New electrical panel before siding?
Over the coming spring and summer I am planning on upgrading my electrical service, adding a new main and sub-panel, and replacing the siding on my 19th Ave Park Eichler. However, I am unsure about the best order for doing this work and would like any recommendations this group can offer regarding the sequencing for the work and also recommendations for electrictricians in the San Mateo area that are familiar with Eichlers.
My intuition tells me that *if* the new main panel is best mounted on the outside of the siding, then it is best to replace the siding first. On the other hand, if it is best to place the new main panel in the wall, then the siding should be done after the electrical work. So this really may be a question as to whether a new panel should be on the outside of the siding or in the wall.
Thanks for any suggestions.
Dean
I would recommend starting with the Electrical Panel. (I just did this two weeks ago)
Prior to the electrician showing up, I got the area ready by removing the siding around the old exterior panel. This gave him easy access to put in the new panel.
Not sure where your located, but our home never had a ground to the main panel. So when I had them upgrade the panel we installed a ground which runs from the main panel (back of the house) to the main water line (front of the house)
Make sure you get a building permit for the job. If there is ever a problem with the electrical system and a insurance claim is filed this is something they would look for.
I have a memory tickling the back of my brain that I'm tyring to reconstruct...
It's regarding the grounding issue when I had our power supply upgraded to 200A 4 or 5 years ago--I'm in San Jose. The memory is around not wanting to run the ground for the panel from the back corner of the house (where the panel was) to the front diagonal corner (where the main water pipe came in). We ended up having to do it. We did the best we could to hide the grounding wire but the fact remains you have a heavy copper wire stapled to your beams/siding, running halfway around your house.
I think the issue was that I wanted to ground it to a grounding stake nearer the panel but the building code required that if the main water pipe had not been replaced (i.e. was still metal), it *had* to be grounded to it. I had just had the landscaping done earlier that year and if I had known, I would have had the service from the street replaced with PVC pipe at the time.
Anyway, that's most of the memory hobbled together. Bottom line, figure out what your options are for grounding the panel. Considering the age of the pipes, local considerations, and other planned projects, you might want to consider replacing your water service feed from the street prior to the electrical service upgrade.
I'm no expert and might have gotten some this incorrect. Corrections and/or expansions to this post are welcome.
Cheers.
Jake
P.S. A couple of neighbors told me later that they had replaced their own pipe (pulled it) and simply had it connected by ??water company?? Didn't ask for the details as I didn't need them, but they were suggesting it could be done without a lot of cost.
Oh, and if you're collecting votes on the mounted vs. flush installation of the panel, my vote would be flush. Why have a box (with nasty corners) hanging on the outside of the siding to be banged into or snagged on?
Jake
A couple of subjects seemed to have popped up here.
Running the ground wire from the back to the front. - We ran the cable just under the lower edge of the siding above the concrete slab line. If you look down you are able to see it but it seemed better then running around the roof line and beams. The only tricky part is around the garage door. Here we took off some trim and ran the cable underneath then replaced the trim.
Water main - As far as I know you should only use copper pipes for your plumbing. If you have general plumbing knowledge you can do this yourself. You just shut the water off at the meter and switch out the old line for the new line.
Not all our homes will be the same but here is a photo of the old electrical panel with the walls removed
It might be easier to picture what your getting into. I agree with a fluxh mount box
