Relocating meter and breaker panel...?

[Fabrik8]

So help me along here.. How stupid of an idea would it be to move the main meter and possibly breaker panel that are both on the back side of my house?

We're debating whether to do a breezeway-attached garage (which is just a detached garage with a breezeway to meet the rules for attached garages) or a proper attached garage that would nestle into a pre-existing big notch in the back of the house house like a Tetris block.

For the Tetris block concept, the meter would then be inside the garage, which is legally frowned upon. So that would need to be moved, even if the breaker panel were to stay in the same place. The meter would move toward the buried pole drop, so likely the buried run would already be plenty long for relocation.
If we do a breezeway, the meter and breaker panel would be roughly underneath the breezeway, plus or minus a few feet. Nothing electrical would need to change, and I assume we'd just need a sub panel for the garage and something buried between the two buildings..

We're going to get new siding and new windows at some point, so the Tetris block concept would remove the cost of one mudroom door (never used), one sliding door, and one 72 inch tall window, and whatever cost of siding would be overlapping between the two buildings. All of those things are along the sides of the big notch. We'd have to remove the small back deck by our current parking area, as the garage would enter right into the kitchen door with a short set of steps.

Good idea? Bad idea? Stupid idea? Move meter to outside of garage?

 

[rockcity]

dont put meter inside.

Moving your panel is going to be a pita and very costly

Your better off finding a better way to install the breezeway

 

[YJJPWrangler]

X2 on @rockcity.

Moving the panel and then lengthening all of the home runs would suck big time.

 

[Blaze]

Call power company and ask them cost to move the meter. Maybe I am wrong, but that is technically their property and they would have to move it. I might be wrong.

But yeah, I'm with what @rockcity and @YJJPWrangler said about the panel. Easiest way would be to add a long junction box/raceway box in the back and run new homeruns to the panel from there. But them you still have a big box on the back of your house.

 

[Fabrik8]

Okay, sounds reasonable. Is it possible to move the meter and leave the panel where it is?

We don't have to move anything if we do the breezeway, only if we slap the garage right against the house instead of doing a breezeway.

 

[YJJPWrangler]

When we build out new meters at work, Duke typically installs anything below meter(i.e the feeder line coming from the pole and yes it is THEIR property, you are just "renting" it). The meter housing and above gets installed by customer/contractor. It might be different for residential though. @Blaze idea for a junction box/raceway is a good thought for lengthening the home runs to the new panel location. Maybe @rockcity can chime in on what should be used per code.

 

[Blaze]

When we build out new meters at work, Duke typically installs anything below meter(i.e the feeder line coming from the pole and yes it is THEIR property, you are just "renting" it). The meter housing and above gets installed by customer/contractor. It might be different for residential though. @Blaze idea for a junction box/raceway is a good thought for lengthening the home runs to the new panel location. Maybe @rockcity can chime in on what should be used per code.

I've seen this done on some of our commercial jobs, but not sure about residential. I'm an air guy, not a sparky.

 

[RatLabGuy]

FYI - my mete is inside, in my basement, right beside the main box, and that has never been a problem. Most of my neighbors are like that too. I personally fail to see any difference where it is as long as it is accessible. I kind of like the fact that I will have to be contacted if they want to come onto my property to do anything.
Our gas meter is also in the basement. Had never seen that before but apparently it happens too.

 

[a_kelley]

If you presently have 100a panel, put a 200a panel in the garage with the 100a being fed from it and relocate the meter...

 

[rockcity]

I'm not really up on Elec code so I can't really comment beyond what has already been said.

@Ron is my go to when I have complicated electrical questions.

 

[ramjo]

Okay, sounds reasonable. Is it possible to move the meter and leave the panel where it is?

You should be able to do that. You will probably have to use meter combo box on the outside which is larger than just the meter base but will have provision for a few more circuits.

 

[Fabrik8]

You will probably have to use meter combo box on the outside which is larger than just the meter base but will have provision for a few more circuits.

What's the explanation for the combo box; Is that required, or is it just a convenient idea because it could house the extra garage circuits, etc? Combining that into the garage subpanel would be cool.

We have a meter box next to the breaker panel at the moment, with a short length of conduit between them. I'm sure it's likely original from 1990, so a lot has changed for code since then.
I'm thinking (from the size of the existing panel) that it's already a 200A panel, but I haven't looked to see what the service capacity actually is.

 

[jyaks]

When we build a house with a garage (new construction) they put a sub panel inside the garage and a meter base outside the house. Did you say you have underground power? You could turn your current meter base into a sub panel and have the meter moved outside but might have to have main underground rerun. If you are already doing a lot of work I don't think having to redo some grass would matter.

 

[Fabrik8]

When we build a house with a garage (new construction) they put a sub panel inside the garage and a meter base outside the house. Did you say you have underground power? You could turn your current meter base into a sub panel and have the meter moved outside but might have to have main underground rerun. If you are already doing a lot of work I don't think having to redo some grass would matter.

That's kind of where my head is at, something along those lines with my limited knowledge of house electrical. It is underground power, yes. It comes from the back of the house, and the meter would move in the same direction as the buried cables are run, so that may be very simple. I'm trying to identify the expensive/impractical constraints that may make one design direction not work.

We have to reroute the driveway, do the garage footings/slab, collapse the septic tank, trench to the street for city sewer, maybe reroute the gas line, etc., so some extra yard excavation for power is nothing at all...

The grass is pretty shitty anyway so we're waiting until after all this is done. I don't care about grass anyway, I'd have a yard made of gravel with a few plants like they do in Palm Springs if I could...

 

[ramjo]

What's the explanation for the combo box; Is that required, or is it just a convenient idea because it could house the extra garage circuits, etc? Combining that into the garage subpanel would be cool.
.

I'm pretty sure it is code for any panel boxes that are not directly connected the meter base now. I moved my panel to an opposite interior wall when I redid the wiring in my house and that's what electrician told me I had to do. Something about the grounding,blah,blah,blah.

 

[Fabrik8]

I'm pretty sure it is code for any panel boxes that are not directly connected the meter base now. I moved my panel to an opposite interior wall when I redid the wiring in my house and that's what electrician told me I had to do. Something about the grounding,blah,blah,blah.

Cool, okay.

I'm still thinking through what I will need versus what I have, so don't know if the service size needs to be upgraded from the pole drop also. That kind of stuff will need to be figured out regardless of how the garage attaches to the house and where the meter goes. I need to take stock of what might live inside the garage, like a welder, compressor, lift, etc., and see where I stand.

We had assumed a separate service would be needed, but that was when we were planning a detached shop. We are now going to do a large 2-car attached. There's a 31 acre development going in about 500 feet away, with 78k sqft grocery store, apartments, stores, gas station, etc., and now we're not sure we're going to live here long term. Soooo everyone wants an attached 2-car garage, not everyone wants a bigass detached shop in their backyard in the middle of a suburb next to a new shopping area. Sigh.

We can always build a smaller detached shop later, if we stay. Won't know for 5 years until the development is finished, and the 430 acres of tract houses down the street are finished, etc.