Went looking at new houses the other day....

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VirutalElectrician

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Mpls, MN
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Sparky - Trying to be retired
hillbilly1 said:
I don’t know why so many people are hung up on not wanting the main outside! Makes it easy for firefighters to not put their lives on the line pulling a meter that might have an arc flash at that moment, or in jurisdictions that do not allow it, waiting for the poco to pull it. Why have a main inside and out? The likelihood of having to turn it off in three feet of snow is minimal, and turning off the main inside to replace a breaker or modify or add wiring is not as safe as turning it off outside. Makes it a whole lot easier to add a transfer switch while not committing a legal offense of pulling the meter. (That IS tampering with a utilities equipment)
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IMHO they just transfered the safety issue from fire fighters to home owners/DIYers/electricians, etc.

At the houses I looked at last weeked, the meter and disconnect weren't even accessible. We've had 113.3 inches of snow here this season, with another 2 expected tonight. Add drifting and freeze/thaw cycles makes such a journey to the meter pan even more difficult.

Have you seen the pictures from the mountains in California? Snow so deep this year people are walking in snow tunnels to get out of their houses. Tell me now that it's easier for a disconnect to be outside than inside.

Also, it's going to be decades if not almost a century before this change makes any appreciable difference to emergency workers.

Also can't wait for the neighborhood kids to discover external disconnects. What fun it will be cutting power when you're gone for a week so you can come home to frozen pipes or melted freezers.
 
zooby

zooby

Member
Location
Indiana
Occupation
maint. electrician
hillbilly1 said:
I don’t know why so many people are hung up on not wanting the main outside! Makes it easy for firefighters to not put their lives on the line pulling a meter that might have an arc flash at that moment, or in jurisdictions that do not allow it, waiting for the poco to pull it. Why have a main inside and out? The likelihood of having to turn it off in three feet of snow is minimal, and turning off the main inside to replace a breaker or modify or add wiring is not as safe as turning it off outside. Makes it a whole lot easier to add a transfer switch while not committing a legal offense of pulling the meter. (That IS tampering with a utilities equipment)
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some of us dont live in Gods country ;) ......meaning when the chuds come out at night, if they want to pull power to the house they're gonna have to earn it.
 
Little Bill

Little Bill

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Tennessee NEC:2017
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Semi-Retired Electrician
VirutalElectrician said:
There's at least 3 other kids in this thread w/o occupations listed. Why do I feel like the freckled kid on the playground?
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Not picking on you or anyone, we have asked that all members update their profile. It's just that we had asked you on other occasions. We do this as we notice and have time. Sorry if you took offense at it!
 
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NTesla76

Senior Member
Location
IA
Occupation
Electrics
VirutalElectrician said:
(Said in Wayne's voice from Letterkenny, if you're familiar....)

Wife and I plan on building a new house in a couple years, so thought we'd get a few ideas and dropped into a few Parade of Homes units that had floor plans we liked.
Keep in mind, these are $700K to $850K houses in tract developments...

I was surprised to see the second house we walked into had a Generac ATS hanging on the outside. No generator yet. Wonder how the neighbors in a housing development are going to like the roar of standby generator running at night when they have to have their windows open because they have no AC?

So I head into each house, looking forward to seeing the mechanical rooms.

What a disappointment. These houses have generous sized mechanical rooms, but poorly laid out inside.

One area had the furnace and panel.
One area had two hot water heaters (two hot water heaters seems to be the norm now?).
One area had the sump pit.
One area had a heat recovery unit.

So you had this generous size room, totally wasted by having a different appliance scattered around haphazzardly so you couldn't use the space for anything else. And then each appliance had their drain tube snaked across the floor to the floor drain in the center. Well, that's what it was supposed to be anyways. With all the people walking through, the cheap clips holding the tubes over the floor drain had been destroyed so the tubes were now scattered about.

Each house had a generous half dozen or so un terminated CAT-5E (not even 6) hanging down behind the furnace. No panel either.

They used main lug only 200amp Homeline panels. Main lug only. Thanks 2020 NEC. So they skimped out on a $100 breaker so now you have to go outside in -20 weather through 3 feet of snow to turn off your power if you need to. I wonder how long it will be now before the NEC mandates an internal disconnecting means as well?

No Smurf tubing behind TV areas so you could run cables or update cabling in the future.

Absolutely no pre-wiring for AV or future smart home features.

Suppose I'm being nit picky, but seemed like some stupid corners were cut.
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LOL Letterkenny. My interest was piqued at that point.
 
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