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ok here's the situation. Im building an addition onto my house. i have 1 set of wires running to my house and 1 set running to my shop.where my addition is going i have to move my wires going to my house. i was thinking about running wires from my shop to my house and turning the breaker box in my house to like a sub panel.by doing that i can run the wires underground so its out of the way for my addition.is this possible right now i have 200 amp service to my shop and 200 service to my house. all my shop is used for basically is storing my boat. and doing some small work but i dont run any real machinery. and is this something i can actually do myself.thanks for any advice.
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Most utilities I've run into require underground lines to be a minimum of 4" pvc conduit, at the pole for a riser and at the meter location for mechanical protection. The rest of the run is #4/0 - 3 URD (Underground Residential Distribution) with a reduced neutral. Do you have access to a ditch witch? or a backhoe? 24 inch minimum burial for the cable, encased in sand below and above. You'll need to get in touch with your power company and a distribution tech to mark your service location. Explain what you are doing. The service needs to terminate at a meter trough. Most entrances can't be further than 10 feet from the meter. You said about swapping the panels - using the garage as the feed and the house as the sub-panel. The wire from the garage to the [sub-panel] needs to be a four wire assembly - three wire will NOT do! Sub panel needs an aux ground bar. Neutral needs to be isolated from the equipment ground. Service needs an additional ground location, other than the waterpipe ground. Ground is bonded around the water meter. Some utilities require all gas piping to be bonded to the electrical ground. Lots of variables and if you don't have knowledge of them don't even consider doing the job yourself. Hire a contractor - You don't need one boo-boo to get on the wrong side of the electrical inspector. Insurance companies require installation by licensed personnel anyways. -
alright only 1 problem with that right now my meter is not actually a meter, the electric compand came and took out the meter and put some device up on the pole far away (about 80 feet) in the back yard. so working around the meter is not a problem. i can do the grounding thats not a problem and digging is not a problem. i was just wondering if it is legal to have the breaker box in the shop be the main panel. thanks for the advice.Comment
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OK, what they did was install a set of jumpers at the house and put on a blanking out plate, glass or plastic cover. At the pole they put a meter. I don't think they would pro-rate a demand bill. I don't think they'd allow you to splice the main line into your house, should be an unbroken run from the pole to the main panel which in this case would be your garage panel. Then, the line going back to your house, underground I presume would have to be the four wire. Aux ground in the house panel, isolated neutral. The garage panel would have the neutral bonded to the metal shell (equipment ground) Then it would just take a little re-wiring to get the bare grounds connected to the aux ground bus at the house because I would assume the grounds and neutrals were under the same screw on the neutral bar. Where the neutral bus is bonded to earth ground, it is permissible to connect the neutrals and equipt gnd under the same screw.Comment
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thanks for all the info i appreciate it.Comment
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