400A resedential service

[Bill]

I upgraded my house from 100A to 200A 5 years ago. I buried 3" conduit from the pole to the house. I was told the 3" would support 400A. At the time I did not have the money to install 400A, so I just thought I could find a 400A panel later. I do not think they make a residential 400A panel, and from what I have seen it uses two 200A panels.

I am still wanting to put 400A service to my house, to try to cut on my electric bill. ($565.00 last month).

In the 3" conduit, do they use 6 wires for the 400A to a two 200A meter pan, or use larger wires to a 400A meter pan?

I probably will get the call an electrician, but I feel as though I can do the install, just wanted some info on how it is done.

Thanks.

[JR Weiss]

Cut your service down to 100 A so you don't use so much. Doubling your capacity won't do ANYTHING to cut your bills!

[RicodJour]

Using less electricity will cut your electric bill. How do you figure spending money to boost your service will cut your electric bill?

R

[Steve Barker DLT]

How is more amps available gonna 'cut your electric bill'?

s

[T. C. Conde]

I haven't seen it with power but I have seen it with water. You are charged a regular monthly fee which varies with the size of your meter, plus usage. Here in California, where residential fire sprinklers are a way of life, the days of the cheapo 5/8" meter are gone. I have had to go to a 1" inch and occasionally even a 2" meter to meet the demands of the fire gods. And that

2" meter has a healthy monthly price tag before counting any usage at all. Tim

[M. L. Dent]

Don't understand how increasing service size could reduce power bill. I have had a 400A. bifurcated service for 14 years. This is due to possible requirements of geothermal system back-up. The back-up has only been used once in the period but without the 400A. service, it wouldn't have been possible to have heat on the lower level when the compressor failed.

[Erik Dillenkofer]

Save your money. Increasing the size of your service only increases the amount of power available to consume, it doesn't decrease the amount you do consume. You are billed on KWH consumption ... period. Decrease your consumption and your bill will decrease. A better use for that money would be to upgrade your A/C system to a more energy efficient system ... like 16 SEER. Assuming your existing A/C system is old, that upgrade will decrease your bill significantly (I upgraded from 9 SEER to 15 SEER and achieved almost a 30% reduction in my summer electric bills). There are several other very low cost ways to decrease your consumption significantly ... like turning off lights when you leave a room, turning off the TV when no one is watching, adjusting the thermostat up in the summer and down in the winter, turning off the computer when it's not being used, fixing duct leaks in the A/C system, weatherstripping to repair air leakage, etc, etc, etc.

Call your power company and see if they offer a free energy survey, they'll tell you what you can do to decrease your consumption (and may find the cause for the high bills ... like a stuck water heater thermostat which causes the water heater to stay on continuously).

And yes, if you're wondering, I do work for a very large power company in the southeast US. Seeing that your with BellSouth it could very well be the one that supplies your power (and we do offer free energy surveys to residential customers).

[Bill]

A/C is another story. I have two, a 3ton (10 years old), and a 4ton (five years old). I looked at replacing them, and that is on my todo list.

Not so much when the A/C kicks on, but when my well pump kicks on, my lights dim.

I wanted the second panel to balance my load requirements.

Pump was wired for 110, and it draws 12A. Hook it up to 220, and it drops to

5A.

Less Amperage is less draw on my spinning meter. That is where I was going with my question about going to 400A.

As far as lights being left on, my kids think they need to test them all at once. I have replaced almost all with the fluorescent type of bulb. With nine living here, there is always someone leaving something on.

[Stan Brown]

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 20:57:34 -0400 from Bill :

How will increasing to 400-amp service cut your electric bill? You pay by the kilowatt hour, don't you?

[dpb]

It won't (as you know, OP doesn't understand)...

If you read the rest of the post, he's under the delusion that converting his well pump to 220V from 110V will, by cutting amperage, halve is bill for it... :(

--

[RicodJour]

So, essentially what you're saying is use more pay more, whether it's water or electricity.

R

[ransley]

400a , what are you going to run, you wont save anything upsizing. You need to do an energy audit and quit wasting electricity. Put your money into saving electricity, Cfls, new apliances, more efficent AC, etc etc etc. i can run large a house with AC for 35-150 a month.

[JR Weiss]

At what temp do you set the A/C thermostat? You can set it as high as 80F and still be comfortable when the A/C reduces the humidity. When I lived in south TX, I used 82-84 in the hottest part of the summer.

Nope. The meter counts Watts, not Amps. 110V x 12A == 220V x 6A == 1320Watts.

Your pump draws the same power (Watts) regardless of voltage, if it is pumping the same amount of water, as long as the voltage is at the minimum spec. measuring error may account for the slight difference you see in the current pump usage.

You could use motion sensor switches in some rooms that automatically turn on the lights when someone's there, and off again when they leave. However, many are not compatible with fluorescent lights, so check compatibility.

[Matt Whiting]

No, he said that you pay more to simply have the capacity to use more. :-)

Matt

[Matt Whiting]

The meter measures power, not current. It doesn't matter whether you draw 12A @ 110V or 6A @ 220V (your 5A at 220 isn't correct), you will pay the same price.

Matt

[Erik Dillenkofer]

Exactly.

Watts = Volts X Amps

120 V X 10 A = 1200 watts 240 V X 5 A = 1200 watts

And the power company bills for kilowatthours ... 1000 watts consumed for one hour = 1 kwh

That why the electric meter is called a "watthour" meter.

Here's a scenario maybe even the OP will understand. Suppose a car gets 15 MPG and has a 20 gallon gas tank. Will replacing the 20 gallon tank with a

40 gallon tank reduce what the driver spends on fuel each week? No - because the car still gets 15 MPG. That's exactly what he's proposing by upgrading the service to 400 amps ... it won't make ANY difference on the monthly bill.

[PeterD]

Why would a 400A service cut your bill?

Your post says otherwise. Contact an compentent and respected electrican and get some advise.

[Tekkie®]

Bill posted for all of us...

Huh???? How do you explain this?

[Tekkie®]

Steve Barker DLT posted for all of us...

Hey Barker what does DLT mean?

[Bill]

That is why I asked here. Not the answers I thought I would get.

Is there any reason why 400A is better than 200A, or not?