Home Improvement → The renovation continues ... today new 400 amp service!

From OP:

The area added to the house is currently calculated as 1,800 on to a 3,200 sq ft house

I wouldn't even want to take a guess at the size of that house!

Commercial installations though have single mast with single meter.
It's probably just a "code" thing that we can't have single mast 400A in residential installations in Quebec. Maybe it's a run lenght thing.Must have been rural Japan. I lived in Osaka for a year. While i don't know what we had, I know we could have 3-4 space heaters running at the same time. Hot water was electrical as well.Sometimes it's because of the house's livable sqf that puts it in the 400A requirement, not because there are enough appliances needing it.

I think my cappuccino maker would cause your Japanese home main breaker to trip.

When I was living in Japan, the service in the place I lived was 30 amps @ 100V.

A friend lived in a detached house, her service was also 30 A.

I can't begin to imagine the need for 400A.

Thanks for the pictures though, they were interesting.

Actually that sounds nearly identical. You have 100 amps in business stuff they have 100 amps in power tools. You both have 2 air handlers and electric heat. Thanks for the info I was just curious.

Your parents obviously have different electrical demands than my family. When this home was purchased it had 100 amp service and some large appliances which were acquired for business purposes required an extra 100 amps.

There was no cost increase from the utility for 400 amp conduit, only on my end for the circuit breaker boxes and automatic throw switches. The extra cost was about $2,000 (mostly the 2nd Generac automatic transfer switch). The utility would have run over the air 400 amp service at no cost (but it would have to be to the quadrant of the house nearest the pole, with conduit I'm able to tuck the meter behind the house, closer to the generator.

My home is now entirely heated by electricity (a Geospring for hot water) and by heat pumps (for hot or cool air). Auxiliary heat requires 20KW per air handler (we have 2 air handlers). The electric heater can draw 4,400 watts, if two are installed (which may happen) I'll need 8,800 watts.

Running to my attic are 2 100 amp lines for the air handlers and auxiliary heat. My guess is your parents have a different home configuration.

I was thinking the same thing. I have a 300 amp but that is misleading as the POCO would install that free underground or I could pay to have the existing 200 amp relocated underground. My house is still 200 amp and I take off the meter base with a 100 amp circuit breaker for my garage. All wiring from the POCO is the same as with the 200 amp. In fact it's the same as it was when my service was 100 amp.

I'm curious what one needs 400 amps in a house for? My parents have a 4,000 sq. ft. house with 200 amps then an oversized 4 car garage with half of it being a full woodworking shop and that is only 100 amps.

Interesting, the 400 amp residential installs we usually see in these parts have a twin mast, sealed remote meter box feeding a single 400 amp switch that in turn feeds a bus duct that 2-3 breaker panels come off of, interesting to see how its done in other parts.

The underground conduit length is almost 75' from pole to rear of the meter box. The charge from the utility was $638. Our electrician is backfeeding the old service from the new, but will begin to migrate circuits from the old boxes (we had split 200 amp service to 2 100 amp boxes) to the new stuff over the next few weeks. The goal is to have all circuits powered by the new boxes. Sigh, a lot of interior dry walls are going to need repair.

The house was built in the early 70's had no Tyvek, and the circuits are a mess. The plan is to isolate each room, and provide every room with its own power breaker (20 amp minimum to each room) and lighting (15 amp to each room). This means opening walls inside the house during tracing, and replacing a lot of 15 amp romex with 20 amp. At the same time, a wired security system, extensive Internet infrastructure will also be installed or upgraded.

The electrician will wire the house traditionally, BUT install Insteon devices, each box will have a hot and ground even if its part of a 3 or 4 wire circuit to facilitate Insteon or Z-Wave (where necessary) interfacing. The home automation software is Homeseer (»www.homeseer.com). We estimate 8,000' of Cat 6 will be run, and 3,000' of RG 6. All cameras will be PoE IP. The house is moving to the 21st century.

It took almost 2 hours from start to finish. During install, they determined the neutral was bad coming off the transformer, this affected 4 homes in addition to mine that were shut off for about half an hour.

The utility indicated the transformer primary (feed?) was 8,000 volts. The transformer takes the 8,000 volts down to 240 volts and serves about 5 homes.

It's funny, they go underground for the last 30 feet from the pole to the house?

Either way, woah, no wonder service upgrades cost so much. Look at that team!

My home renovation continues, today was 400 amp underground service install day.

The utility installed shunts, and will pro-rate my service until a meter is installed (in a day to 3 according to the foreman ... it's a different union).

On the first picture in this post, under the meter are a few rows of my cement siding. It is in 10' long by 12" high strips that resemble clapboard. It is a cement / fiberglass / resin siding in blue. The apparent defects are mud, it was raining during install of the siding and some mud got on the siding.

Framing is almost complete, wiring and HVAC are well under way, plumbing has started but is a bit behind.

The area added to the house is currently calculated as 1,800 on to a 3,200 sq ft house. In the front the house will run 85' long and 26' in depth with a 2 story addition in the back. Only the upper portion of the addition will be a 4 season room.

It seems like this project is taking forever, but work is slowly being completed.