On Mon, 10 Sep 2007 02:31:36 -0700, Gunner wrote:
On Sun, 09 Sep 2007 13:39:03 -0700, Bruce L. Bergman wrote:

I bumped it up from 200 amps total to 800 amps total, with multiple
services. 4 shops in the complex, one with 600 amps total, 1 with 200
amps on the same meter main, and 2 with seperate 200 amp meter mains.

It took 3 months for the City and So Cal Edison to get their heads out
of their asses on the new meter main..with another 2 weeks to convince
the city inspector that 1992 Okumas never had, nor never will have UL
listings.

How many of those machines are dual 240/480V? You can get the new
service in and change them over one at a time.

Nope..only about 25% are dual voltage.

Darn. Well, if you can get both flavors of power from Edison you
can change over the ones that can take 480V, and that takes a lot of
pressure off the 240V service. Will help the compressor problem.

Sometimes you can cheat - if this is in an industrial park and the
unit next door is only being used as a warehouse, they aren't using
their full 200A service - you can install a sub-meter and get some
more electricity from them.

Already doing that with the 120 volt service...the bulding was built
in 1959. Most of the shops had single 50 amp 120 volt service with a
meter attached to the 6 breaker "main"

Were they still on A-Base meters and fuses? ;-)

They hired an engineering company at the outset. Then they expected
me to impliment the results.

Ive many compliments on the quality of workmanship, the way I designed
everything for future expansion and so forth.

I dont get any brownie points for not getting 400 amps from a 200 amp
service. Shrug

Hey, one place was trying to suck 200A through a 100A meter socket
and Type RHW risers. They thought upgrading the panel to a 200A would
solve everything... The rubber insulation was a bit crispy crackly
after 50 years in that pipe.

Its safe, its up to code, it looks good. But they simply dont have
enough power in some places. And it will take an act of Crom to get
anyone to make it so.

Been there... Remember when houses had a 30A service because "we'd
never need anything more than that..."? Then the single-family house
standard went to the 70A "Crowfoot" panel. Then 100A. Then 125A. We
held at 200 for a while, and now they skipped straight to 400A...

Progress marches on, and there's always another wonderful
labor-saving (and power sucking) tool or appliance right around the
corner.

Then they stuck (2) I-R 15hp screw compressors and the dryers into the
mix...cringe.

Hey, that helps the power situation if they are put in constant-run
mode and cycle on the unloaders, then there's only one start surge per
shift. And it's those essentially locked-rotor start surges that kick
the demand factor through the roof, and trip that Main Breaker that's
teetering on the edge.

-- Bruce --