Moving electric meter

[central1ny]

I am planning on adding an attached garage to my house with a covered breezeway between the garage and house. The problem is my electric meter is smack dab right where the breezeway is going. So I suppose I have to move the meter. My initial plan is to move the meter toward the front of the house where it will be just in front of the breezeway. Has anyone had experience having a meter moved? My electrical service is underground as well.

 

[Gary S]

Call your local power company. It is their meter and they most likely don't want you messing with it.

 

[wbrian63]

Does the service come up from underground to the meter box? I guess it would have to.

If so, you'll have to relocate the service feed as well. The way that would work down here is you'd have to install the new feed lines first, and get a new meter box positioned.

You'll also have to have the lines that run from the meter to your main fuse panel or the main disconnect relocated as well.

All of this has to happen in a coordinated fashion. As far as I know, you can't (shouldn't) lengthen the service lines that come from the power co to the meter.

A licensed electrician will be required, and permits will have to be pulled, unless you live in the boonies with no building dept oversight. Even then, the power co most likely won't relocated the meter unless a licensed electrician does the work.

All the new stuff needs to be in place first - new meter box, feeds from the box to the mains, lines from the service to the meter box, etc. The lines from the meter to the main disconnect are connected in the meter box, but left unconnected at the main disconnect - if connected, the meter lugs would be live. The lines from the meter to the power co service are also connected in the meter box.

When the power co comes out, they'll disconnect your current service and attach the new wires to the service. Your electrician at the same time will disconnect the existing lines from the old meter at the mains, and will attach the new lines that come from the new meter. Once these connections are made, the new meter can be installed.

It's not easy, and it's not cheap.

Now is a great time to upgrade your service as well if it's older and lower capacity.

 

[central1ny]

Yes the service comes up from underground. We called the power company and told us that we own the line from the pole to the house. I have an electrician coming on Monday as well. The breezeway will be covered so I don't see leaving the meter in the existing location an option. The current path of the underground lines fall right where the foundation for the garage and breezeway will be.

 

[larry_g]

There are a lot of variables here that will probably take the eyes of experts to determine the scope of your work. Is the feed to the meter in the wall or does it come up the side of the building? Are you upgraded to a remote read meter? Power company may not need free access to read it then. What options do you have to design around it and leave it where it is? Also as Brian said is it time to upgrade your service to handle shop work?

lg
no neat sig line

 

[rsanter]

if you can leave the panel where it is it will not be that bad. if you have to move the panel and the meter then you are in for a big job.

make the current panel a sub panel. install a new panel where you want it.
dig un the exsisting underground line and partly pull the wire out of it. cut the conduit and redirect it to the new location. take the remaining portion of conduit from the exsisting panel to where you cut it and add on to it to route it to the new panel as well.
run the incomming power to the new panel and have the power company reinstall the meter in that new panel. run a jumper from the new panel to the exsisting one.

bob

 

[Norcal]

Relocating a meter will have to be done to PoCo specs, and if permits are required one will have to be obtained also. Doing any work on the UG feed to the house is not a DIY job, as there are absolutely no fuses or other overcurrent protection on those conductors.

 

[wbrian63]

In a big city like Houston, work like this requires a permit, which can only be pulled by a person holding a master's license.

It has been my experience that Master Electricians aren't real keen on digging holes. Their skills are better employed in other areas.

I've had good luck asking the electrician if I can "run the shovel" - do any excavating required for the work. Some E's are more fussy than others, and those I've satisfied by providing a signed document acknowledging that if I don't get the digging done right, I have to pay them to make it right.

In Houston, service leads can be run underground in PVC or in rigid (not EMT) galvanized conduit. PVC has to be 18" deep minimum, galv, if I recall, only requires 6" depth.

If the service is going to run under a foundation, there may be electrical code specifying the type of conduit that can be used, and how it should be buried.

You still might be able to save some serious $ by doing the digging yourself.

As Norcal indicated - PoCo runs this show. Situations like this I've seen have everything in place before the PoCo shows up. In conjunction with the electrician, everything is disconnected and reconnected in the proper order at the proper time. Total down time is probably <1 hour at the cutover point.

We called the power company and told us that we own the line from the pole to the house.

This is typical these days. Used to be the PoCo provided the circuit all the way up to the meter. I found out the hard way things have changed when one of the legs feeding my house (which was direct burial - no conduit except what ran up the outside of the house, if you can believe it) burned out about 15 years ago. I was REAL lucky that the junction box for my circuit from the PoCo is about 3 feet out from the back of my house. It cost me a whopping $200 to have an electrician pull the necessary permits and coordinate with the PoCo to get a new conduit installed with new leads and reconnected. One of my neighbors that ties into this box has a 125' run to the box...

 

[ddawg16]

It might be easier to move the house........

Ok....joking aside.....before you get too far into this...find out how long it will be before your area goes with remote meters.....they are doing it in my area....hence....they don't care where the meter is....

 

[35mastr]

It might be easier to move the house........

Ok....joking aside.....before you get too far into this...find out how long it will be before your area goes with remote meters.....they are doing it in my area....hence....they don't care where the meter is....

Same here. They did mine ealier in the year. Gas and electric are now read by sattelite. No more meter readers in this area.

 

[central1ny]

My meter has been a remote meter for a couple of years now. I could leave the meter where it is now but then it would be sticking up through the floor of the breezeway. This would be weird. I suppose I could build a box around it.

