Meter socket clearance

[central1ny]

My current electrical meter socket is installed on the side of my house right where the new garage breezeway will be. So my plan is to move the meter socket forward toward the front of the house by about 8 feet. There will be a clearance of 24" between the center of the meter socket and the wall of the breezeway.

Does anyone know of a code pertaining specifically to lateral clearance of meter sockets? I read in other places that 110.26 from the NEC may apply due to workspace clearance. If so, does the 30" requirement apply to lateral workspace? If so, does this mean that I need 15" on either side of the meter socket to be in compliance?

One other question. I have an underground electrical service cable from the pole to my current meter socket. My plan is to have the electric company cut power at the pole. I will then have an expert excavator dig down to a few inches above the cable at which point I will hand dig the rest of the way to avoid any damage to the cable. I will then reroute the cable to the new meter socket location. First, does anyone see any problems with this? Second, if by chance the cable is not long enough to be routed to the the socket location, can anyone recommend splices approved for underground use? Thanks.

 

[mrb]

you need to involve your power company before you start doing anything. typically a service planner will come out and tell you where to put the meter. I highly doubt they would have you do any splicing yourself on the power company owned service lateral.

 

[central1ny]

you need to involve your power company before you start doing anything. typically a service planner will come out and tell you where to put the meter. I highly doubt they would have you do any splicing yourself on the power company owned service lateral.

I dealt with the power company last year and already got approval from the service planner. I will need to go through this process again since the project was delay. The underground service lateral is customer owned.

 

[Stuart in MN]

Meter location is generally regulated by the electric utility. They may have a handbook containing their regulations available on their website, most of them do these days.

 

[Jarcese]

Mass code is 3' of "working space" in all directions, but you're not in ma. The utility should have a pdf file of rules and regulations for electric service on their website, if not they will send you a booklet.

 

[central1ny]

I have the electric specifications document from my service provider but there are not enough details about lateral clearance so I have an email off to them to clarify.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Look at these, esp the first one. Never heard of a customer owned service lateral. You may have paid for it, but I would think they own it.

Charles

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=97178&d=1296188332

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=97177&d=1296188332

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=97176&d=1296188332

 

[Aceman]

We typically use crimped buttsplices with T&B adhesive lined heatshrink for direct burial splices.

Look at these, esp the first one. Never heard of a customer owned service lateral. You may have paid for it, but I would think they own it.

There are a ton of them over here. One of the power companies here has us pull the wire into the pad mount transformer vaults. They land the wires in the transformer though...

 

[Charles (in GA)]

When GA Power spliced the underground feeds to my house (after they burned in two in several places, years old, corrosion I guess) they used a **** splice that was crimped with a device that looked like a cordless drill with a special head on it, then sealed it over with the heat shrink with sealant on the inside.

Charles

 

[central1ny]

When GA Power spliced the underground feeds to my house (after they burned in two in several places, years old, corrosion I guess) they used a **** splice that was crimped with a device that looked like a cordless drill with a special head on it, then sealed it over with the heat shrink with sealant on the inside.

Charles

Thanks for the pictures, very helpful. What book are these out of?

 

[central1ny]

Never heard of a customer owned service lateral. You may have paid for it, but I would think they own it.

Charles

Maybe I used the wrong terminology. Per the electrical specification from the utility, they define the service lateral as "The underground conductors between the utility electric supply system and the service point."

They also say that the customer's responsibility are as follows: "The Customer shall provide the service entrance, in accordance with the Company’s requirements, and all premises wiring on the load side of the service point."

The attached picture shows the installation diagram from the spec, so this leads me to believe that I own the cable between the service point and the meter. I now see that they are referring to this cable as the underground service conductors.

By the way, my utility company is national grid in NY.