Electrical service upgrades in New York, meter to panel

A new panel can only use what the service delivers. If the meter pan, the service cable or the riser feeding your unit is rated for 60 or 100 amps, a 200-amp panel behind it changes nothing. That's why we look at the service before we quote the panel.

Service work is the one job where the utility sits in the middle of the schedule. We file the DOB permit, submit the Con Edison request, and plan the cutover so the building is dark for hours, not days.

Con Edison owns the service up to the point of connection and sets the cutover date. We submit the service request with the load calculation, answer the utility's questions about the new equipment, and schedule our crew for the day the meter is pulled. On the day, the old service is de-energized, the new equipment is landed and inspected, and Con Edison reconnects. Delays almost always come from missing paperwork, so we send a complete package the first time and track it until the date is set.

In a house the meter pan is on the outside wall; in a walk-up it's usually a bank in the basement feeding risers to each floor. A corroded or undersized pan, or a riser with cloth-insulated conductors, limits every unit it serves. We replace pans with current Con Edison-approved equipment and pull new riser conductors sized to the load letter. In occupied buildings we phase the work so only the units being cut over lose power, and we tell tenants the window in advance.

The service entrance cable runs from the utility's connection point to the meter and then to the main. On older houses it's often cloth-jacketed SE cable that has cracked where it enters the weatherhead or the wall. Water gets in, the conductors corrode, and the voltage starts sagging under load. Replacing it means a new weatherhead or entrance fitting, new cable or conduit, and new connections at both ends, done on the same cutover as the meter so the house only goes dark once.

Two-family houses and small apartment buildings often have a meter bank that was sized for gas stoves and window fans. Adding a unit, converting to electric heat, or giving each apartment its own charger circuit usually outgrows it. We lay out the new bank with a meter position for every unit plus house power, size the main disconnect, and label every meter to its unit and panel. Correct labeling sounds minor until a fire department or a Con Edison crew needs to kill one apartment in a hurry.

The electrical work itself is short: a single-family service is usually changed in one day and a small meter bank in one or two. The calendar is set by the paperwork. DOB filing and Con Edison scheduling take longer than the cutover, which is why we start both as soon as the load letter is done and give you a realistic date instead of a guess.