Eichler Electrical Main Panel Upgrade
We started out putting the new panel right next to the old one, but then realized that it would be very close to the gas meter, and code states that there should be 3 feet of clearance in all directions so we moved it over. Moving it also made it easier to drill for the new mast since the beam doesn’t extend all the way across the wall in the garage.
We also ended up installing a sub panel on the bedroom ‘wing’ of the house to make the wiring job a little easier.
The only part that PG&E played in our main panel upgrade was to move the line from the power pole from the old mast/staff to the new one that I installed and had ready to go. They ended up running a new line down from the power pole since I had added 7 feet of distance from it to the new mast.
PG&E took about a month to come out and do the swap, but they were pretty easy to work with, and didn’t charge us. When I called in to request the upgrade, they took my info over the phone and submitted an application for me, so I never had to fill one out myself.
They removed the old meter from the original 100amp panel and installed a new digital meter in the new 200amp panel.
Everything else was done by myself and our electricians (my Dad and Uncle).
Also attached are a couple pics of the new/old masts before the power line was moved by PGE.
i had no idea that pg+e would play a hand in this (on the work side). we hired an electrician to do it at a cost of about $3-4K (the entire bill was $4.5, but we had some other work done at the time — HVAC wiring, garage, kitchen, etc)… they converted our old main panel to a 200V panel and had 100amps of that serving the now-dubbed “sub panel” in the interior of the garage. this worked out well as many of the new circuits we wanted to run were in the garage (two new 20A circuits for tools) and kitchen (and for the roof AC which took a 40A dedicated run). our original setup might’ve been odd, but we already had a “main”/”sub” setup and the staff came right into the main. the electricians essentially converted the old main (which was nothing more than a main shutoff and distribution point for the sub) and converted it to a 200A working panel (with new circuits noted above) — this meant no new staff… they replaced the old one to be higher (per code). i don’t feel as chump-y about the cost as we were under deadline to get the work done to link-up with the HVAC install, so waiting was not an option. if it weren’t dawn and dark and cold, i’d snap some pix. maybe later.
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