In northern calif, my MAIN has the meter on the left side of the box, and
then a distribution panel arrangement on the right side. I can install all
the breakers I need in the right side of the box without disturbing the
left. It is ideal to connect to the main entry point with your sub-panel
feed if you can do it.

(By the way, when the house was re-wired 4 years ago, the electrician simply
clipped seal on the meter, changed the entire box/panel all out, and then
put the broken seal back in place like it was never touched. Never called
PG&E at all. PG&E simply 'sealed' it again next time they noticed it was
opened. Perhaps because it was obviously a new contruction/major remodel?
Hummm.....)


"lens" wrote in message
oups.com...
I want to add two 220V and some 110V outlets to my garage. The wall
where I want to add them is far from my breaker panel (at least 70
feet) but is close to my meter. There is even a box with a removable
panel on the inside wall right behind the main service box that
provides access, from the inside the garage, to the house's main 400A
breaker in tne meter box.

I would like to install a breaker box with two 30A 220V and two 20A
110V circuits and connect right to the main service box (after the main
400A breaker of course). This would save me from running a long run
from the distribution breaker panel, where I don't have enough room
anyway.

I have done a fair amount of home wiring and am pretty handy with this,
but I have never worked on mains side of a distrubution or breaker
panel. I don't want to mess this up, so I have some questions. When I
look at the main 400A breaker and the buss bars coming from the meter,
I don't see a neutral line.

There are two large hot wires that pass through a 400A ganged breaker
in the main box, and a green ground that looks like it only goes to
earth. My questions:

1) Is it OK to connect my new panel right to the 400A breaker in the
main box?

2) How would I wire the 110V circuits? I know that each hot end of the
220V feed (through an appropriate breaker in my sub panel) will be a
110V hot, but where are the 110V neutrals? Do I simply run two wires
back to the green in the main service box and call one "neutral" and
the other "earth"?

3) Is it typically OK code-wise to split up the output from the main
breaker right in the service box? I doubt they make wire nuts that big
and I don't think it's OK to "double up" wires on a breaker, so if it
is OK, how is done? Do they sell monster terminal strips?

To diffuse all the safety related replies I'm likely to get, let me say
that I'm incredibly careful around wiring. If this seems too much for
me, I will certainly hire an electrician. But if the answers are not
too intimidating, I'd rather do it myself - not to save money, but
because 1) I have found that I am more careful and do better work than
the trades people I've been able to hire, and 2) Where I live, you
can't get people to show up for small jobs. It will take a least a
month to get this done by an electrician and I'd like to start welding
now.