400 amp service pole barn and home later

walt1955

I'm new to this site and welcome any help and comments from members. I am building my own pole barn and later a 2400 sq ft home. I'm thinking 200 amp service will be enough for each building. The barn is 40x60 with a 900 sq ft apartment on the second level and a garage area for my small collection of vintage cars.The barn and apartment will be heated with LP fired radiant heat via pex pipe and the apartment will be air conditioned with roughly a 1 1/2 ton unit. I know from experience that 200 amp service will be plenty for the barn. My home, built at a later date will be approx. 2400 sq ft w/3 bedrooms and most likely geothermal heating and cooling via a heat pump trench system. I don't think I will need any kind of supplemental heat for the home as I will design the geothermal trench system to be more than capable for my expected use and weather in my region. My current home has 200 amp service, 4 bedrooms is 2800 sq ft and has a gas furnace with a 3 ton AC condenser so this is what i'm basing my 200 amp service on for my new home. My question is this:My barn is about 200 from the road and the house will be another 250 from the barn. Both the barn and home will be pretty much in a straight line from the road. I would like to have all of my service underground but I understand this can drive up my cost. Due to this I would consider the service from the road to my barn be via a pole or two. I do want the service from the barn to the house to be buried. Sooo, how can this project be done? A 400 amp cable from the road to the barn area? and then a 200 amp cable to the house later? One meter, two meters? A transformer on the pole at the road? Any suggestions would be appreciated.I might also mention I have a great deal of experience in the security and video industries and would be more than willing to answer any questions other members might have. Thanks,Walt

zappa

Get in touch with your electric company as they will need to be involved with your plans. The most logical setup would be to run high voltage primary and install the transformer at the pole barn. If you are going to continue the service to your future house from the barn panel, think ahead on wire size and panel choice so you don't have to rework anything. Another option is hooking directly to the transformer for the home but that would most likely require another meter at the house. Just as a reminder, you can provide 200 amp service to each building but that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to have a 400 amps service to the property. It depends on how much load you will be pulling from both buildings at the same time.

Here is a link to a thread that focuses on a service pedestal but it has other information that may help with your planning.

http://www.diychatroom.com/f18/help-me-design-my-service-pedestal-129288/

jrclen

I agree with Zappa, talk with the power company first thing.

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John