"Mark Wilson" wrote in message
...
Actually, both my Service Disconnect and Panelboard are inside the house.
Outside the house there is only a meter. All in all, having a separate
Service Disconnect is fine for now, although I think I'll replace it with
the Cutler Hammer box you suggested. Of course the Power Co will have to
someone disconnect power for the Service Disconnect to be rewired. How
does
the Power Co go about shutting down power? Do they have to climb the pole
or is there something they can do at the meter?

Ah, now were making progress. Inside the house, they want your main
disconnect as soon as possible. Usually, this means within 5' of where the
wire penetrates the exterior wall. If your service panel is 20 feet from the
disconnect, that explains why you have a disconnect. Why they didn't put a
normal panelboard where the disconnect is located I don't know....

Usually, power is disconnected by pulling the meter. Sometimes, you can do
this yourself, but you must inform the power company so they can come back
and seal it (and know why the seal has been broken). It would be better to
have the power company come pull your meter, as they can deal with any
oh-****s that happen. A service enclosure is not a nice place to have things
stuck or falling out! The only thing that sucks here is re-establishing
service. You may be without power for a day while you wait for the power
company to come back. You may feel more comfortable putting the meter back
in than taking it out. That would get you going again sooner.

Climbing the pole would work too, but they'll only do that if you need to
work in or replace the meter enclosure.


The meter says something like "200cl 240v 3w" I'll give the Power Co a
call
and look into it. I'm sure it's not a black and white issue, but if I'm
not
throwing breakers, is it fair to say I don't really need 200A at this
time?
I hate to rewire everything only to decide later that I need to upgrade
the
panelboard too.

That would be a Class 200 meter for normal 240/120 household service. You
probably have a 200A meter enclosure if you have a 200A meter, so perhaps
this part can stay forever (unless its deteriorated). Yes, if that main is
not tripping you're probably OK (unless that breaker is defective). However,
you may want to measure your voltage sometime when you're pushing things and
see how much it sags. A wimpy transformer will help prevent you blowing the
breaker. I think that is why my power company uses a transformer that is
about half the size of your needs. When you really need 100A, you're going
to have a fair amount of voltage drop and may not get to drawing 100A
because things are drawing less current at the lower voltage.

Finally, just because you have a 200A meter doesn't mean you had 200A
service entrance conductors installed. If you ever decide to upgrade the
main disconnect to 200A, you'll need to check the wires to the meter and
from the meter for proper size. You can defer that task if you just replace
the 100A disconect with another 100A unit.

--
Mark
Kent, WA