# Residential service dilema



## sparkysteve (Jan 23, 2007)

I'm doing a service upgrade on a house. The existing service was on the side of the house, until sometime, someone built an attatched garage that put that service in said garage. The homeowner just bought the house and the PoCo came to turn on power and didn't like his current service location. The panel is pretty loaded and due for an upgrade. What do you guys think will be the ceapest way to do this? I plan to put a new 200A overhead service on the opposite side of the garage (the wall that's now the side of the house and closer to the pole). He also wants generator hook-up capability. I was thinking about setting a 2-pole breaker enclosure in the garage back to back with the meter socket (which are free from the PoCo). Then running SER throuth the garage trusses and down to the current panel locaton in the basement adjacent to the garage wall, and setting a new 200A main-lug panel. I usualy use SquareD deadfront mounted retention kits for generator hook-ups, but that won't work in a main lug panel or the breaker enclosure in the garage. I could get a double throw disconnect and put it outside next to the the meter but they are pretty expensive. Would that eliminate the need for the main breaker? That would be nice because the garage wall has a bunch of cabinets on it. I could get a NEMA 3R meter-main (not free from PoCo). I'd like to do this as cheap as possible. I could also just use a main-breaker panel and still use the retention kit. Any Ideas or suggestions would be great.


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## JohnJ0906 (Jan 22, 2007)

Use the main breaker panel and retention kit.
I don't see a problem with a main disconnect ahead of a main breaker panel (except cost)


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## sparkysteve (Jan 23, 2007)

That's the option I'm leaning towards. Double throw disconnects are big money.
2-200A 2 pole breakers are probably cheaper anyway.


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## wirenut1110 (Feb 12, 2008)

Without reading alot of the posts, Generac makes a Genready panel, it's a Seimens 200 amp load center that can be pre-wired for a generator. They have a basic and advanced. Depends on what your customer wants to be generator ready but there are so many options available. Your situation to me, I would put a 200 amp SE auto transfer switch( which would become the "service") feed the load center as a sub and any future generator would just be run right there at the transfer switch. PS the basic is just the panel suitable for the operators, the advanced comes with the operators.


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