The owner of the meter, such as the energy company, decides where to place it. They may install it for free, but the rules vary depending on the location. A minimum of 3 feet of unobstructed working space is required in front of all electric and natural gas meters. Waterproofing your electrical panel is essential to prevent tampering.
Metered systems must not be installed inside carports, garages, breezeways, or any part of a structure that may potentially be tampered with. Some houses have the meter on the garage side of the house, while others have the living room behind it. To create a new service directly off the meter box, it is necessary to know whether a particular electrical part is needed.
Per 2020 NEC section 230.70, a service disconnect is required for a building on the exterior of the building or inside nearest the point of entrance. The electric panel door must open to a 90-degree angle. Ideally, a breaker box should be installed in an unfinished basement or garage.
If the meter is electromechanical, it can be outside, but the person reading the meter must gain access to read it. Meter sockets, including CT enclosures, must be located outside, on the front 1/3 of your home closest to normal public access, or in an unfinished basement or garage.
A sub panel can be installed in the shed, which is cheaper and more convenient. The power company can require the meter to be relocated to the exterior for direct access. Electricity meters should not be in the garage unless the supply authority has direct access.
If the exterior disconnect can accommodate a full-size double pole breaker, the sub-panel circuit can be run from there. Is there any issue with the electrical panel being within a foot of the side door leading to the outside of the garage?
📹 How to Run Underground Wiring to a Garage | Ask This Old House
Electrician Scott Caron shows a homeowner how to bring power to a detached garage. #ThisOldHouse #AskTOH SUBSCRIBE to …
Where is the best location for the electric meter?
The optimal placement for an electrical meter and panel is to situate them at a considerable distance from the curb and in close proximity to the main electrical panel, with the panel in a location that is proximate to areas of high electrical demand.
What are the clearance requirements for electrical meter?
The National Electric Safety Code mandates that electric meters have an unobstructed working space that extends from the floor or ground to a minimum height of 6 feet, 6 inches. For equipment mounted higher than 6 feet, this space must extend to the top of the equipment. For underground service laterals, the centerline of all meters should be between 3 and 6 feet from the finished grade. For overhead service drops, the centerline should be between 4 and 6 feet from the finished grade.
A minimum distance of 3 feet of unobstructed working space is required in front of all electric and natural gas meters. A 3-foot separation between natural gas and electric facilities is required. The preferred termination of service laterals is on the outside of a building. Only approved meter-mounting devices and termination equipment are used. Meter locations must be free from excessive moisture, vibrations, and heat.
Are electric meters weatherproof?
An electricity meter box is a secure, waterproof container for electrical equipment. There are various styles available, depending on the homeowner’s preference. Surveyors can discuss the meter box position and any questions. Meter boxes are the responsibility of the home owner. Built-in or flush mounted meter boxes are commonly used for new house builds and fit flush against the outside wall. Surface mounted meter boxes are the easiest to install and can be screwed directly to the property wall.
Where should I put my electric meter?
Your electric meter should be located outside your home, near the power line that enters your home. If you have overhead service, you can see the power lines from the pole to your house. If you don’t see any overhead lines, you have underground service. Meters in multi-unit dwellings are grouped in a meter bank, each labeled with a unit number. Access to the service line and meter is crucial for utility maintenance, and it’s essential to avoid landscaping, building gardens, or fences and remove overgrowth around your electric equipment.
Can you cover an outside electric meter?
A meter box is a crucial part of homes, housing gas and electricity meters. However, they can become an eyesore when they show signs of wear and tear. To cover a meter box, homeowners can use specific products designed for safety considerations, such as a meter overbox. These boxes are typically installed on the exterior of homes and can become damaged or discolored over time. This can affect the aesthetic appeal of the property and lead to safety concerns if the inside of the meter is not adequately protected.
A meter overbox is an ideal solution, designed to fit over the existing meter box, providing additional protection while improving the property’s appearance. However, the covering must not restrict access to the meters or interfere with their operation.
How close can an electric meter be to a window?
The guideline stipulates that meters should not be installed within a distance of 36 inches from a window with a view of living space or restrooms, or within 36 inches of a door.
Can you have an electric meter outside?
