Question about power for the house

[NCDeere]

Hey guys,

So the power company came out the other day and spoke with one of my soon to be neighbors concerning getting power from the nearest point to a new transformer that can branch out to about three homes.

He wanted to know about how big the homes were going to be. I am assuming he wanted to have this info in order to properly size the equipment.

My question is this: How can I come up with an answer that will enable me to have what I need for my house and then some. The house we are looking to build is about 3700 sq ft. We will most likely add a basement of anywhere from 1500 to 2000 sq ft. I will also have a detatched barn/garage, an outbuilding or two, and possibly a small horse barn. I would like to have power to all of them.

These are my plans. The extras may or may not happen, but the house will. So how do I determine what to tell him.

This feels like the begining of the house building itch. I can't wait to get started.

Thanks for any help.
Bryan

[twstanley]

Well, he was mostly asking about power load, so I would think if you give him some feedback on square footage and number of outbuildings and sizes and what you plan on doing in them, he can work up an amp loading per property...

My house has a 200 amp breaker box, I think that is fairly standard in new construction of 2000 sqare foot houses around our area. Naturally if you have a lot of high electrical load equipment you want to run all at once, you will need more amperage, or multiple heating/cooling systems for large houses would add up as well. I don't know what size of boxes they put in 4k - 5k square foot houses, I know some of those will have zoned ac and heat so you could potentially have 2 ore more a/c units running at once...do they put 400 amp service in these?

[CJDave]

[img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] All you really need to do is make a list of everything that can be running at the same time. If you have two A/C units and an electric H.W. heater and an electric stove, they can ALL be running at the same time, especially if you have company. I did some work on a big motel power supply system which failed when they had a family convention. Everyone was on the same schedule so when the last session of the day was over, everyone went back to their rooms to shower, blow dry their hair, and otherwise get ready for the big banquet. At the same time, the guys in the kitchen were cooking like mad, and oh yeah, one more thing.....it was 105 degrees that day so every A/C unit was running. They tripped a 600 AMP breaker and finally had to go room-to-room telling the guests to only use power if they had an odd number room and then the even number rooms were next in the rotation and so forth. Just figure the worst case amperage draw scenario on the big stuff and you'll be fine. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[GaryM]

My house is approx 3700 Sq. Ft. with electric heat and AC. I have two 200 amp panels and 360 Amp service. I don't have any out buildings, yet, but that will only need 100 A tops. I'm served by an electric Co-op, and they will upsize the transformer if required.

[EddieWalker]

He needs to have a load sheet to determine your usage. From that he will decide what to charge you to run the line to your home. If you have allot of usage, then they determine that you will spend allot of money on electrical usage and that will lowere your install cost.

Don't be shy on what you put down on the load sheet, or tell the electric company rep what you will have. The more the better for you at this stage.

Some electric companies will profide the first pole at no charge to you, based on a minimal load sheet. If you need to go further than say 300 feet, you will need additional poles and this will come out of your pocket unless you can show a load sheet with allot of usage.

I had 1,500 feet brought in with five poles for $478 total, but my load sheet was HUGE!! 1,200 amps at the meter!!!!

Eddie