Electrician and Electrical Sign Off (Lewiston, Auburn: house, construction, inspections)

[andrew89]

Looking for any assistance or recommendations for this fun building issue with connecting to the grid and the hoops for electrical work. This would be in Penobscot county near Dexter.

We intend to build our workshop first to be able to use it to build the main house and the state master electrician explained and regulations only allow a home owner to do “single family wiring” for a home they intend to live in, because it’s not our single family home that we are wiring first and it’s a separate building in our approved land use permit this caused an issue. Basically we would need a master electrician to sign off on our work if we did it ourselves.

The quotes for the electricians to do it without us doing the work are from $4k up to $9k if we went with an underground run. The run overhead at max is probably 30 to 40 feet. Looking at a installing a 200 amp service, meter box, and panel in the workshop and then we intend to run the 100 amp sub panel in the house when we build it later on. To do it ourselves priced out would probably be about $2k max for materials for the main 200 amp connection (not including the sub panel) and any inspection fees see note below.

My father in law and I are building and he has been in construction since he was 16 in his 60s now but down in the Lewiston/ Auburn area so he doesn’t know an electrician up that way and my dad was an electrician in NY and I helped him on various projects throughout the years. So it’s not like we don’t know what we are doing and I don’t mind paying out a little for the electrician to come and do the required sign off/ inspections.

Seems silly I as a “home owner” can wire an entire single family house in Maine which has way more rules but can’t wire an out building.

Any recommendations on what we should do?

Thanks!
Andy

[MrRational]

Originally Posted by andrew89

...it’s a separate (non-resi) building
Any recommendations on what we should do?

Don't fight the wheel: hire a licensed electrician to do the shop.
Plan to run the incoming feed underground.

You can design the job, limit the scope, to the bare minimum required to get power.
Feed, Meter, Panel, a few lights and receptacles. Inspect. Pay the bill. Done.
What happens in there next year is another story.

Plan to run a (4w) sub-feed (also underground) from this building to the home site.
Lay out for that.