Relocating an unsightly electric meter outside your home can be an aesthetic and cost-effective solution for kitchen renovations. However, the electricity distribution company may need to dig up outside your home to reroute the cable. Your electricity supplier can provide guidance on the process. If you’re struggling with meter placement and don’t have the budget for relocation, you may be eligible for free relocation. Fee exemption applies to certain groups of people, such as those with limited funds or those with specific circumstances.
Can electric meter get wet?
Water can enter an electrical panel through various means, including rain, improperly sealed electric meters, and basement walls. The main electric service cable, or service drop, has a hollow space inside, making it a perfect channel for water to enter. Water infiltration can be seen inside the panel or running or dripping out, and corrosion or rust can be found in the bottom of the service panel box or on the electrical terminals or circuit breakers.
Corrosion can cause circuit breaker malfunctions and electrical fires. To address water infiltration, do not touch the breaker box, call a licensed electrician, and move the panel box if it is attached to cement or stone walls. The service drop cable should also be sealed to block further moisture infiltration.
Do electric meters need to be outside?
Your electric meter should be located outside your home, near the power line that enters your home. If you have overhead service, you can see the power lines from the pole to your house. If you don’t see any overhead lines, you have underground service. Meters in multi-unit dwellings are grouped in a meter bank, each labeled with a unit number. Access to the service line and meter is crucial for utility maintenance, and it’s essential to avoid landscaping, building gardens, or fences and remove overgrowth around your electric equipment.
Where is the best place to put the electricity meter?
It is recommended that a meter box be placed on the external side of a wall, accessible from the front of the property, and unlikely to be damaged. It is inadvisable to situate the meter box in such a way that it opens directly onto a footpath or right of way. Furthermore, it is preferable for the meter box to be located adjacent to, but not above or below, the gas meter box.
Why is the electric meter located at outside of the house?
For reasons of convenience and safety, the energy meter should be installed outside the house and protected from the elements, as well as from fire, smoke, and other potential hazards. It should also be securely mounted.
📹 Meter Base Installation In 14 Minutes! FAST And EASY!
In this video I show you how I did my meter base installation that is fast and easy! This is a service entrance installation for for my …
Code or no code, running wiring under ground should ALWAYS be in conduit. It’s very possible, I’d say highly likely, to keep going past the sand and caution tape without seeing them because they’re soft, easily cut with a shovel, and provide zero resistance…… that shovel can still go right through the electrical line with no problems if someone is digging through without looking. Conduit will provide certain, immediate feedback that something is down there even if you don’t see it.
All that work for a single circuit but i’m sure the customer like in most cases wanted to take the cheap way out and do the bare minimum. I always recommend running at least a 30 amp feeder to a garage. People always overload a single circuit in a garage. They start putting extra freezers and fridges in the garage and in the winter run an electric space heater. Then you have all the power tools people use. If you are going to dig up the ground like that might as well spend a little more now then a lot more later. Yeah its’ about $150 more for 10-3 vs 12-3 for about $50-$60 for 100 feet but the same labor.
I hired an electrician to run an outlet 35 feet from outside breaker box to a hottub. Used a GFCI breaker and that PVC wire laid in the trench. Not only did he do a terrible job, (I had to show him how to tin wire to put an outlet together, provided my tools so he could get the job done, and dug 3/4 of the trench because he was going so slow), but 2 months later, I’m ripping the wire back out of the ground because it seems moles have opened that waterproof protective covering. Glad I didn’t dump a load of concrete on top of it! Yes, I told him there were moles in the area and he said “They may think the wire is a root”. but did nothing about it. Once again shows me most contractors are worthless since I have to go back and fix what they screw up 99% of the time. I’m always relearning that lesson. Do it myself so it’s done right.
I would continue to use PVC pipe going out to the garage with the wire threaded into the pipe to protect it even that much more. I’ve done it before, threaded the wire into the pipe, and ran the wire out to the junction box into the garage, first, then ran the wire into the breaker box and connect up the breaker in the breaker box. I’m also kinda funny about marking my lines with a black magic marker so they are marked from beginning to end so you KNOW which line is which, and eliminates confusion as well as marking the breaker inside tag so you KNOW how to kill the power if you need to to do further electrical work inside the garage, or to change things that might needing changed or rearranged for the future.
