New Meter enclosure with multiple branch breakers.

I am in the processing of renovating a duplex into a single family dwelling. The current electrical service includes two meters. I am going to reduct it down to one. The unit is located in a city in Iowa that follows the state code. I am allowed to do my own work after I have lived in the unit a year. That date is approaching and I am getting set up to do this project.

The set up that I want will follow the skematic shown in the attachment. The questions that I have will be: 1. Is there a meter enclosure available what does what I want it to do? It should have 3-100 amp breakers and 2-10 amp breakers for ACs nearby.

Will it take an enclosure able to handle 320 amps? The total of all the breakers.
The service from the pole will probably be underground and I was thinking of using an underground triplex for this. This would depend on the size of wire required for the amps needed.(See Above)

 

Welcome to the forums!

There are meter/panel combo panels out there, but they will be quite expensive and availability might be limited. Your best bet will be to go to an electrical supply house and see what they have available. The big box store will likely not have anything like that in stock.

Whatever meter you install, make 100% sure that it is approved by your power company. All the power companies in MN require meters to be 200 amps minimum and have a bypass handle. I suspect IA will be the same. One option is to install a 200 amp meter, and then an outdoor panel next to the meter. The outdoor panel will have openings for your other 100 amp loads. You can find these at Menard's.

You do not total all the breakers. A 200 amp service would likely work just fine for you, however a load calculation would tell you for sure. (Google Load calculator)

They do not make 10 amp breakers, 15 A is minimum. you could also feed these off the outdoor panel I mentioned above. I have never seen an A/C that only needed a 10 amp breaker. Are these window units?

Underground is most cases installed by the power company to the meter. After that it is your responsibility.

 

Thanks for your response. It has been very helpful. The idea of using separate enclosures is great. That makes much more sense than what I was thinking of using.
As far as the load calculation, I know that I will never use 320 amps at the same time, but was not sure exactly what the code would require. I will be in touch with the inspector based on your information to get the exact specs .. (The state has an inspector that handles all cases where there is no local inspector.)
The AC's are small central units. They pull less than 10 amps each(in the 7.5 range. ) Pretty efficient.
Now as far as the power company installing to the meter, that is what I thought would happen, but they will not do it if goes underground. So maybe I will rethink about an overhead service. Again, thanks for the response.

 

You will need to use the dataplate to properly size the circuits and breakers for the AC units.

 

I am not familiar with the term dataplate. Where is it found and how is it used?

 

Data plate is the paper or metal tag on the device on which information such as full load amps, volts, locked rotor amps, starting current, and maximum/minimum ocpd is printed.

 

Thanks Ray2047,

I've read the plate you are talking about, never have heard it referred to as data plate, although it makes perfect sense.
Thanks again.