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That's right YOUTUBE and buy a book electricity is easy,
Read this book you will totally get electricity . You think these electricians are all some kind of Einsteins smarter then you ?
You are adults, don't touch the hot wires, it hurts. Read that book so you get how AC works and much more. Play around a little , wear your safety glasses and make some sparks its fun. See how thick a strip of tin foil you can pop with 200 amps lol , POP !!! See if you can get a sustained arc.
"millennials" spent their who life buried in their cell phones never experimented with the electricity growing up LOL
I'm not sure if you are trolling or not but you are very wrong about your assumptions. Electric work is very dangerous and even a DYIer such as myself would never tackle a project such as a panel upgrade. You need permits for this task, need to turn off the electric coming into the house and upgrade the wires coming into the house to a much thicker grade. It's one thing to run a wire for a new outlet, change or upgrade an outlet, change a breaker, put up a light or ceiling fan, install a transfer switch or any other simple electrical task. But a Panel Upgrade is very complicated and dangerous. Any person with limited electrical knowledge that tackles this project is a fool with a death with.
need to turn off the electric coming into the house and upgrade the wires coming into the house to a much thicker grade.
I know and so would anyone else that read an electrical book, you would have to clip that security tag on the meter IF the incoming wires from the meter were not already large enough. Does the power company get involved with checking for permits or do they just turn things on and off ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jam327
I met Dave Hare from Twin Electric. He told me that I needed to upgrade my electrical panel to be approved for a home equity loan. He charged me $2300 for the upgrade. He was done in 4 hours
This is why people need to read and watch instructional videos, if they did they at least could ask why they did not upgrade the feed coming into the house. If that house was 125 years old it may have still had the old school knife switch before the main panel.
i would take the panel upgrade to mean a larger service , but we really don't know what the op meant by it . perhaps he is just replacing an older panel or removing an old federal panel and not up sizing the service .
i don't recommend anyone do it themselves in any case but it may be a lot simpler job if it is just a panel swap .
I just read this entire thread, and you sir, are an idiot. There are not enough adjectives to fully illustrate your idiocy.
First of all, you recommended a book on electronics as an electrical guide.
As to your comment above: Typical panel is 125 to 150 amps. The wire on the pole may or may not be enough to support 200 - either way LIPA will change it out after the fact. They really don't care if a homeowner does his or her own service upgrade....just CYA and tell them you plan on cutting the lock (and let them know when you're done so they can put it back) - this will avoid any tampering/stealing power accusations. So, yes, you could cut the tag.
From there, it's all uphill...This is NOT a job you can "learn on Youtube".
The wires that run from the overhead drop into the meter are a homeowner's responsibility. Bigger wire = bigger pipe...all of that needs to be changed. Not to mention the meter pan. You need to cut the wires clear at the weather-head, one at a time The entire job is done dead once it's cut clear. You do need to connect a temporary outlet to the power feed - you'll be splicing into live 110V while another live 110V line hangs dangerously nearby (110V alone can kill you but is safer to work with...two separate 110V lines on different phase angles will eff you up if you touch them at the same time) Then all you need to do is remove the old conduit, remove the old wire, remove the pan, disconnect every circuit breaker in your panel, disconnect doorbell transformer (may as well change it), route every cable out of your panel, (usually) install a new, larger piece of plywood on the wall for the new, larger panel box, run pipe from the pole to the meter pan and then small pipe & condulet into the house to the panel, pull the new cables into the pipe, to the pan, and out to the panel (this is NOT easy if you've never done it before), install your panel, get every single one of your circuits into the panel (some of the wires may be too short and will thus have to be modified - go ahead and Youtube or Siri that), install your circuit breakers, reconnect your door bell transformer, run a #4 wire to your water main, clamp it on each side of the main (street, house), ask Siri how much torque you should apply to achieve a proper ground without piercing your water main, take a sledge hammer and slam an 8' copper rod into the ground, run another # 4 wire to that and clamp it, mount your ground terminal connector for your cable/phone company, tighten everything up, make sure the main breaker is switched off and the meter is removed, then climb up your 24' (or more) fiberglass extension ladder that you just happen to have in your garage (YouTube may tell you that using aluminum ladders is OK...go for it!), now you have to strip and splice 2 hots and one neutral line while standing on the ladder 20-30' in the air. Ask Siri how to insulate your razor knife and channel locks. Once all that's done, slap in the meter and pray you did everything right. You'll find out soon enough.
This entire process should take a novice about 16 hours if he's lucky. Bear in mind that there will be no power in your house during this time. So, you might want to make sure your fridge is empty, and get the wife and kids out...if, after 16 hours you realize you've done something wrong, ask Siri to recommend an electrician with the lowest emergency rates possible. Might want to inquire about divorce attorneys while you're at it. You will have spent close to $1000 on materials by this point, more than likely you'll have to pay an electrician premium time to fix what you messed up, all of your food will be spoiled, your wife will be fuming, and you can go to sleep at night knowing how brilliant it is to ask for electrical advice on CityData.
Piece of cake.
Lol!! No big deal right? Thanks for taking the time to type that all out.
I just read this entire thread, and you sir, are an idiot. There are not enough adjectives to fully illustrate your idiocy.
First of all, you recommended a book on electronics as an electrical guide.
Electricity is electricity and it obeys the exact same laws of physics no matter what you do with it and to do electronics you have to actually understand it and know a hell of alot more then just the basics and memorizing building codes to do simple home wiring.
Your whole post was fear mongering but my favorite was "Bear in mind that there will be no power in your house during this time. So, you might want to make sure your fridge is empty, and get the wife and kids out"
And what if it snows and you don't have milk !!!? Its gooing tooo snoooww and we got no milk were all going to die !!! get the wife and kids out.
Anyway call me old fashioned but I think part of being a dude is being able to fix cars , do carpentry, plumbing and wiring. If you can do a fair trade ie work your own job for 8 hours to earn enough money to get someone else to work for you for 8 hours or at least an 8:4 ratio go for it, otherwise DIY.
I understand electricity all to well . I just retired after 42 years in the business. I still work one day a week in retirement teaching motor controls and variable frequency drives
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