into the A and C positions in the socket and high leg is normally on the C phase position in metering equipment.
 
Old School Market said:
We own an old school building that has three phase with a high leg service coming in to it. It costs extra every month to keep it and we do not have anything that requires 3 phase. I am wondering if there are any real advantages to keeping it.
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No need to keep it. POCO kills the high leg, the metering (if its not antiquated) and panels should all work fine.
 
Hv&Lv said:
No need to keep it. POCO kills the high leg, the metering (if its not antiquated) and panels should all work fine.
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I was being charged for a high leg at my first shop, but didn't have it. Had the POCO turn it back on & we used occasionally. May have even had a slash rated breaker feeding some Cove Heaters. Shame on me. No one knew better back then. I didn't.
 
Old School Market said:
We own an old school building that has three phase with a high leg service coming in to it. It costs extra every month to keep it and we do not have anything that requires 3 phase. I am wondering if there are any real advantages to keeping it.
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What is the building being used for ?
What is the long term plan for the building?
How much more does it cost than single phase?
 
tortuga said:
What is the building being used for ?
What is the long term plan for the building?
How much more does it cost than single phase?
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Right now it is used for storage units. We don't need a lot of power right now. The building covers 16,000 square feet and has numerous potentials for the future. When I ask the question the electric company was charging $85 a month extra. They have restructured the payment plan and it only costs $10 a month extra.
ptonsparky said:
No reason to. You should be able to maintain existing panels.
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I was actually wondering if there was a way to balance out all three phases to lower the overall bill but I can't find a good way to balance it because I would need to convert the high leg to 110. There does not seem to be a good way to do that.
 
Old School Market said:
They have restructured the payment plan and it only costs $10 a month extra.
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Then i'd keep it.
Old School Market said:
I was actually wondering if there was a way to balance out all three phases to lower the overall bill but I can't find a good way to balance it because I would need to convert the high leg to 110.
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I have dealt with that issue by converting lighting to 240V, it coincided with a LED upgrade.
 
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