I love how everyone in the comments thinks they are contractors. If you are a contractor why are you perusal this “how to” article for homeowners? Nothing wrong with what this guy did. I do think it was silly to waste money on sand vs. just using conduit, but for the average homeowner this will work just fine. Give the guy a break.
For a short run I wouldn’t sweat it… just dig the trench and direct burry. OTOH, with electric cars being more popular by the day, I’m thinking to go with at least #6 wire in conduit so you could eventually add a 50 amp circuit to charge your Tesla, Leaf, Volt, etc. That way you’d still have enough capacity to do more than a single 120 volt circuit for other things. Heck, bring the #6 into a small panel and leave that in the garage for future growth. The extra parts probably wouldn’t cost more than $200 and you’d be ready for anything down the road.
Hi there. Such different wiring in USA! I generally run a 6mm minimum cable to a garage (depending on distance). All that work, you might as well allow for things like garage conversions to a flat etc. Great trenching. Thats good. We in (australasia) mostly use a conduit for protection in the trench. Good you use an RCB at the switchboard. Quite interesting to watch the fact you use bare earth cables. We stopped that in late 1960! Please note that a test of installation should be required (loop impedence, insulation, earthing etc) perhaps your rules are different?? Perhaps DIY jobs dont need these tests in the US? Great article, i love perusal this website.
I’m an expurt electricalition and I would’ve used overhead wiring. Chunk of 12 gauge romex from the 2nd floor of the house to the garage roof, giant staples and bent nails on each end to secure it. Drill holes? BS…just run it through a door or window and slam the door closed on it. It’ll be fine. Spending all this money for nothin.
Sad he calls himself a electrician . For one water will corrode the wire overtime, he should of dug 24″ trench and ran pvc into the ground . Second any type of romex is not suitable for a garage anymore, you must use either flex, mc cable, or a type of conduit. No need to heat up pvc to fit the offset of the foundation, they sell offset kicks at Home Depot for 1.30$ .
Going through all that work and expense of renting a trencher and not putting PVC conduit in the ground instead of cable is insane. Great care must be exercised when back filling using cable. Rocks and debris’s can easily “nick” the cable and once that happens it can be just a matter of time before it fails. Sand should be placed below as well as above the cable to ensure its integrity which is costly and time consuming. PVC pipe is tough you don’t have to be as concerned about it during back filling. Throw it in the trench put clean dirt over it first followed by rocks. As an added benefit you can still work with it in the future if you want to pull in additional wires. There is no time savings running cable and its not easier as a matter of fact it took these guys longer to run cable than it would have to do conduit. By the time you buy and put sand in the trench above and below the cable you could have put PVC conduit in the ground and have a far superior job. You could still pull the UF cable through the conduit if the PVC is sized correctly to do that or XHHW wire could be used which may require transitional wiring to cable. Bottom line folks don’t use UF cable use PVC.
A few discrepancies: not sure about NEC but the CEC requires direct burial cable depth to be 1.5ft deep and a GFCI is not required. GFCI’s are governed by other code rules for outdoor receptacles, etc. Also the sand doesn’t serve as a warning when digging it’s purpose is to ensure the wire is not damaged by any rocks when backfilling.
That’s exactly what I did to my one car garage. I have a 100 amp in my house and then I ran that wire to my garage underground. 18″deep..NOT 12″ deep. The question I have is could have I use 10/3 wire under ground to home to garage And also about that white wire, GCI breaker coming from the main panel.(HOMELINE) Do I need to get that one?? I think he used a 30 amp breaker. Is that OKAY 👍 👌???
Jesus, you rent a trencher to go only 12″ deep and no conduit? Conduit and deeper, if you can. At 18″ – 24″, if people put a garden, flower bed, patio blocks/ concrete pad they won’t hit it. These guys are a bunch of noobs and are creating a future headache/hazard. The only things they did right were the GFCI breaker and calling before they dig.
Why not just take the time to run conduit and do it right? That red tape isn’t protecting anyone from anything. Conduit is a physical barrier. Hell you could have run conduit, ran a larger feed out to the garage (maybe a small sub panel) and he’s covered if he ever wants to throw a fridge, smart car charging station, wood working tools etc out there. You went through all that work for the ability to run a lightbulb, congrats.
