Meter Base change over happens today.

[James Jaragosky]

Today is the big meter base change over.
no power for at least 4 to 6 hrs.
the electrician will be here at 9am.
Wish me luck that all goes well, or SWMBO will become She who must be feared:(.
will post picts when all is done
Jim J.

[Don Bullock]

James, good luck on the change. Hopefully they can do it quickly. I was wondering why you have to make the change. That's something I never even considered when I planned for my new shop.

[James Gillespie, Jr.]

His current house capacity is 200 amps. His new shop will have its own panel that will be 200 amps, so his input panel is being upgraded to 400 amps.

[Von Bickley]

James,
Everything should go fine. Give us an up-date this evening. Maybe some pictures.....:)

[Tom Henderson2]

Ruh-Roh....

Anybody heard from jAMES since the big meter change-over?

Hopefully we'll see photos of the completed installation, not photos of the memorial service...

-TH

[James Jaragosky]

Ruh-Roh....

Anybody heard from jAMES since the big meter change-over?

Hopefully we'll see photos of the completed installation, not photos of the memorial service...

-TH
Well the meter base upgrade is on hold until Tuesday, The Power Company was a no show to shut us down at the transformer.
After repeated calls over several hours we were told that we just had to wait that someone would be there, After 5 hours of calling them and waiting they finely said that they cancelled the work order because my service had been upgraded already.
2 more people later and multiple assurances that meter base had not been upgraded yet; they finely agreed to send someone out Monday at 3:45 to check to see if we were right. So if we are correct and the service has not been upgraded yet, they will shut the power down so the job can be completed Tuesday.
Utilities and bureaucrats, don’t you just love them.

[Don Bullock]

...Utilities and bureaucrats, don’t you just love them.

I'm finding that problem with companies, not just government and utilities, that I'm dealing with on my shop/garage build. Often part of the company has no idea what the other part of the company is doing. It seems that in this "information age" that a lot of the information gets lost.

[David G Baker]

I was very fortunate, the utility showed as scheduled, the inspector showed as promised and the electric company was early. My change over went great and I was back up to power in around 5 hours. I had a new outside 200 amp box and meter base added, a new conduit and weather head added, a new 100 amp panel with breakers added in my basement and my old 100 amp box rewired as a sub panel. Never been happier with an upgrade.
Did my own work in California, did the same thing as above and had the same luck with the utility company and the inspector.

[James Jaragosky]

Upgrade completed
Started the job around 10am and got the power back on at 5:30pm, finished the bulk of the work around 3:30. we had to wait an hour on the city inspector and then another for the power company to reenergize the meter base.
Everything works as wired.
The first picture is of house next of mine, my system looked like that before we started(I forgot to get the camera before we removed the original based)
The small panel on the left was the original and the larger one on the right is the second 200amp addition.
I had pre-wired the garage/shop and did all the work on the second panel myself earlier in the week.
The inspector thought that the electrician did the work, and said it looked good. (that made me feel good)
Electrician for a day cost $600 (he supplied the permit, parts and wire)
Meter base $600
Breaker panel $165 with breakers
Total cost less than $1400:)
Now to put the shop together, I'll post pictures when I'm done, right now it’s so messy I’m too embarrassed to show anyone.:o

[Jim O'Dell]

Congrats!! It is not fun to be without power for that long. We did that one day (have the power cut off) while having a tree cut down. But picking the right time (temp?) of the year makes all the difference! Jim.

[Joel Earl]

You got that done nice and cheap. They charge me $3320 to get a power line to me (trenched underground), my electrician charged $1400 to change it out and he was by far the lowest bid to do so, base and 2 new boxes w/ breakers ran me $920. This was the lowest bid by over $1200 too.

That underground was a killer but where I live it's also all woods and outages way to common due to snapped lines. So it's done. Ouch

Congrats on getting yours done!