Electrical Service for my new home

[mickfumm]

I have applied to my County planning to replace my old home. I contacted the power company to see how much installing some new high voltage line and transformer to the new house would be, they said $15,000 for 500 feet. That to much money for me. I'm hoping to install a 400 amp panel at the old house and send power to the new house some 500 away. Does anyone have experience with this. ? Maybe transformer with smaller wire? I'm just trying to save myself $10k

[mickfumm]

I have applied to my County planning to replace my old home. I contacted the power company to see how much installing some new high voltage line and transformer to the new house would be, they said $15,000 for 500 feet. That to much money for me. I'm hoping to install a 400 amp panel at the old house and send power to the new house some 500 away. Does anyone have experience with this. ? Maybe transformer with smaller wire? I'm just trying to save myself $10k

[gfretwell]

You can go back a couple weeks and read about the guy who wanted a 1HP aerator about that far away and see all of the voltage drop issues but that is the real limiting factor. If you are willing to have a lot of money in wire and dig a 500' ditch, it is doable but it may not be the best answer.

[Bob]

Sweet Jesus! WTF do you need 400 amp service for?

(My average electric load is 2000 watts or ~8 amps.)

[taxed and spent]

Well, if you want to size your service for your AVERAGE load, you will need training from Eva Gabor.

[gfretwell]

He wants to serve 2 houses from that panel.

I am also guessing you have natural gas or some other energy source coming into the house. Lots of us only have electric for everything.

[Jerry.Tan]

If the house is that far away, I assume you are on a rural property. Generally, farms and rural places have a METER POLE. Meaning the meter is on the pole with the transformer, or a nearby pole. On that pole there is a main disconnect. Then wires run underground or overhead to each building. All wires AFTER the meter are owned and installed by the owner (or his electrician).

This is what you need to do. An electrician will not likely cost that much. You DO NOT likely need a new transformer.

So, put the meter on the pole and a main disconect box, and go from there. Why do you need 400A anyhow? I live on a working farm, I have 3 panels. My house (100A), my garage (100A), and my barn (100A).

I could easily get by on a 60A in the house, and the barn only has a few lights and in winter some livestock tank heaters, so actually a 30A main would be enough. The garage probably needs 100A, but only because I have a large welder in there which I use a couple times a year. But codes require a 100A panel and If I was to build today, I think the house would need a 200A main. But codes dont determine actual usage.

Either way, that is an outrageous price amount for 500ft of wire.

Several years ago, I got a trailer house for guests, and wanted the phone company to run a line to it. (around 150 ft.). They wanted hundreds of dollars, plus they said that their phone line can only connect to ONE building, and I'd need to pay for another phone service. I explained this was not a separate residence, but they said it did not matter. I got some underground wire CAT5, made for this use. Cost me around $50. I put it in the same trench as the water line, and now have phones in BOTH locations on the same line for the cost of $50.

[devnull]

Everyone has choices to make. A homeowner can either spend their money on building insulation or they can give it away to the power company every month.

[gfretwell]

I tripled the insulation in my attic and my spa still pulls 70 amps when the heat kicks on. You don't size your service to the average, you need to size it to the peak.

[quickie]

Only a SPAz is stupid enough to own a SPA. Biggest waste of electricity ever developed.

[clare]

Doesn't work with giabit ethernet though - THAT uses all pairs of Cat5/Cat5e/Cat6 cable.

[Moe DeLoughan]

Have you had an electrician contact the utility for a quote? You may be surprised.

Is that permitted under code or by the utility?

I'd just contact an electrician and request an estimate first.

[gfretwell]

When you start working for my money, you can tell me how to spend it.

[gfretwell]

If this is one parcel the utility will be reluctant to install more than one service.

[devnull]

On 08/04/2015 10:52 AM, [e-mail] wrote: ,

You are obviously a high-roller if you have a 70 amp spa. Clearly you could afford a $15,000 electric service to power it up. Mere pocket change, I suppose!

[gfretwell]

Not really, I have solar panels on the spa and I don't use the heat that often but, like I said, you have to size for when you do.

[gfretwell]

Have you ever run network error logging on a line when ringing current is on the telco line? That is supposed to be the problem. Lost frames followed by retries. .

I am just asking because it was against the BICSI standard and we were contractually obligated to follow them. I do know a lot of the "standards" are overkill.

[philo]

If your old house is being replaced, just have it demolished and the new one put in the same place.

You will not need a new wire run.

[hrhofmann]

Someone posted about using "lightening protectors". Michael Jackson maybe needed lightening protection. For electrical protection against those big sparks in the sky, use "lightning protection".

[Tekkie®]

Uncle Monster posted for all of us...

Not me!