Machine Builders Network+ Forums Machine Builders Network General Discussion What odd jobs did you do today?

Got the house put back together and got the wire terminated in the shop. I had to route the power through back to back LBs and then into the panel. Doing that with 4/0 and 2/0 common in a 2" conduit was very tough. The wire is Triplex direct bury. The breaker in the house is rated for aluminum or copper 2/0 through 350, so the 4/0 fit fine. Here aluminum is allowed for sub panel feeds but not for outlet wiring. Since this is a sub feed it's allowed. The wire runs 3' into the house.

The meter for the shop has a remote operated contactor in it. It was turned off yesterday so the feed was dead. I verified they weren't hot, then I pulled them out and taped the ends.

I left them in the top of the panel for now. The power company will eventually pull the meter, I am not sure what they will do with the wires. I am not sure if I own them or the power company. I think I do. I am going to keep the wires in the top taped up in case I need to put the meter back on.

After wrestling with the cables I was finally able to get them into the meter and into the lugs. I torqued the lugs to spec, which is tighter than what I would have probably done guessing at it. I'll retorque these in a few weeks.

So far so good. I didn't have any issues in the house when I turned on the lathe and the hot water heater kicked in. This should save me about $40/month. It will take me about 21 months to pay back the cost of the installation......maybe not the best idea to do this but I don't like seeing that $32 surcharge on the power bill and the higher rate for the shop. I also have a electric car that I just got about a month ago to go to work in. It has to charge out on the shop power and I don't want to pay the higher rate for that. It only draws 16 amps while charging.

My only issue is that I was only able to run a 3 wire system. My shop panel being a main panel all the commons and grounds are mixed and not
possible to be separated without rewiring everything. I consulted with the electric coop they said this is allowed due to the shop being remote and having grounds in place. I have read quite a lot about this online and it seems that this was once allowed but is now not best practice. If it was before 2008 the way I did it would be the normal way. That said its the only way to do this one. Here is the shop panel.

It's nice to have power back in the shop. Now I have to clean up, I have tracked a lot of mud in digging all the trenches.