What if I can’t go that deep? My brother in law already run water lines and electricity to my garage where my parents live. The problem is that when my mom turns on microwave and minisplit ac it trips the breaker and also a combination of other appliences. The garage has a lot of outlets and I think they are on a 20amp breaker with a 14 gauge romex cable and brother in law also got electricity from the exiating 220 0r 240 outlet in garage to add more stuff. When breaker trips the whole power goes out in garage and also in kitchen of the main house. I think circuit is overloading.I was thinking of adding a 60amp circuit to main box and running a new line to garage and in garage add one of this boxes Eaton Corporation Br816L125Fdp 6 Circuit Main Lug Load Center, 125-Amp??? Also will I need to cancell all existing outlets and start from zero or is there a way to just add the new line to existing outlets in garage??? Thank u
Interesting, codes do vary. Here unprotected wire is buried 12”, but in the article entitled ” NEC Code on underground wiring #3 Z 120 ” the wire is nestled inside a schedule 80 PVC pipe, the TOP of which is 18” below grade ?…….Personally, I would feel much better about putting the wire in PVC and checking with the local code for their required depth.
Did anyone ever consider maybe he only wants 20 amps at his garage? Not everyone uses their garage as a workshop. In his case it looks like it’s a place to park and store extra stuff. I do think PVC conduit and thhn would have been wise, but Scott didn’t violate the NEC. Bitch and moan and claim you’re a “master electrician” all you want, it’s not going to change the way this project was done. End of story.
No conduit and indoor latex caulk on the conduit entry to the home? Bury a riser pipe size conduit at 24″ deep and do it right. A trencher is $230 for 4 hours at Home Depot. You might as well run a usable conduit with a jet line for later use. Especially since you seem to be running individual wires so you can use the breakers on the house panel.
nice article nun wrong but with using direct burial but you can’t upgrade it or replace if need be and I don’t use PVC for the riser .I use EMT or rigid and transition below grade I it use PVC for underground use only me personally as well instead of a half inch I would use a 3/4 or even one inch so if need be u can add more circuitry other then the sand and marking tape very smart old school but smart . lol and the comment of only plumbers say pipe not true . my dad’s been doing for 40 years and me around ten I don’t any more I went in to law enforcement I do it on the side occasionally but we both and many others I’ve heard say pipe or conduit . pipe is pipe only difference is one rated to flow molecules and Ones rated to flow electrons lol but yeah hope I didn’t offend any one just wanted throw out my opinion
Waterproof sheathing let’s you bury the cable? We use that cable for wiring up sockets in the UK. We would never EVER EVER bury it AT ALL. For a job like that I would have chosen 10mm² three core SWA. Burying something like that and then “Protecting” it with sand and some red tape is extremely dangerous.
It didn’t look like you glued the conduit to the LBs. also, it looked like you might have bent the wire pretty sharply as it entered the conduit at the garage. The conduit doesn’t need to go to the bottom of the trench. You mentioned burying 12 inches deep. Be sure to check code and local requirements. Some require 18 inches unless in conduit.
Those saying you would run extra wires to a detached building. You can only run one feeder/circuit to a detached garage as per NEC. Also, although conduit would protect wire from anyone digging and accidental contact underground contact often ends up with water in it over the years from gaskets and seals not being 100% effective. So you end up with wires sitting in water. Also any electrician worth his weight in wire knows pulling through PVC at great lengths offers a lot of friction. In my opinion when done right UF is just fine and save a ton of $ in pvc and labor. Lastly detached building need a disconnect at the building and a ground rod as per NEC which is not shown in this article.
If you are going through all the trenching go with pvc,1″ min and individual conductors,unless you are sure you will only need a plug and light, you could use 1/2 pvc but most of my customers end up saying I wish I went with a bigger pipe, there is very little cost difference between 1/2 and 1″ pvc the expansion joints are a bit more but overall it’s not a whole lot more
when I ran electric wire and a water line 200 ft to my garage/workshop it was buried 30″ deep. I used 2 0 wire so I could have a 100 amp breaker in the garage and the wire was run in conduit big enough for future wiring if needed, also ran a small rope in the conduit to pull future wires if needed. ran the water piping in conduit due to the rocky soil. it was a beast of a job.
Frankly I expect a bit more from TOH. For a better job put it in conduit. You have already done most the work and adding conduit would have been simple. Also a much more professional job of bending the conduit could have been done with the siding and “white caulk” against a yellow house? Could have easily gotten 100 percent silicone to match at any tile store. Flunk!!
