ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area 400 amp panel upgrade

Triple

The underground pull section is mounted on the wall next to the meter or is part of the meter socket.

If you look at the picture below the pull section is the large area under the meter socket. This panel is a 400 amp combination service entrance device. It has the pull section, meter socket, 40 circuit load center and a second 200 amp breaker to feed a remote load center.

caselec,
Yep, thats the one, great picture. I will then mount the 200a load center on the back side of the house fed from the 400a on the side of the house.
The trick is to coordinate the power co to disconnect power, pull in new 4/0 feeders, then after I mount the new panel, have it inspected by the city, then reconnected by the power co - all in one day.

Yea, Adlav,

That is the trick, I often wonder if I should include some money in my bid to put a family up in a local hotel room for a night while I do a panel change out. Especially in this AZ heat.

I have never done it yet, but I think that would be a great alternative. I learned the hard way about not scheduling an appointment with the POCO architect befor a panel change out.

If you meet with the POCO architect on the job, before you start the upgrade. Then you can get scheduled in for a same day disconnect, inspections and reconnect. Otherwise you will wait at least one full day for your POCO and city inspections, then another full day for the reconnect. That is if you pass the first inspections.

Thanks to caselec for that perfect picture of the 400-amp meter combo with the two 200-amp disconnects. Not sure if it is a Square D or Cuttler Hammer though.

That is what we put on all of our big homes, like say 3,500 sq ft or more. Plenty of room for guest homes and back yard work shops.

Peace out

Tev

BTW caselec,

How do you post pictures?

Thanks in advance,

Tev

Tev, in the box you type the post in, there is a link to the left of the box "*UBB Code is On". This link will provide you with information on posting images, italics, bold type,...

Here is the info for image posting - To add a graphic within your message, just encase the URL of the graphic image as shown in the following example (UBBCode™ is in red).

[ IMG]http://www.infopop.com/artwork/footer_logotype.gif[/IMG ]
In the example above, the UBBCode™ automatically makes the graphic visible in your message. Note: the "http://" part of the URL is REQUIRED for the [img] code. Also note: some UBB forums may disable the [img] tag support to prevent objectionable images from being viewed.

The [img] and [/img] should not have spaces in them. I added them to prevent the actual image from being posted in this reply.

PS, the panel is a SquareD(right click on the image to get it's URL address).

steve

[This message has been edited by stamcon (edited 09-14-2003).]

[This message has been edited by stamcon (edited 09-14-2003).]

Are you sure about them pulling 4/0? If you have a 200 amp service now you should already have 4/0 AL. Usually the PoCo installs 350 AL for 400 amp residential services and requires a 3" or 4" duct. Make sure you have this correct or your customer may be without power for a long time if the PoCo comes out to connect it and tells you that it can't be done until you install a new duct to the street.

Curt

caselec,
Thats what the Designer from SRP (power co) said. But I will check again to make sure.

Steve,

Thanks very much for that information. So does that mean that any picture that I want to post needs to have a url?

What if I want to post a picture from one of my own files on my computer?

Thanks in advance,

Tev

caselec,
You were right, it does have 4/0 already there. I had the designer from the power co go out and actually check it again (he just assumed they were 1/0).
So now I can just set a new 400a panel right in. Is there a limit on how far away the 200 load center can be? (other than the resistence factor?)

Straightedge

Your pictures must be stored on a web server. If you don't have web space available send the pictures to bill and he will post them for you.

Curt