Meter Pedestal

cleveman

I have a meter pedestal near an alley in the backyard of my property.

I think my thought at the time was that the electrical company would give me x amount of underground for free, and I could put a meter pedestal there (near the future garage) and run it underground to the house myself.

So now I've built the garage (24x48) and I'm ready to electrify it. I wanted to come out of the pedestal. I put an elbow through the slab for the conduit.

My question is, can I feed the garage through the same connections which the house is fed with? I thought there might be some other terminals, but the only hot terminals are the ones which I fed the house with. There is plenty of space to put in some more wire, but is this proper?

The house has 200 A service, and I figured the garage might as well have 200A service as well. The pedestal is only about 12' from the garage, so the additional cost of wire and the cost of a 200A service panel vs. 100 A is minimal.

So shall I double up on the terminals or what?

kingsmurf

no please do NOT dounble up the connections

plese do call both your POCO and your local inspector

Nice sized gargae indeed . . .have someone in the electrical business
work up the correct specs for you and for the permit


they'll have all the answers instead of reading the NEC into a thread

woodchuck2

I personally would come out of the house to the garage to a sub-panel, no point in giving the power company extra money for another meter. Even if you were using a welder you wouldnt need more than 100 amps for a garage. I am assuming this is your personal garage and not a business. Otherwise then you may need another meter/disconnect that applys to commercial code.

cleveman

Thanks for the replies guys.

I don't want to come out of the house, because the house is about 100' from the meter pedestal and the garage is about 12' in a lateral direction from the meter pedestal.

I'm aware I don't need 200 amps, but I have the wire, and the added cost of a 200 amp panel is about $20.

We don't have any inspections or permits here, and no POCO.

Please explain the dangers of doubling up the connections. Please don't just quote the code and say it is forbidden, I would like to know why.

mdshunk

You can do what you want to do legally and simply.

First and foremost, don't double up wire in the lugs. Simply put, they aren't rated for that and they won't provide a reliable connection. The larger meter pedestals have removable lugs in which you can remove the "single hole" lugs and substitute "double hole" lugs for each leg. I doubt very much, however, that your meter pedestal has the capability to remove the lugs and replace them with more suitable lugs.

The typical legal solution is to tap the conductor that is already on the lugs with a Polaris or NSI type insulated bug. Generically, these are called "preinsulated pedestal taps". I found a picture of such a tap to help explain it better:


You'd need 3 of these. One for each hot, and one for the neutral. You only need a 2-hole version, however. The existing conductor in that pedestal would have a very short section stripped and run straight through this connector, and put back on its lug. Your new conductor would be connected to the second port in this connector. These connectors are readily available at any electrical supply house, but you might have to wait a day or two to get the exact model you need.

I hope that explains it okay.

kingsmurf

friend..as I said ..I meant no offence . . .what is your experience level in electrical work? . . .this is an lethal level shock hazard amperage

that there is no POCO . . .no inspections no permits is NOT an advantage
unless you are an qualified electrician and you never want to sell the
property

also what is the amperage of service at the pedestal? . . .if the pedestal serves 200amps . .and your home is using a majority quantity of that amount . . . .there may actually NOT be enough to power additional loads without danger of overloads...excessive heating etcetc etc

goes back to . . . .what is your experience level?

since you did not state that element..it is an honest and obvious question

cleveman

Thanks for the replies, I think I got it figured out.

Below the breakers which feed the house, there is a space for another set of breakers.

I just need to buy another 200A breaker and it will have it's own lugs and I will have a separate shut-off for the garage, so I'm good.

I don't want to piss you guys off, but I guess this is what I had planned to do when I bought the meter pedestal and placed it where I placed it. It just took me a while to figure out what I was thinking back then, and I didn't recognize the place for another set of breakers immediately. There are even knock-outs on the face plate for them.

Thanks for the input all around.

neolitic

If there's no POwer COmpany,
can't he just shut down his
windmill...or private hydro-plant
or whatever?

__________________
Put your location in your profile!
(Sorry....it seems there really are dumb questions)

mdshunk

You said meter pedestal, and it now appears you have a meter-main.

You should also know that 200 amp breakers take up 4 slots. A 125 amp breaker is normally the biggest you can get that only takes up 2 slots.

cleveman

Thanks, Shunk, I've got 4 slots and I now know that I have a meter- main.

If I could ever post photos, I would have posted one.

Now I'll have to come up with another question to ask. Might be a while.

nap

clevman, it is a shame you chastised those offering aassistance when it has become obvious you had no idea what you were talking about.

Unless you produce your own power, you have a POCO. As another posted, that is the POwer COmpany. Those are the folks that send you the bill every month.

then, you kept telling us you had a meter pedastal when in reality, you have a meter main pedastal. That alters any advice you will get and need.

when asking for help from the ignorant folks here that do this type of thing for a living, you might want to consider not be so resistive and listen more than you yell.

I am still puzzled by this statement. Maybe MD understands it:

If he has a meter main, if he is talking about the terminals that feed the house, then he is talking about the terminals on the breaker. I have not seen a 200 amp breaker that would take the wire for a 200 amp feed PLUS the wire for a second 200 amp feed.

any idea what this boy in the woods would be referring to?

newenergy

nap, who did he chastise and how was he resistive?

nap

maybe I'm jsut getting overly sensitive and read more into his posts.

The fact he was so positive about the POCO ; either he did not understand what that term is intended to mean or he is just plain wrong but in either case, he comes back ans says there is no POCO just kind of hit me as being resistive.
and his response to kingsmurf regarding the POCO and inspectors seemed a bit defensive although as I re-read it it does simply seem to be a response without being defensive. Must have been the time of day for me or something.

So, cleve, for that I apologize but do remember that those reading only know what you tell them and based upon your initial post and a few after that, the situation was much different than what it really is.