I’m having electric brought onto my property and I would like some advice and ideas. The more I think about it the more questions I have so I will spread them out in different posts. Just for reference, I’m an electrical engineer so I know electricity but not the electrical trade. I did wire my new construction home from the ground up in 1982 on a homeowners permit so I need to brush up on code changes. I also have been searching hardware and I’m getting familiar with what is out there for my needs.
A pole barn is the only structure on the property and the POCO designed a 2 meter, 2 transformer setup for the barn and future house but I’m thinking of changing that to a distribution pedestal (farm pole) with just 1 pad mount transformer as I can place it in the middle and have 150’ runs to barn and future house. I hate doing things twice so some of my questions relate to the possibility of future runs and buildings. Everything is underground BTW.
Anyway, going with the original design with a meter socket attached to the side of the pole barn, what is the best way to route the service cable into the pole barn from the meter socket? It’s a standard metal sided non-insulated barn with a gravel floor.
My second question which may change your answers to the first question. I may build one or 2 more barn/shop type buildings close to this existing pole barn and I would like to extend the 200 amp service from this barn to the future buildings so I want to incorporate an easy way of doing this on my initial install. Judging from the hardware I’m seeing online, I see feed through lug options for breaker panels or possibly a short inside wire trough running from the meter socket to the breaker panel and maybe I can splice off of the service entrance cable in this trough and add fused disconnects for the future buildings. I would also want to add a disconnect right after the meter if I go with this idea so I wouldn’t have to call POCO for a meter pull when adding on in the future. I would like to extend 200 amps to all future buildings from a 200 amp service just to be flexible. The inspectors might not like this but I can’t see any reason why this can’t be done safely with the proper size wire and equipment. If I add other buildings, this existing barn which has the initial 200 amp service will just be for machinery storage with a few lights, wall sockets for battery trickle chargers, and a high amperage outlet in case I want to weld in this building. If I do end up with 3 buildings the total load still probably wouldn’t justify a 200 amp service but I want to overkill now so I don’t have to redo any of the work if my needs change.
Sorry for the long explanation but the 2 questions are pretty simple I think. Bedford county PA.
A pole barn is the only structure on the property and the POCO designed a 2 meter, 2 transformer setup for the barn and future house but I’m thinking of changing that to a distribution pedestal (farm pole) with just 1 pad mount transformer as I can place it in the middle and have 150’ runs to barn and future house. I hate doing things twice so some of my questions relate to the possibility of future runs and buildings. Everything is underground BTW.
Anyway, going with the original design with a meter socket attached to the side of the pole barn, what is the best way to route the service cable into the pole barn from the meter socket? It’s a standard metal sided non-insulated barn with a gravel floor.
My second question which may change your answers to the first question. I may build one or 2 more barn/shop type buildings close to this existing pole barn and I would like to extend the 200 amp service from this barn to the future buildings so I want to incorporate an easy way of doing this on my initial install. Judging from the hardware I’m seeing online, I see feed through lug options for breaker panels or possibly a short inside wire trough running from the meter socket to the breaker panel and maybe I can splice off of the service entrance cable in this trough and add fused disconnects for the future buildings. I would also want to add a disconnect right after the meter if I go with this idea so I wouldn’t have to call POCO for a meter pull when adding on in the future. I would like to extend 200 amps to all future buildings from a 200 amp service just to be flexible. The inspectors might not like this but I can’t see any reason why this can’t be done safely with the proper size wire and equipment. If I add other buildings, this existing barn which has the initial 200 amp service will just be for machinery storage with a few lights, wall sockets for battery trickle chargers, and a high amperage outlet in case I want to weld in this building. If I do end up with 3 buildings the total load still probably wouldn’t justify a 200 amp service but I want to overkill now so I don’t have to redo any of the work if my needs change.
Sorry for the long explanation but the 2 questions are pretty simple I think. Bedford county PA.