Bill,
I'm in Northern California, and have lived in Southern Calif. Here, if it's an overhead supply and new construction, the riser is always in the wall. Retrofits are usually surface-mounted w/the pipe strapped to the wall.
The service entrance panel (all-in-one) is sometimes installed semi-flush, with about 4" of panel outside the wall. The bottom of the panel outside the wall has a couple of KOs in it, and boy does that make it easy to add a circuit later--just surface mount the conduit.
The riser must be GRC, min. diameter 1.5 inch in my area. For a 200A service and copper SECs, 2 inch min. This doesn't leave much of a two-by-four top plate, but most people are using two-by-sixs for exterior walls.
I have never seen SE cable out here, even for surface-mounted panels. It's always pipe.
As far as why we don't use meterbase or metermain and interior panel, I think there are two reasons we use SEPs instead: moderate temps/little snow, and NO basement or mud rooms, so no good place to mount an interior panel. We don't have to out in the winter to check the panel in two feet of snow and below zero temps!
As far as no good place to put an interior main panel, most older (pre-WWII) houses have a small entry inside the back door (service porch or laundry room), but it is small. And w/windows and cabinets/cupboards, there isn't usually enough wall space to mount a main panel. Newer houses usually have laundry room in the core of the house, or in an attached garage. It would be possible to install a meter base outside and a main panel in the garage, but I just don't think it's done.
I have a question for you all in the east where meter bases are used and the OCPD/main cutoff is at the panel inside the house--doesn't it matter to the Fire Dept. that there's no main cutoff accessible from the outside of the building? Is it mainly a cost issue? Some firefighters mistakenly think that they can pull the meter to disconnect power, but I've heard of firefighters who tried that under a short circuit/ground fault condition and got the suprise of their lives when the arc blew them across the yard (fortunately not seriously injured)!
Why don't you install a meter base and cutoff or metermain putside, and then a MLO panel back-to back (or w/in 10 feet)? BTW, my AHJ has a supplementary code requirement that limits the 10 foot tap rule to 5 feet (before main OCPD). Is this common elsewhere?
Sorry to hijack the thread Bill, but these differences have been buggin' me for a while...
Cliff
Cliff