What happens if in a couple of years the homeowner wants to get a charger for an electric vehicle and needs to run 6 awg wires? What happens if they want to run cable or other low voltage lines there for a camera or security systems? They would have to dig another ditch, and now since your existing line is there, they can’t use the machine anymore so this was a big wasted opportunity to run extra conduit. I know you’re supposed to dumb things down on the show, but this is too much dumbing.
Another great thing about the sand is how well it protects conduit (for those that use conduit obv) It’s 98% compacted when wet and MUCH better at protecting the conduit relative to backfill that could contain debris like rocks that damages the conduit. Def check the local codes for depth requirements because frost heave can be an issue and different voltages can change that number too
I would never use UF cable. On a project like this, I would always run PVC conduit the entire length, glue everything together, then pull the conductors using a fish tape. Detached garages should be fed with a 40-amp subfeed; that means three #8 AWG conductors, as well as a #10 green grounding conductor. Also, three additional 14AWG wires if three-way operation of outdoor lighting is desired.
Nope! 352.24 Bends Field bends shall be made only with bending equipment identified for the purpose. That heat gun was not manufactured for heating and bending conduit! Also, “Bends shall be so made that the conduit will not be damaged”…….if it burns the pipe, it’s a no go….. That’s 2 of this guy’s articles I’ve watched back to back and in both he has violated a code….. Be careful of where you find your expert advice……I also would have run a larger circuit, but sometimes you gotta do what the client requests……. I am an electrician, I work on large state and government jobs and constantly have inspectors up my butt, I figured I should state that before someone asks my credentials……
I just wired up my 12×24 shed with a 70A subpanel. This allowed me to run one 20A circuit for outlets and another 20A circuit for the lights. I fed it with four 10 gauge wires, teo hots, neutral and ground, which is good for 60amps. I tied it in to my 200 amp breaker panel in the house with a double pole 30 amp circuit breaker. I rented a trencher to dig 70ft from house to shed. According to nec code direct burial wire should be 24″ deep, or if inside conduit, 18″ deep, which is what I did. Also, once you get more than 70 feet or so, with 12ga, you need to account for the 3% voltage drop. They probably should have run 10ga wire! I was not impressed with the way they did it in this article.
Very poor instructional article. 1. no inspections, which are required by law. 2. Direct burial wire is a bad install, if you ever have a problem you have to do all of the digging again. Installing the wire in conduit is a better install, plus he didn’t mention that the conduit above grade has to be schedule 80. Lots of bad info on this article. By the way I am an electrical inspector
amazing that in the states you are allowed to install the electricity in such a simple way, no protection on the cables, no cables in special metallic tubes etc etc, now I understand why the houses are burning down after a simple short circuit, also houses are made from wood and cables are between the walls, including water lines, gas etc. amazing
They had to edit out the part where the massive trenching machine got destroyed after coming across someone else’s caution tape from a wire buried in 1987. Police across that country are now using this article as training material on how to make caution tape more visible by burying it 12″ underground where it’s easily seen. The technique so effective, the government is going to put it all along the US-Mexico border and make Mexico pay for it.
I made timestamps below to help you navigate the article 👇. I hope it helps! Supplies for meter base installation 00:15 How to remove a knockout 02:17 How to install 2″ SEU clamp on meter base 02:52 How to position and level meter base 03:29 How to drill through the wall 04:08 Why I did not need a disconnect 04:28 How to install an expansion coupling 05:05 How to secure the SEU cable to the meter base 06:18 How to secure the meter base to the house 06:36 Meter base height requirement 07:42 How to wire SEU cable to a meter base 08:09 How to anchor electrical conduit to the house 11:02 How to seal the hole for the SEU cable 12:42
I actually viewed another meter base installation after perusal yours and so much was not shared during this article like it always is with yours. Your articles are, again, the best to view never eliminating any steps in the process and very clear and thorough. Please keep producing your articles. Thank you!!!
Excellent Laborer, did you know that it would be easier for you to install the ground rods with a hammer drill? I’m sure you must have heard of that. The hammer drill will lesson your work load and make it easier for you. I noticed you did not connect the ground wire to the meter base and I’m wondering why you didn’t connect to the meter base.
