New 400 Amp Service?


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Old 11-30-04, 08:45 AM
MADMEG
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New 400 Amp Service?

I Am Installing Two 200-amp Panels In A New Residential Construction. Do You Pull 3 Wires Or 6? How Do You Ground Both Panels?
 
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Old 11-30-04, 11:32 AM
HVACELECT
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ok to be nice are u sure yiu know what you are doing. I would hate to have you get hurt or hurt someone or something. this is alot of amperage to play with and one bad move and something or someone goes up in smoke. I really suggest that you call a real licensed electrican for this one


but here is a question for you if you run 6 wires from the meter hub where are they all going to conncet to ?
 

Last edited by HVACELECT; 11-30-04 at 12:18 PM.
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Old 11-30-04, 12:12 PM
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I believe that a 400A installation faills outside of the normal residential service installation. Does your jurisdiction allow homeowners to install a service of this size? (I assume you are the homeowner). If not, I do not know many jurisdictions which will allow non-licensed electricians to work on other peoples houses. If you do go forward, I hope you do everything right the first time... I have seen 400A bus explosions...Not pretty. Good luck!
 
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Old 11-30-04, 06:15 PM
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Originally Posted by MADMEG
I Am Installing Two 200-amp Panels In A New Residential Construction. Do You Pull 3 Wires Or 6? How Do You Ground Both Panels?
I love this.

I think I'll go over to the Law forum and ask: "Hey all you professional lawyers. I got arrested and I want to defend myself. How do I do is? What do I say in court?"

Jeez!
 
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Old 11-30-04, 08:54 PM
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In my town you could do it yourself, but the city electrical inspector would have to give it his blessing first. The inspector is the one who calls the power company to make the connection to the pole transformer. If the job is done incorrectly the fire works would be interesting. I'd almost be willing to pay to watch, but only from the outside of the house.
 
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Old 12-01-04, 06:43 AM
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There's more to this then you expect!

Originally Posted by MADMEG
I Am Installing Two 200-amp Panels In A New Residential Construction. Do You Pull 3 Wires Or 6? How Do You Ground Both Panels?
The short answer is you haven't supplied enough information to answer your question.

The simplest method to supply your two panels is to install a four hundred ampere meter cabinet that is equipped with double barrel lugs on the load side of the meter. If there will be a detached garage or other substantial outbuilding on the property you should have three or four conductor lugs on the load side connections for the meter to permit you to run the additional set of service entry conductors that the code allows for such buildings. You run three ought copper or two fifty MCM aluminum from those lugs to each of the individual panels. That is a total of six conductors.

Since service entry cable is not readily available in those sizes in most areas you will have to build raceway from the meter cabinet to the panels. whether you build one raceway to a trough above the panels or gang the two panels together, or run two separate raceways is a design issue.

The answer to the grounding portion depends entirely on whether the footer has already been poured and backfilled, is there underground metallic water piping including a metal well casing, and so forth.

In sketching out some of the issues involved it is my hope that you will understand that the job will be complex enough that you will need local professional advice as a minimum. The selection of the meter cabinet alone is governed by both local code and utility company requirements. This scale of job hides enough pitfalls to trap even an experienced electrician if they haven't done a lot of larger homes.
--
Tom H
 
 

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