We often get customers that purchase land for a future home, or perhaps recreational land, who then ask the question, “now that I have the land, how do I get power to it?”
Like skinning cats, there’s more than one way to get power to a lot! However, we generally recommend people do what we call a “Farm Panel”. Farm Panels, also known as combination sockets, are meter sockets that also have a small electrical breaker box attached to them. These are great, because they allow for power to come in to the socket, and then to protect various outgoing power supplies to houses, sheds, etc. Typically, we also mount these with outlets as well, to allow for immediate use of power.
How do I get a new electrical farm panel installed and energized? Here are a few steps:
Location: It’s important to walk the land with your electrician and discuss what your plans are. Where are houses, driveways, outbuildings, etc. going? Are you going to want to have separate power somewhere for a parked camper? It’s also important to note where the power supply is coming from… This is typically coming from a green power transformer, or overhead power lines near by. Distance from these power supplies can add additional costs depending on the power provider and what they’ll need to do to get the power to the meter socket
Installation of the Farm Panel: The electrician will then install the farm panel mounted on a permanent structure. For us, this often consists of a 6x6 post with the farm panel mounted to it, along with whatever outlets are requested. Often, we can build this electrical service right at our shop and drop it into a hole on the property with limited on site work needed.
Inspection: The Farm panel gets inspected by the local inspector, and the “electrical affidavit”—a document signed by the electrician and the inspector—is sent in to the power company.
Energizing: At this point, the process is in the hands of the electrical service provider. They will require you to open up an account for electrical service, and then send out a crew to plan/design how they will energize the system. This
may or may not cost you additional money. There are some companies that give you the first 100 feet for free, while others charge you right out of the gate. If its winter and the ground has frost in it (much more difficult to dig), they will almost certainly charge you for frost charges, which can be somewhere around $8/ft on top of what the normal charge is—yes, it’s better to try to hold out until spring if you’re doing things in the winter. Also note; this process can often take between 2-8 weeks to complete, so don’t get too antsy!
Once the combination socket is installed and energized, you have a code compliant system to run power to pretty much whatever you want! If you have a question about getting power to your new property and future electrical planning, give us a call today!
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