How to affix the meter base?

[cholder2454]

Hey all,

I have been a long time lurker out here and am finishing up a remodel of my steel building (went from a 450 sq ft building to a 1700 sq ft building). I have done almost all of the work myself, from the welding to sheet metal and plan to next tackle the electrical. I have a new meter base I need to install and have a couple of questions for you electrically saavy out there.
1. How do I affix it to the building? I was thinking about welding a couple of pieces of unistrut on the inside of the r-panel and running bolts through. Is this correct?
2. How high? I am in Fort Worth area and my electric company said it needs to be approx. 50" above the finished ground. I have a cement floor on the inside, but the back of the ground slopes down into the pasture at the back of my building, so there is currently about a 2' dropoff into the pasture. I plan to later bring in some dirt to create a "ramp" up to the finished floor, but not sure what to do right now as 50" on the inside finished floor is more like 74" on the outside with the dropoff.

And yes, I plan to post all the pics of the build soon. It was quite a bit more work than I thought it would be. Nights and weekends for about 5 months.

 

[James-W]

Where do you live? Around where I live, you need to have a Master Electrician pull the permit and install the meter base, the mast and the mast head. The homeowner isn't allowed to do it. Well, the homeowner can physically do the work, but the permit must be pulled by the Master Electrician and he must sign off on it too. It may be different where you are located, but that's how it is around here.

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

The unistrut on inside of building sounds like a good idea as long as theres a flat surface on the outside to mount it against.
Id make it so you could mount a decent sized piece of plywood over unistrut inside the bulding to mount the service panel to,then you could use an 1 1/2"-2" pipe ****** between the 2 to run your service wire.
Is your service going to be overhead or underground?
Id figure where the finish grade will be and center the meter at about 48" from that point,you can always bring in rock or dirt in just that general area for now so they get an idea of what youre doing.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

These are mounted back to back, but given a different conduit setup, you could easily do something staggered in height.

I used ¾ plywood inside, primed and painted with all edges radiused with a router to prevent cutting into the insulation, and on the outside used galvanized pipe couplings as spacers on to hold the meter/disconnect off the wall away from the ribs. Long ¼-20 bolts with SELF LOCKING nuts on the inside to insure nothing come loose in the meter can area.

Charles

 

[Zeke]

I couldn't find the reference w/o some trouble but to answer your question about height, you may want to stagger your inside and outside panels rather than go back to back. IIRC, the meter base cannot be higher than 72". I would also make sure you have some level ground in front of the base. Nothing like trying to do some service while slipping down the slope in mud.

According to the Mike Holt Forums the POCO serving you is who determines the exact height.

 

[CNGsaves]

If your outside power is being supplied underground (ie buried power), then put in the slip sleeve so any settling of the underground conduit can move.

Neighbor had his buried conduit pulling off the meter base when the underground conduit was settling. This was on a house with masonite siding so meter can was NOT that securely fastened. Not a good thing.

 

[nadogail]

Charles, that is a fine looking installation.

 

[2Big2Ride]

We had to hire an electrician to pull the permit, install the meter box, panel, ground rod (single), wire between the panel and meter box, ground the metal work of the building, and sleeve for the underground feed. ONCOR finished the trench and provided the wire and connection from meter to transformer after the inspection was signed off. Panel was mounted between studs that I framed up for Sheetrock. Meter mount was originally installed with moly-screws through the steel sheeting and insulation - I rigged up a piece of plywood behind the panel and reinstalled the moly screws to be supported by the plywood instead of against the insulation. Had I know better (and in advance) I would have provided something for the meter box like unistrut or plywood. Ridged conduit goes through the wall from meter to panel.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Talk to a POCO engineer and tell them that right now, it might be rather high, but later some dirt will be added to make it "lower" and see if that is alright. In times past, it was important to have the meter at a height that could easily be read by meter readers, anyone from 5 ft tall to 6+ ft, so it could not be too high. If your POCO is using smart meters (most are now), the the height requirement is much less of an issue, since they will likely never need to physically read the meter, and if they do, it will be with a hand held "gun" that reads infrared and probably not be looking at the numbers on the screen.

Charles

 

[toplessHO]

easy enough,put a box on the ground to contain crushed rock
fill with rock up to the level desired to get the height required
later fill around this when you grade out the rest of the area.
you may need to make steps to get to that if POCO says so

 

[rockwithjason]

Hey all,

I have been a long time lurker out here and am finishing up a remodel of my steel building (went from a 450 sq ft building to a 1700 sq ft building). I have done almost all of the work myself, from the welding to sheet metal and plan to next tackle the electrical. I have a new meter base I need to install and have a couple of questions for you electrically saavy out there.
1. How do I affix it to the building? I was thinking about welding a couple of pieces of unistrut on the inside of the r-panel and running bolts through. Is this correct?

the only requirement in the code is that it has to be securely fastened and have adequate working space about it. the strut idea would work. the general test is to grab and shake, it it's secure you are good

2. How high? I am in Fort Worth area and my electric company said it needs to be approx. 50" above the finished ground. I have a cement floor on the inside, but the back of the ground slopes down into the pasture at the back of my building, so there is currently about a 2' dropoff into the pasture. I plan to later bring in some dirt to create a "ramp" up to the finished floor, but not sure what to do right now as 50" on the inside finished floor is more like 74" on the outside with the dropoff.

put the meter where it needs to be when all the work is done. if you need to, make a platform and step to make it 50" from the grade level
And yes, I plan to post all the pics of the build soon. It was quite a bit more work than I thought it would be. Nights and weekends for about 5 months.

reply in red

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

These are mounted back to back, but given a different conduit setup, you could easily do something staggered in height.

I used ¾ plywood inside, primed and painted with all edges radiused with a router to prevent cutting into the insulation, and on the outside used galvanized pipe couplings as spacers on to hold the meter/disconnect off the wall away from the ribs. Long ¼-20 bolts with SELF LOCKING nuts on the inside to insure nothing come loose in the meter can area.

Charles

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

If your outside power is being supplied underground (ie buried power), then put in the slip sleeve so any settling of the underground conduit can move.

Neighbor had his buried conduit pulling off the meter base when the underground conduit was settling. This was on a house with masonite siding so meter can was NOT that securely fastened. Not a good thing.

 

[cholder2454]

Hey Charles, so you ran 1/4 20 bolts through the meter base back, through the coupling, the wall, through your plywood and then into the service panel?

Thanks!

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Hey Charles, so you ran 1/4 20 bolts through the meter base back, through the coupling, the wall, through your plywood and then into the service panel?

Thanks!

No, you can see in the pics where the bolts end, large OD washers and the nuts on the surface of the plywood. The panel is mounted on the unistrut and the two are connected with PVC conduit, also visible in the pic.