New Service Dilemma

[richardwilken282]

Hello All,
I've been following for almost a year and enjoy watching everyone's dreams progress. Took me almost a year and a few thousand to finally get a permit for my shop in northern Illinois and got it up last month finally.
Here is the crossroads I am at....I have ComEd electric. I am debating on running a new service to the shop with a separate meter and leaving the house on its own. That would be the easiest. The existing service for the house is 100A and comes from the northwest corner of my 1 acre yard, overhead to a private pole, and then overhead to my house to the meter. I have a 5 bed 4 bath house. My breaker panel in my basement is almost full, so no room in it to run the shop, nor the capacity I want.
Option 2: Install new 200A service from a pole behind the shop to the shop, becoming the main, and pull a tap (200A preferably) from that service all the way to the house and make the house a subpanel from the shop, hopefully having 200A capability, but not having to upgrade house panel...yet. Can I pull off the exterior of the new underground service where it comes in to my shop, after the meter of course, and run to the house off of that? Like a side tap panel??
If I can do that I would like to wire the shop to accept solar (nice big open roof) and for a standby generator, and on the service side of the house, I would like an exterior service that would allow me a few things (1. We would like to put a sunroom off the patio doors on the rear of the house so would need wiring for that. 2. Plan to redo the rear patio on the home and want a hot tub, so it would be nice to hook it up from a disconnect right outside).
The solar really only makes sense on the shop if I can tie the house and shop together on the same service, otherwise there isn't enough draw on the shop for the solar.

Any thoughts? Thank You

 

[richardwilken282]

Two more pics

 

[TonyJ]

Personally I think I would just have 200amp put in at both the house and shop that way you would have less chances of voltage drops at the house if and when you have high loads at the shop. Around here there isn’t any difference in power costs between having a 100amp service vs a 200amp service. I think I would have the house breaker box upgraded by the time the shop power was ready to be installed and just have both done at the same time.

 

[sberry]

I just put a new 200 for a neighbor, put it on the garage and will feed a new house. It can be fed from a breaker or the feed thru. It's got another panel in the garage, breaker to it. This is a good setup, gives control over everything and never need to interim the poco.
Put in a new service to the garage, after that is done feed the house, set it up for a change over, have the poco come back and disconnect the house.

 

[bamawildcat]

You need to check with ComEd and see what the separate metering charges are. Some POCOs have a minimum. If you have to pay a minimum of $20/mo for power to the outbuilding, but in reality are using $3 worth of electricity, the math may not line up.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

I would not run unfused wire off a meter to the house. No way to clear a fault. The cutouts on the transformer will not open.

Also, if you did a tap right off the meter for the house, then there would be no way to have a standby generator power the house.

Since you want to add a generator and solar, things get a bit more complicated here.

But all of this shouldve been worked out before you built the shop....

 

[Norcal]

Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance Those are the 7 P’s to remember.

 

[nadogail]

IMHO. You might want to request a proposal from a professional electrical contractor. You may not want to go with that proposal, but you will then have a reference price to work from.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance Those are the 7 P’s to remember.

The OP put the cart before the horse....

 

[Norcal]

A 200A meter main with feed through lugs might be one way to power the shop, the feeder to the house panel will have to be upgraded to 4-wire, but if it is in a metallic conduit all the way to the panel it would be easy to accomplish, and the neutrals and grounding conductors would have to be separated. That being done would be a easy way to power the shop. Another way is a meter can with 2-100A breakers, but that one is not preferred in my book.

 

[Tduby]

I like your idea of making the house a sub panel and removing the line. You save your monthly charges for having 2 meters and clean up the yard. If you really need 200 in the house and shop I doubt you do but do an honest load calculation you could always go 320/400 amp service in the garage then feed the house with 150 am breaker which is still higher than your current 100 that I assume hasn’t tripped. Going the 320/400 route will probably cost you $500 more in materials and give you enough spaces and capacity in your garage for almost anything.