I’m getting an estimate to install a generator at my mom’s new retirement home. House was built 4 or 5 years ago.
I had one installed (2013) and there were no problems connecting to my 25 year old panel.
Same company will be doing this one.
I’m quoting a problem he emailed me. The solution is a new panel & meter box that is compatible with Generac’s transfer switch.
Why is an adapter needed? I saw them run wires from my panel into the transfer switch. I wasn’t aware that any adapter was used.
My meter box is probably 40 years old.
Are the new panels different? What’s he talking about? He’s saying the panel and meter box are a pair.
Changing out the panel and meter box is going to be a considerable and unexpected expense.
The old panel had a separate meter. That meter was connected to the break panel with cable, so it was straightforward to put in a piece of conduit and re-route the cable into the transfer switch, and then back agin to the panel.
The new panel has an integrated meter, and the meter is connected by buss bars directly to the breaker power distribution system. There’s no easy way to connect cables to the output of the meter.
I talked with the electrician. He said this is a Square D combo panel. A very good brand. It’s our rotten luck the builder used a model they were discontinuing. The bus bar adapter for a transfer switch is no longer available.
Four year old house and the panel is discontinued. Sheesh
We’re getting a SEPARATE panel and meter box installed. So we don’t get screwed again. My electrician said the combo units are a bad idea because if either goes bad the whole thing gets replaced.
He’s getting a Square D panel and we can reuse all the breakers. That’ll save some money.
My electrician said they usually install Square D and they like that brand of panel.
That sounds like the only reasonable way to go. Sucks that the job will be a lot more expensive now because the builder wanted to save five bucks on a separate meter can.
Where I live, the power company owns the meter but you own the box it sits in. I found that out the hard way when the connection inside the box went bad and I started dropping a phase. If the meter had gone bad, it would have been on their nickel to fix it. Since the box went bad and not the meter, I had to pay for the repair.
They also want the meter outside where they can read it, so a box like that wouldn’t be allowed here either. Just for different reasons.
A 4-year-old Square D box should be eminently salable. Advertise it on Craigslist, for about 50% of the new price. Or maybe even ask your electrician if he wants to buy it.
Those combo meter can and breaker boxes are fairly common around here in older houses. Probably half of the houses I’ve lived in had the panel outside, either under the roofline or in a plywood box with a round cutout for the meter.
Of course, now that we have remotely-read meters, the whole thing can be inside the house or garage since nobody ever has to look at the meter after it’s installed.
