Meter main wiring help..

Asok · 12-16-2012, 12:52 AM

Hey guys, new to the forum; great place.

I've scoured the net looking for pictures of meter mains with wiring diagrams, without much success. Seems pretty straight forward, but if someone with some knowledge can chime in, that would be great.

I've attached a picture, color coded blue and orange. So blue is 3 wires from the street, labeled 1 and 2, hot, and 3 ground or neutral, all 4-0 aluminum?

Orange goes to my meter panel, 1 and 2 hot, 3 neutral, 4 ground. 1, 2, and 3 are 4-0 aluminum, and the 4th wire is 2-0 aluminum.

And I also need something going to my grounding bar? Does that sound about right?

Hope this is not too confusing, and I appreciate any advice you can give. Thanks.

J. V. · 12-16-2012, 11:45 AM

The meter goes in the panel in your picture. This panel above. What do you mean by?

"Orange goes to my meter panel, 1 and 2 hot, 3 neutral, 4 ground. 1, 2, and 3 are 4-0 aluminum, and the 4th wire is 2-0 aluminum".

Orange are the feed thru lugs that you might need or you might not need?
Do you have another panel that you need to feed inside the house? If the answer is yes, the orange lugs are to feed the other panel.

This meter main looks like what they use for house trailers. They mount this panel outside on a pole and feed the trailer panel from the orange circled lugs.

I would look at other meter mains, unless you are going to use this panel to feed another panel. You are very limited with breaker capacity in this panel. This panel is designed for very few branch circuits. It is designed to feed another panel.

Asok · 12-16-2012, 05:45 PM

Hey, thanks for the reply. Yes, I am feeding another panel, inside the house. Attaching pic of the panel..

So in this pic, 1 and 2 are hot, 3 neutral and 4 ground. 1, 2, and 3 are 4-0 aluminum, and the ground is 2-0 aluminum.

If there is a better meter-main panel combo than these, please let me know.

Also, I have new pex piping being run in the house, so no metal to ground to.. I hope the panel inside the house does not need a ground rod, because that would be a pretty long run, probably 30-35 ft from the panel.

Quote:

Originally Posted by J. V.

The meter goes in the panel in your picture. This panel above. What do you mean by?

"Orange goes to my meter panel, 1 and 2 hot, 3 neutral, 4 ground. 1, 2, and 3 are 4-0 aluminum, and the 4th wire is 2-0 aluminum".

Orange are the feed thru lugs that you might need or you might not need?
Do you have another panel that you need to feed inside the house? If the answer is yes, the orange lugs are to feed the other panel.

This meter main looks like what they use for house trailers. They mount this panel outside on a pole and feed the trailer panel from the orange circled lugs.

I would look at other meter mains, unless you are going to use this panel to feed another panel. You are very limited with breaker capacity in this panel. This panel is designed for very few branch circuits. It is designed to feed another panel.