Trying to develop blank land, on a shoestring. Live in an RV. In the process of landscaping and trying to put in 320 power and have no idea what we are doing. Electrician working at Home Depot sold us a bunch of stuff, several months ago, seemed knowledgeable and has retired.
I'm sorry to say this, but you got sold by a salesman. This guy put on good airs, but his objective was to make sure you spent $1000++, and by golly he did his job.
It's not an accident that you're stuck with all this stuff. He made a point to convince you to buy it all in February when you couldn't possibly use it, so that when you finally do realize what a pile of unfit crud it is, you will simply despair and not return it. Well he didn't figure on COVID-19 extending the return windows, eh? Regardless, Home Depot has a superb return policy (not least to compete with Lowes' even better one), and would probably take it back even without COVID.
Not least, you can claim to have bought it cash and lost the receipt, in which case they'll give you store credit... and if they won't, Lowes will. I've returned 3 year old things that way.
Probably 60% of it is crud you can't use or don't want. And you don't have time to cherry pick which is which, so return the whole kaboodle. I realize shopping for it might have seemed like time well spent - believe me, it was time spent being misled.
Home Depot advice is notoriously terrible. That's something you need to know, and now you know it. Never take advice there again!
In fact, never shop there again. Find your local electrical supply houses, and become their new best customer. Sure, maybe you can use that #12 Romex you bought at Home Depot. Return it anyway and buy it from your new best friend. Yes, the Romex will be more expensive. But most other stuff will be cheaper, and I guarantee the total bill-of-materials would've been cheaper. Look where electricians shop! They can't afford to give away margin! They go where it's cheapest.
If you find yourself with Home Depot or Lowes credit slips you need to buy stuff with, buy paint, or home appliances, or bathroom fixtures etc, or Rubbermaid bins, or power tools or whatever.
Now, we are trying to figure out if we have what we need and how to wire it. Have to move to property soon and pulling our hair out. Can't get any electricians to let us pay them to even do a quick consult or estimate to wire it. They do it from start to finish, or won't do it at all. We are told we should have hired a pro and not bought any materials. Uh huh. Like we can afford that at retirement age, with no retirement. LOL
I know you think I've already been blunt, but now I'm really gonna be blunt: The only reason you were asking a Home Depot salesman for advice is because you do not have the skills yourself. The best answer for you is to
get those skills. For real. Skills are power. Skills are freedom. And yeah, skills are huge money savings.
And I wouldn't be suggesting it if I didn't think you were able.
Make the time to learn electrical. Drop some other pastimes and get your nose in a book. I recommend real books because they give you a well-rounded primer on the subject. Google gives you Swiss Cheese knowledge because it only answers questions, and without a primer you don't know which questions to ask!
The boxes we bought are the main meter box and (2) 200 amp circuit breaker boxes, with disconnects. But, he told us to put them on a piece of plywood, on the outside of the little building, between two 6x6 posts, with meter in center. But, meter has to go on 6x6 post and power company doesn't care about other boxes.
Back it all goes. There are 2 people you consult as to what is acceptable: #1 the
power company, because they won't hook to the wrong thing. And #2 the
AHJ, or local inspector who issues permits and approves your work. It will surely be a meter-main. You will definitely want some small circuti breakers in the meter-main, as well as a 200A breaker going to the shed. And some sort of disconnect either for the whole kaboodle, or for the house in addition to what I already mentioned. Exactly what type is acceptable is decided by the AHJ.
Maybe... maybe... this HD salesman knew the area and recommended the right thing. Maybe. But you don't have time to find out; it needs to go back while it still can. And then, you need to give that business to your new best friend at the local electrical supply house.
Your spending dollars are power. They either buy useful stuff for you (loyalty and help from a local business) or they enrich some faraway corporation who is incapable of caring. Their whole scheme is to have a marketing department run a bunch of ads to convince you that they are the cheapest, to prey on your greed. That really did not work out.
Doesn't one of the 200 amp boxes, eventually go in the house (do I need to install a disconnect box, for now, until the house is built and I can use the other box? Is the second box supposed to go in the shop? Or, do you put the 200 am box up and run everything to the other buildings and their boxes, off of that box?
Once you have a meter box acceptable to the power company, these details are a matter for the AHJ. The only thing that matters is what they will approve.
I personally think your shop loads could get by on an 80A breaker easily... Stay with the 200A to the shop, but what I am saying is you have lots and lots of headroom on this service. So I would want to bring the full 400A pipe down to the house so I had freedom to fit what I wanted - on-demand water heaters, heat pump with great gobs of emergency heat, 100A EVSE, etc. etc.
For now, we only need the one little box for the interrupt for the generator (for outages), a 50 amp RV plug, a few regular plugs, and the well house power - well, a few plugs, and lights. We plan on staying in the RV, even when house is built, to minimize costs during an outage. Not rich and a huge house-size generator is expensive to run, even on propane.
That's absolutely fine. Have a "small" panel (plenty of spaces, though) just for the loads that actually need to be on generator. You can use that as your main panel right now, but include a Utility/Generator interlock.
I would lean toward Siemens panels, since they have cheap interlocks readily available, like their $25 ECSBPK01, and Generac even makes a drive motor that throws it for you
Anyway, before you commit to that big Cummins, do keep a very close eye on emerging technologies in the general class of the Tesla PowerWall. They are improving so fast that a generator may not be the ultimate way to go. I'm looking at outfitting an old passenger car, and the numbers are really favoring a PowerWall and a roof of solar panels, and not having to deal with fueling it.
Dual 200 amp services use a meter socket rated for 320 amps.
OP, you will need to group the services. This will probably require a disconnect for each building next to the meter. You would then need 4 wire feeders to the buildings.
Yup. And that's why OP needs to check with the AHJ as to what they require.
My recommendation is
a) return all the crud to HD
b) read the service, metering and subpanel sections of 3 books on electrical, so you have mastered
the vocabulary to understand what people are telling you (
so it isn't "Blah Blah Blah Ginger")
c) talk to the power company about what they require
d) talk to the AHJ
e) talk to the electrical supply and get a model number of a unit that makes sense (the electrical supply will help you pick the right products out of the catalog)
f) take that option back to the power company and say "This OK?"
g) take that option back to the AHJ and say "This OK?"
h) build the pole etc. and get that approved
i) buy the meter-main and install it
j) power company hooks it up. Done.