Hopefully someone can chime in on this, as I’d like to upgrade my service as well (and save a ton of money). Doesn’t the 2020 NFPA 70 (electrical code) require emergency disconnects between the meter and panel now, regardless if it’s just in the other side of the wall? The meters with disconnects are considerably larger and more expensive. If anyone can provide a article or reference on whether or not this is mandatory, and what the exceptions are, I would be very grateful.
Couple things that may be an issue: 1. If your jurisdiction has adopted the NEC 2020 code requirements then an outside disconnecting means for emergency personell is required (NEC 230.85) 2. If you are not using the largest size of the concentric Knock-out then a ground bushing will be required with that metallic SE connector 3. There should have been a ufer ground installed to the rebar in the footer when they were poured.
This guy goes… Hi my name is Josh, i am not a professional, and i am not a electrician, I am just a regular person building my own house… I ‘d love to hang out with this guy. He is humble and motivating. 6 months later, I can see this guy saying, “Hi my name is josh, I am not a rocket scientist, I just decided to build my own rocketship, and i got lucky that it turned out better than Elon Musks current rocketships. hahah… Thanks for your article bro.. I learned exactly what i needed . Keep up the good work..
You can’t use that kind of cable to feed from your meter base to your panel. You only need 3 conductors to the panel but the neutral has to be insulated. That wire you are using for a neutral is meant to be a grounding conductor. That cable when installed from the load side of the disconnect is made for 240 volts and ground. It’s gonna work but it’s not code compliant. All three conductors should be insulated as they are current carrying conductors and should all be insulated.
The 2inch connector he used got me fucked up…hahaha And I’m losing my mind trying to understand why he decided to drill into that 2×6 instead of clearing it and just went into the plywood and his 2inch connector would’ve made more sense..and use that 2×6 to staple your service down… Everyone works “different” I suppose…
Hey Josh please pardon my ignorance, But I have a question I have one of their boxes from Cutler-Hammer much larger than yours it looks like it’s got a breaker panel on the bottom of it, however from The electric I was wanting to know if I could remove that and get in to the box? I want run lights to my carport and a couple of outlets, I already have everything I need except for five more sticks of conduit two more plugs and boxes and the weatherproof covers for them and I plan on using 10 gauge wire So do you have any advice?
I look inside my main panel and I don’t see the 6 ga or 4 ga bare ground wire (that comes from the outside actual “earthen” ground rod) to connect anywhere inside the main panel that I can see. However, if I follow the buried ground line from the ground rod, it seems to come up through conduit to the outside meter panel and enters there. So the questions……1.) is this a local code difference where the ground line gets connected to some part of the meter panel?….and 2.) how do we continue the ground path from the meter panel to the main panel? I checked ground continuity from the main panel and it’s grounded, so I know I have a connection somewhere….just don’t know where…. and how “Stout” ( ampacity) it is. Can you or others here help?
Hey I love your website. I just subscribed. I watched most your electrical articles but I have a question I installed a meter base and main break panel side by side. Do I connect both the meter base and panel to ground rods or is on the main break panel enough? The code was kind of ambiguous. Using #4 copper ground wire. Thanks 🙏
So much harder in Chicago/Illinois. No Romex/PVC or any of those plastic boxes allowed. Everything needs to be in EMT/IMT/RMC. Also, grounding rods are used only for outside and only considered protection against electrical surges such as lightning. We also use main water as grounding method for your electrical service. Rarely do you see foundation/rebar or beams as a grounding method. There’s a reason why only #6 cu/ 4# Al gauge is required for your rods even with 200 amp service.
Thanks and great article! An electrician just mounted mine today but at first I thought he didn’t leave enough 4/0 wire. He didn’t use that SEU 4/0 cable you used just straight up 4/0…now Im going to go see how he clamped it. Anyway – whats that white mounting plate/panel on your house? I have new construction garage and the cement board isn’t installed yet and the guy just lagged it straight to the OSB (and he didnt use those water tight screws like you used either). I really like how you lay out all the supplies and give basic definition. Thanks again!
Your expansion coupling wasn’t installed correctly. It looks like it is almost bottomed out. It needs to be able to move both up and down and if the ground heaves upwards, it appears your coupling has no slack to allow that. There should be a couple inches of space between the inner and outer pipes so the bottom can move up as well as down.