BurtEggley
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2024
- Messages
- 869
PRESENT ELECTRICAL
Good afternoon.
Background: If we stay here, which is to be decided yet, we will want to upgrade the main panel from 100 amps to 200 amps. The present meter and panel is an exterior GE panel from 1979, 125 amp with 100 amp service. The electrical company has a vault on my property in which they upgraded their service to it, and put in new 200 amp connectors, I think they called them stingers, last fall when the house next door upgraded to 200 amps. I am trying to plan ahead if we decide to stay and upgrade our panel.
Based on the work done next door, it is likely that an underground direct burial section (red in the image) of the old side-yard concrete driveway will have to be dug up, cut, and trenched to where I believe existing conduit (yellow) begins, then additional conduit added so it extends all the way from the vault to the house. The amount of conduit work will depend on what size the existing conduit is, where it begins, and where it terminates, assuming it was constructed the same as the house next door. Basically, a trench of unknown length, and cut concrete will be needed depending on the existing conduit we find. I don't recall if the conduit next door was 2 inch, or 1-1/2 inch.
The panel will have to be replaced with the siding off to frame for a new exterior panel because the present one is right where the garage and one bedroom come together. There is no room inside the garage (or bedroom) for it unless I give up my whole workbench area. Nor do I want to give up a car space.
Here is the question: So in thinking thru different work schedules to do all this, if the present 100 amp service wires are long enough at the present panel/meter combo, can the present PANEL be replaced, and pass inspection if it is a 200 amp rated box with a 100 amp main breaker in it, then at a later date the underground be upgraded from 100 amps to 200 amps and the main breaker upsized to 200 amps at that point. That would probably only take an electrical outage of 2 to 3 days for each stage to be done, because neither the trench nor the panel would be waiting for the other to be done. That keeps the number of trades needed down to a minimum on each phase of the work so one trade is not holding up the other trade etc.. It would be a heck of alot simpler to to schedule than the nearly a month it took the GC to cordinate the electrical upgrade next door when they remodeled last fall. The house was without power for about a month while each step had to wait for the previous one to be completed.
Good afternoon.
Background: If we stay here, which is to be decided yet, we will want to upgrade the main panel from 100 amps to 200 amps. The present meter and panel is an exterior GE panel from 1979, 125 amp with 100 amp service. The electrical company has a vault on my property in which they upgraded their service to it, and put in new 200 amp connectors, I think they called them stingers, last fall when the house next door upgraded to 200 amps. I am trying to plan ahead if we decide to stay and upgrade our panel.
Based on the work done next door, it is likely that an underground direct burial section (red in the image) of the old side-yard concrete driveway will have to be dug up, cut, and trenched to where I believe existing conduit (yellow) begins, then additional conduit added so it extends all the way from the vault to the house. The amount of conduit work will depend on what size the existing conduit is, where it begins, and where it terminates, assuming it was constructed the same as the house next door. Basically, a trench of unknown length, and cut concrete will be needed depending on the existing conduit we find. I don't recall if the conduit next door was 2 inch, or 1-1/2 inch.
The panel will have to be replaced with the siding off to frame for a new exterior panel because the present one is right where the garage and one bedroom come together. There is no room inside the garage (or bedroom) for it unless I give up my whole workbench area. Nor do I want to give up a car space.
Here is the question: So in thinking thru different work schedules to do all this, if the present 100 amp service wires are long enough at the present panel/meter combo, can the present PANEL be replaced, and pass inspection if it is a 200 amp rated box with a 100 amp main breaker in it, then at a later date the underground be upgraded from 100 amps to 200 amps and the main breaker upsized to 200 amps at that point. That would probably only take an electrical outage of 2 to 3 days for each stage to be done, because neither the trench nor the panel would be waiting for the other to be done. That keeps the number of trades needed down to a minimum on each phase of the work so one trade is not holding up the other trade etc.. It would be a heck of alot simpler to to schedule than the nearly a month it took the GC to cordinate the electrical upgrade next door when they remodeled last fall. The house was without power for about a month while each step had to wait for the previous one to be completed.