This week I met with PG&E and the other land owners on the end of Learning Lane. Each one of us owns 5 acres and purchased it about the same time. We are all subject to the same county rules and everything else. It is nice, because we can often save some expense by going in together as 3 instead of just one of us. We did it with our well (I should make a post about the well).

 

The other 2 land owners and I met with PGE in Antioch it was an hour meeting that took about 2. But the man we met with for PGE was very thorough. I ended up moving my electrical panel from the side of my house to my well. Apparently PG&E guarantees 120 volts to their electrical panel, but beyond that you are on your own. So if your panel is at the front of your property, and you have a big home at the back, it will require larger/more-expensive conduit to carry the same integrity of power to your home. Knowing that, it would be better to make PGE do more work to bring good power centrally to a property.

 

I was also counseled by my neighbors and the fellow at PGE to change my amperage request for my home. Originally, I had decided 200 amps would be all I needed, and I could up it later if I needed. However, I was advised if I had plans for a 2nd residence, or even a large barn later to get 320 amps. Then, I found out I could get a separate power meter for my well. If I had that, I would get water at the lowest tiered cost by PGE’s standards. Now, instead of getting 200amps I’ll be purchasing a 300/100amp dual panel. A total of 400 amps! Planning for the future can get expensive. That will now be installed near my well, instead of near my manufactured home. I believe this is the a similar item to what I will buy and install

 

Dual panel

 

The other thing we talked about is that the other two property owners will need a Public Utilities Easement on their property for PGE to be able to put their lines in the ground. We will be pulling power from the school across the street. The PGE referred to this as Rule 15. Where PGE gets power from another transformer and brings it nearer to our property. In order to do that the road will need to be dug up a bit. A cost the 3 of us will split. The reason I don’t need an easement is that I am not going to be servicing power to anyone else, just myself.

 

Another good idea. Run cable and phone under the road as well. It will be a bigger trench/pipe, but it will also allow us to upgrade if we want to later. I believe we won’t need cable, AT&T has something under the street. But it’s better to have options.

 

My power comes from Rule 16 of their handbook. Also, the property owners will be doing the trenching and backfilling as well as the conduit laying. But PGE will inspect it and turn on the power when we are all done. It’ll be exciting! I heard this is the cheapest way to do it, and that PGE will charge a lot of money to do the trenching and backfilling, something around $140 an hour. Since this is bare land, there should not be anything complicated to do.