There is creativity, and there is reality. The fun part is constructing a building out of predominantly free things and innovating and eye balling and watching something grow. Then there's electricity, and the true cost of state of the art materials, safety, and doing a job according to specs. Specs I previously knew nothing about.
I met with a great guy from NYSEG (New York State Electic and Gas?). We walked the property and selected a spot for the meter. All of the news related to this was awesome. I could use an existing pole. The location of the meter was only 20 feet from the pole, etc. I envisioned having to rent a back-hoe or having to pay a grand to have a pole installed; none of that proved true, and so I left our meeting with a NYSEG project number an a booklet full of sketches and requirements for installing a 200 AMP Combo box. You can stop reading now if you're not interested in this stuff, but what is interesting is the learning curve and the discovery that you can do things yourself. An estimate for doing this work hovers around 1400 dollars. Instead, I went to work. The first step was building the mounting unit. 5 feet in the ground. 5 feet above. That's a shovel, a level, some salvaged pressure treated for free, and what ended up being about six hours of digging, not including the twenty foot trench. Then I went to Cascade Electric in Lake Placid, NY, and the owner led me through what I needed and put a list together. This is when it hurt. I walk away with 580 added to my credit card. The rest was relatively simple. Learn how to wire it on youtube, pound a few 8 ft grounding rods into the ground following specs, and assume it will twice as long as someone with experience. I also was not afraid to ask questions and the owner of Cascade Electric was patient and helpful. It took me about two days, but everything went smoothly and as far as electric service entrances go, the thing looks pretty cute. I'm also thrilled that I can't see it from my future house site. It astounds me to see a million dollar home in Lake Placid with an electric panel sitting in the midst of $40,000 of landscaping. Nothing says welcome to my McLodge like the warmth of a grey electric meter.
Regardless, I now have to get it inspected and then have the power hooked up. That will give me a outside box with power. I'll have to dig a 100 foot trench later to bring power into my future basement.
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| The posts |
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| The completed mount |
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| Laying out the conduit |
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| End of Day One |
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