 

[ddawg16]

Then it's a no brainer.....but you can't build a box around it....I believe it has to be exposed and accessible in case the fire dept needs to get to it....in the case of a fire, they almost always go over and pop the meter to kill your power....unless you have an outside breaker box.

 

[ixlr8]

Same here. They did mine ealier in the year. Gas and electric are now read by sattelite. No more meter readers in this area.

Our power company has been talking of going remote reading on our meters for a few years now... unions have been raising a stink and putting up roadblocks. I have been told around here, like others, from the pole to the house I own it and if something happens I get to pay to replace it. But my neighbor is adding a new metered service to her new detached garage... and power company is paying to drop a new line from the pole to her garage. If you upgrade your service, will the power company pay for new line to the new meter?

 

[Stuart in MN]

People always respond in these threads by describing how things are done in their area, but the fact of the matter is there's no way to give a useful answer about what the utility in your area will do. They all have different rules and regulations, and even with the same utility the rules may not be consistent (one of the local utilities I deal with on a regular basis has changed their metering requirements three times already this year.)

In general, the electric meter has to be where it's accessible to the utility without having to go inside. Also, the main disconnect (whether it's a separate fused switch or the main breaker in the panel itself) in most cases is supposed to be as close as possible to the meter - as a result, if your meter is on the outside of the house and the panel is directly inside the building, and you move the meter 20 feet down the side of the house you probably will have to add a main disconnect close to the new location.

As far as upgrading the service, that will also depend on the utility as well as the existing conditions - if the drop from the pole to the house is short they may do it for no cost but then may charge if it's a long distance or if it's underground. And, as far as that goes it's a little unusual for the utility to install a second service to the same residential address; some obviously will do it, but in my experience most will not.

 

[AR15Texan]

Yeah I got some experience moving an electric service. A friend's dad was redoing the siding on his home he wanted to ditch the hanging service from the pole to the side of the house down the side the through the house into his basement where the service panel was located.

We built a temporary service onto a 16' 4x4. He attached a weatherhead the a conduit line down to empty meter box. Then from the box to a service panel. From the service panel to an underground line back to the side of the house to feed through into the basement.

We had to dig a trench to the location of the pole. We then rented a gas power auger and drilled about 6' down into the ground. We then put the pole in the ground and had to run some 3/0 wire bundle through the plastic conduit that was in the trench. We greased the heck out of the cable with Crisco lard to get it through all the bends in the conduit. We then wired and torqued the cable to the service panel. The weatherhead was already wired up by my friend's dad so I don't know what he went through to accomplish that.

Next we had to drive two ground rods into the ground and dig another trench from the service pole to each ground rod. All of the work we did passed inspection the first time out and the only thing that failed the inspection was the work a hired electrician did on the inside at the fuse panel. My buddy's dad redid the electrician's work and it passed on the second inspection. It was quite a job and the permit allows the temporary service for 1 year.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

Hey guys,

On the remote read meters?

That doesn't mean it doesn't have to be accessible and manually readable by the utility. We've got them where I work and we still read every meter by hand at least once a year to make sure the physical index matches up with what the remote readout is sending over the air. Also...the remotes do fail and have to be replaced. Also...at least in the case of a gas meter...the shutoff valve has to be accessible in case of emergencys, like fires.

About a year ago I got called out to a house where a DIYer had built a family room addition on their house between meter reading cycles. One month, the meter is located on a patio behind the house. The next month, it's in the family room with a lamp table over it to sort of hide it.

So, they had 50 psi gas in their house with a regulator that has a built in relief valve ready to vent at any time about 10 feet from a wood stove.

Had to shut off their gas at the street and schedule a crew to move the service.

Phil

 

[35mastr]

Our power company has been talking of going remote reading on our meters for a few years now... unions have been raising a stink and putting up roadblocks. I have been told around here, like others, from the pole to the house I own it and if something happens I get to pay to replace it. But my neighbor is adding a new metered service to her new detached garage... and power company is paying to drop a new line from the pole to her garage. If you upgrade your service, will the power company pay for new line to the new meter?

I am not real sure if they will pay. We have PG&E hear. I would like to upgrade to 200 amps and a new panel one day. So I will need to see what will all be entailed as from the pole to the house goes.

Anyone from this site work for PG&E.

 

[gatchel]

Hey guys,

So, they had 50 psi gas in their house with a regulator that has a built in relief valve ready to vent at any time about 10 feet from a wood stove.

Had to shut off their gas at the street and schedule a crew to move the service.

Phil

Sounds like a good candidate for the Darwin Awards.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

Sounds like a good candidate for the Darwin Awards.

Found the pic I took for the file. Classy!

 

[GarageEnvy]

Here's another "in my area" response but since others have asked about PG&E it might be of some value. I've just had mine moved twice through PG&E. Both were above ground and swing-overs with no addition of length. We have remote reading but the meter still had to be accessible. Step 1 was contact PG&E and get approval for temporary location. The engineer came out and inspected the location along an interior wall of the garage to be removed. Step 2 contact electrician. PG&E had to do the disconnect and reconnect. Electrician did the move. The only problem I had was that the building inspector did not approve of the temporary location because it was inside a building. Here's the joke, it was inside the garage that was being torn down and there were all of 3 studs remaining on the 20' wall and the entire roof had been removed. Solution: electrician calls inspector's boss on his cell phone and gets inspector to back off. Tips from my experience would be contact PoCo (already done), keep it accessible, make sure PoCo, inspector and electrician are all on the same page. For underground PG&E required engineering and the city of course had trench requirements and inspections but I'm sure you were aware of that.