200 ~ 400A upgrade & meter (Hampton: appliances, how much, townhouse)

[BeefPile]

Hey...

I need more power. 200A is in the house now.
Have a 100A sub panel to the garage. The 100A
will not be enough to power new machines coming in.

PSEG has to do the inspection.

Would anyone have an idea of cost?
Wiring would have to get changed for the amperage increase.
A new meter is coming in also.

Does anyone have a second meter & separate bill?
What are the basic charges (est).

How much am I looking to pay the POCO for this upgrade,
whatever they have to do for electrician to do the rest?

Any surprise costs? Like win the lottery charge?

Thanks

Beef

[deeken]

Are you turning your garage into a commercial shop? Normal people don't need this sort of voltage. Your neighbors must love you.

[markjames68]

You’ll need to win the lottery to afford the PSEGLI bill for sure.

[BeefPile]

Ok then,

How much am I looking to pay the POCO for this upgrade,
whatever they have to do for electrician to do the rest?

Pile

[markjames68]

Originally Posted by BeefPile

Ok then,

How much am I looking to pay the POCO for this upgrade,
whatever they have to do for electrician to do the rest?

Pile

I'd think the simplest solution is to call them? I can't imagine PSEGLI's up front costs will be much, assuming they have the necessary capacity to provide to your residence.

[nuts2uiam]

Originally Posted by deeken

Are you turning your garage into a commercial shop? Normal people don't need this sort of voltage. Your neighbors must love you.

That might be your larger battle. If you are doing business in a residential area not zoned for commercial and your neighbors find out, they may turn you in and they will be the least of you problems. Then you will have spent all that money and not be able to use the equipment and you may be forced to open your home to inspectors and that could be a large black hole.

[Interlude]

My mother has electric heat (townhouse built for snowbirds) and she’s maxing out a 200A panel, especially since there are about 100 light bulbs in there, all incandescent, coupled with auxiliary baseboard heating, an electric range, and two electric ovens. Gas or oil are not an option in her complex.

Some of the larger estates on the north shore and the Hamptons are rocking 600 or 800 amps to power things like pool heaters, multiple refrigerators, wine cellars, restaurant-scale kitchen appliances, lots of outdoor lighting, etc.

Throw a few power hungry pieces of shop equipment in the garage for personal use (check out the amperage requirements of a milling machine) and you can easily exceed 200A. Certain machinery also does better with three phase power so even if you don’t need the raw amperage you might need the third hot leg just for the phase.

As to cost i have no idea. It’s my understanding that the electric company will require some kind of justification for dropping a third leg to your house - it’s not something you can just call and request. If you just need more amperage and don’t need the third phase they still may want to drop higher gauge wires. Or they might not care and just let you burn them up...we switched from 150 to 200 in our old house and they didn’t say boo.

[BeefPile]

Nuts & Deeken

Just STOP, why am I being counter questioned?

I did not state anything about being commercial nor operating a business.
Stop jumping to conclusions and opening cans of worms to make this post
go bat dung.

If it doesn't relate to you or you don't have the answer move on.

If this were a game show, Mark wins. Thats the simplest answer
so far. If anyone has the experience doing this, maybe they give
me an idea as to how much I would be looking towards spending.
Plain & simple. Don't complicate matters.

BP

[BeefPile]

THANK YOU INTERLUDE !!


Say it ain't so that some machine require the extra.
Unfortunately, I do not have 3ph machines and that a
couple need to run same time which can go overboard.
Having big toys doesnt mean they're for comm/business, ya dig?
Compressors can start at any moment, not good when others
are running.

Originally Posted by Interlude

...
Throw a few power hungry pieces of shop equipment in the garage for personal use (check out the amperage requirements of a milling machine) and you can easily exceed 200A. Certain machinery also does better with three phase power so even if you don’t need the raw amperage you might need the third hot leg just for the phase.

As to cost i have no idea. It’s my understanding that the electric company will require some kind of justification for dropping a third leg to your house - it’s not something you can just call and request. If you just need more amperage and don’t need the third phase they still may want to drop higher gauge wires. Or they might not care and just let you burn them up...we switched from 150 to 200 in our old house and they didn’t say boo.

If I were hamptons I would ask about 1600A

[mathjak107]

good luck ever getting a 3phase service in a private home .