042 - 400 Amp Electrical System with 2 200 amp panels on a rack. Do Hard Things.
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- Опубліковано 9 чер 2022
- Link to Panels:
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...
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As we continue working to get ready for the mobile home and build out our homestead, electrical service is extremely important. In this video we are trenching with a bobcat skid steer that we're borrowing from our amazing neighbors. Speaking of neighbors, community is paramount in your success in life. Get to know your neighbors and don't go it alone.
We are installing a 400 amp service with 2 200 amp panels on a rack built out of unistrut and 2" rigid conduit. We already installed the meter base, but now we're installing the 200 amp panels. Technically it's a 320 amp meter base, but engineering dictated this as the meter base of choice.
We're connecting the meter base with 4/0 aluminum cable as copper is extremely hard to get ahold of right now.
In the video I'm discussing doing hard things. I've always done hard things, taken the scenic route, challenged myself to take the next step forward and buck the system instead of taking the easy route. That's why we're where we are today. In a mess of waiting, and filled with grace and patience. We don't hold ourselves back by living in fear, but we do the hard things. And we do them well.
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I always say you must get out of your comfort zone multiple times a day to become successful , love this video
Comfort zones are for stagnation. I don’t want to do that.
Awesome job. People love to make fun of others to make them feel better or get ahead. Keep your head up for your journey. If it fails then fix it it’s a learning curb. I have had a lot of fails. But corrected and moved on. Will always learn from it
I sold a 400 amp service to a customer, the biggest ive ever done was 200, but im not afraid of a challenge!
It's simple enough. Just bending the wires is the hard part.
Nice work on the Panels I am just getting started on my build thank for the good demo
Not bad for your first install 👍 not bad at all. I’ve been an electrician for 19 years btw. Looks good 👏🏼
Thank you! I learned so much through this process.
So cool to see these parts of your journey from Fast Frank to your homestead.
Man those were good days. I remember our small group like it was yesterday.
Perfect
Your approach to life is magnificent
Thanks for sharing brother - God bless
Thank you Bob! It's amazing where my life has taken me with this approach.
I'm not an electrician, but I think you are suppose to torque the 4-0 down on those lugs??
Love this and awesome inspiring words to hear while watching the panel build. DO HARD THINGS!
Thanks señor!
Good work taking on that project alone. It appeared to be a bit of a challenge to mount those heavy panels without some extra helping hands. Just a tip that may be of use to you in the future, directly attach the panels to the flat side of the horizontal rails and hang your 200 amp panels first from a level and secure top rail. That way you don't have to struggle trying to position the 200 Amp panels. Position one of either the left or right 200 Amp panel hanging from top bolts and secured top rail first. Then position the bottom rail, again flat side to panel, to the first installed 200 Amp panel lining up the lower panel mount holes. You could use a tape measure to get the top to bottom hole distance and make that the same both sides before tightening bottom rail to poles. A couple of bungee cords hung from secure top rail to non tightened bottom rail will help you position bottom rail. When bottom rail is secure and parallel with the top rail and one 200 Amp panel is secure then mount one side of the center junction panel to the first 200 Amp panel via a 2-2.5" offset conduit nipple and as well to lower rail with two bolts. Then position the top rail for the center panel. That potentially could have saved you one rail and less panel struggling. I agree with you 100% on having help is nice. Two to adjust rails, one to fasten panels, one to stand back and watch (making those annoying suggestions) and one to go for coffee or beer. Just curious what made your decision to do the entry service panels outdoors freestanding on poles rather than under overhang on building or inside the building? Did you pass?
We passed inspection.
We ended up needing to mount the panels on vertical struts in order to meet the knockouts evenly. It was certainly a lot of work. We had to re-hang them twice to get them aligned properly with the right conduits, and then bonding. I learned that bonding is necessary when using knockouts, but not when using a hole saw because the concentric rings might become unstable, hence bonding to the box if using the concentric knockouts.
The engineers for the power company wanted us to build this freestanding. I wanted to mount to the shed, but they told me I had to do it on a rack.
@@DuckRiverHomestead Yes the rules of the game keep changing and not always for the better. Some things make sense and some less so but it seems we always have to please the last man (inspectior) out.
Glad you passed in the end. That is the main thing!
Yes. the inspector must be happy.... or else.
Perfect!!!
Do Hard Things, I love that, my things is, I got my masters and contractors license in electrical, finally able to start my business, got the LLC and all, I got to to my goal, but now, I got cold feet, I’m nervous, and I don’t know what to do next
Dang that's awesome! Those are some hard things to accomplish for sure. But here you are. wondering what the next step is. It feels like it should be easy from here on out, but that's just one of life's fun tricks. This is why the journey has to be appreciated. If you don't enjoy or suffer through the process of learning, failing, learning, getting better, working hard and succeeding, it would mean nothing to just arrive at the pinnacle. The time we spend longing for what we have now makes it impossible to give up on our dreams.
When starting a business (or a family even) there are 4 things I think are extremely important. I'll be putting some videos together on this soon but I'll give you a short version here in the comments section.
1. Vision
2. Mission
3. Culture
4. Brand
Vision: What does the future of your business look like? What unifying vision do you have for 10-20-50 years from now? Are you going to give the business to your kids? Are you going to grow it fast and sell it for a huge profit in 5 years? This is your vision, and once it's formed, it is an invitation for your employees, to join in the process. Write it down, it should be some sort of manifesto.
Mission: Your mission is short term. This is a brand new LLC right? Mission is no more than 2 years max. Mission is the promise that you are making to the world of what you're going to achieve. Mission is strategy, not tactic. Think of military missions. They are laser focused on the what, not the how. "In 12 hours we're going to obtain xyz asset". For how to execute on your mission I'd recommend reading the book "The One Thing." An example of you mission would be "My Biz, LLC will have 250,000 in booked commercial electrical business by October, 2022." The book will help you figure out how.
Culture: The culture of your business is so important, and must be driven from the top down. Culture is the PROMISE you make to your employees. This is everything from ensuring that your "employees can take time to pick their kids up from school." Or "You can always tell your boss that they're doing something wrong with no repercussions." or "failing inspections are inexcusible," or "You will never be pressured to cut corners"
Brand: This is where it all gets buttoned up. Brand is not a website, logo, or graphic design. That is a brand asset, but brand is the promise you make to your customers that they can take to the bank. For example: "we answer the phone before the 3rd ring" or "We will respond to the customer in the method they contacted them, i.e. text, email, twitter, etc." And "We always clean up our jobsite" or "you will want to share photos of our wiring on your instagram page" But brand is what you're known for. Why customers keep coming back. Why you keep buying starbucks, and stay away from united airlines. Their promises of your experience and how they follow through are what inform you on whether or not you'll do business with them again.
Sorry if this was a bit much. I just want to encourage you to take the next steps. But I think if you define these 4 items, that next step will be clear to you.
@@DuckRiverHomestead thank you for all that info.
I always say you must get out of your comfort zone multiple times a day to become successful
So true. It's too easy to go the path of least resistance, but tough times produce tough men!
Exactly. I've learned that it is better to create an atmosphere of difficulty to teach hard things and learn from them.
11:15
Love your motivation! Keep it up!
You are going to need some more lock nuts, grounding lock nuts, and bonding bushings for those connections. If you can do it in PVC you can avoid all of the bonding grounding mess of the metallic conduit.
2" pvc offset + Coupling + BA and TA maybe? I always prefer PVC if i can.
Love the videos.
pvc...
left to right.. TA + pipe + offset
left to right.. BA + Coupling + pipe + offset
That's extremely helpful. Just found out that my electric company requires copper cable so I'm going to have to redo a little bit. 😂 Thanks for watching!
Good comment
I know this video is old but I was hoping you might do an update. Maybe explain how you did it and what trouble’s you ran into. How was duckriver to work with?
It turned out that we went through CPWS instead of Duck River. If we were one street over that would be different. Unfortunately they locked the main panel before I could get video. The main issue we ran into was ensuring that we had an unbroken grounding wire bonded to each opening. That took a little work to get through. Also they were picky about which metal conduit to use between the breaker boxes and the meter box.
Are there specific materials that need to be used to build that mounting rack? I am starting my Homestead as well and would love it if you could share that information? I have 400amp meter and 400amp Safety switch which will then go to two 200amp service boxes. Thank you!
OK. Here's what I used:
2 - 2.5" x 10' rigid conduit buried 3' into the ground secured with concrete
4 - 10' x full thickness unistrut
2 - 10' x half thickness unistrut
The appropriate number of pipe clamps to attach everything.
1/4" bolts into unistrut backing nuts
You can see some of the construction here: ua-cam.com/video/yLqhkf5KdQ4/v-deo.html
Thank yo for sharing you video. Do you mind sharing the box and meter model numbers?
I don't know the model of the meter, but here's the 200 amp pass through: GE: TM820RCUFLP
you miss the lock Ring on your Right size
Yes, we fixed that. We actually rebuilt this once more, to get it 100% right. Further bonding was needed since we used the concentric cutouts. Unfortunately I don't have footage of that. It passed final inspection.
PS nice property. How many acres do you have?
Thanks! about 23 Acres
What if I want to build my own Jurassic Park and I need miles of high voltage electric fence?
You might want to start with an underground power plant. Lots of catwalks and conduit. For our pigs, we have about 400 feet of 12,000 volt fence. You'll probably need at least a 60 joule energizer per paddock.
Where did you buy it
The 320 Amp meter base we got from our local power company.
The 200 Amp passthrough circuit boxes we got on Amazon. They're sold out now. TM820RCUFLP is the part number.
Here's the link.
www.amazon.com/GE-ENERGY-INDUSTRIAL-SOLUTIONS-TM820RCUFLP/dp/B000BQS6XG/ref=sr_1_1?crid=20CVD6U4UU3ZJ&keywords=TM820RCUFLP&qid=1663732145&sprefix=tm820rcuflp%2Caps%2C76&sr=8-1
I have been looking for a meter socket or meter combo for 4 months. I follow you from South Carolina
Thank you 🙏🏻
www.amazon.com/Siemens-MC2040B1200S-Circuit-Surface-Combination/dp/B00J3PJPV8/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=200+amp+meter+box+circuit&qid=1663740356&sr=8-7 This is 200 Amp. Do you need 400?
Too long winded .....I couldn't do it.
Dude. I think you're probably right.
Dude.... I am almost four minutes into this video and the only thing you have done was play stock footage, say uhhh, and stare off...
Thanks for your patience while I improve my video skillz.
Why did you make this video ? I really wanted to learn.
Sorry this video isn't what you expected. What specifically do you need to know?