Meter box placed in Facade

Sara thy · Feb 09, 2024 6:04 pm

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Any electricians or builders, kindly advise me. Currently in Framing stage double Storey in NSW.

Unfortunately, my Electrical Meter and Gas Meter are placed in middle of façade, facing side of the Porsche pillar due to space constraints on both sides of my home plan. (picture below)

Electric Meterbox is recessed in sidewall of 900mm wide.

I am trying to avoid the wiring pipes visibility in my façade. Anything else required to concern here:

1) What will be the size of Electric meterbox.
2) I have asked solar guy to run conduit to bring the wiring to meterbox.
3) Will recessing the electric meter box affects any future upgrades as the box will be fixed inside the wall so cannot increase the meterbox size in future?
4) Suggest how to hide this one if you did before. Please Share the pictures
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chippy · Feb 10, 2024 2:44 am

The meter box is a pretty simple box that really will never need anything done to it.
You will also have a sub board in your garage. It's this sub board that may need upgrades if you get solar or add an air conditioner or the like. It's also this bub board that has the main switches, breakers and rcd's.
Most modern homes would hardly ever open their meter box nowadays because all the important stuff is on the sub board.
The meter box just gets painted the same colour as your wall and normally just blends in.

Sara thy · Feb 14, 2024 9:42 am

chippy

The meter box is a pretty simple box that really will never need anything done to it.
You will also have a sub board in your garage. It's this sub board that may need upgrades if you get solar or add an air conditioner or the like. It's also this bub board that has the main switches, breakers and rcd's.
Most modern homes would hardly ever open their meter box nowadays because all the important stuff is on the sub board.
The meter box just gets painted the same colour as your wall and normally just blends in.

Great thanks chippy. appreciate your time. Is this the standard of keeping the meterbox and sub board separately? bec i saw most of the homes have everything kept inside the meterbox in the side of the home.

Ashington Homes · Feb 14, 2024 1:46 pm

Sara thy

chippy

The meter box is a pretty simple box that really will never need anything done to it.
You will also have a sub board in your garage. It's this sub board that may need upgrades if you get solar or add an air conditioner or the like. It's also this bub board that has the main switches, breakers and rcd's.
Most modern homes would hardly ever open their meter box nowadays because all the important stuff is on the sub board.
The meter box just gets painted the same colour as your wall and normally just blends in.

Great thanks chippy. appreciate your time. Is this the standard of keeping the meterbox and sub board separately? bec i saw most of the homes have everything kept inside the meterbox in the side of the home.

I am adding my 2cents to this thread.

Chippy is completely correct, you will have a sub-board inside your house. That can be the garage or a cupboard somewhere.

We like to put them in a central point as we run all our cameras and NBN and the location depends on the design of the house. NBN only allows 2 bends in their conduit inside the home so sometimes this means the garage, or a cupboard in a discrete location.

I personally like having all my switches in the kitchen so if lights go out on a rainy night or the toaster burns a piece of toast and trips a circuit you can easily reset the switch.

It is also possible to just have your sub-board in the garage and your cameras and NBN in another location, just comes down to what works for you and your electrician.

building-expert · Feb 14, 2024 7:14 pm

Perhaps the most important point has been overlooked, Meter box and the "smart meters" inside should be as far away from the living, sleeping areas to reduce electromagnetic radiation.
During my pre purchase inspections I have found many times, meter boxes as close as 300mm from bed heads.

Ashington Homes · Feb 15, 2024 2:03 pm

building-expert

Perhaps the most important point has been overlooked, Meter box and the "smart meters" inside should be as far away from the living, sleeping areas to reduce electromagnetic radiation.
During my pre purchase inspections I have found many times, meter boxes as close as 300mm from bed heads.

That is 100000000000% true! thanks for pointing this out.

In a past life i was responsible for the redevelopment of the old ABC studios in Gore Hill Sydney and we had a big broadcasting tower which was still operational.

So we had to get all the electromagnetic engineers out to assess that it was safe and they all agreed that meter boxes close to bedrooms was one of the most dangerous issues, especially for small children, followed closely by high voltage power lines.

So that is a good point we can often forget.

Sara thy · Feb 19, 2024 10:31 am

i spoke to my builder and he mentioned all switches, meter will be placed inside the meterbox which is located in the facade.
HUB for NBN will be placed inside the garage.
i asked the Solar guy to keep the inverter and battery provision inside the garage by running a conduit during framing stage.
also asked my builder to add EV point inside garage.

Bec the meterbox (have all the switches) is placed in facade and cannot fully recess as per my builder now, anything else i need to add/plan in advance to avoid any wires or pipes visibile in my facade. kindly advise.

(note: my main living and bed room are placed in backside away from meterbox)

Sara thy · Feb 19, 2024 10:33 am

Ashington Homes

Sara thy

chippy

The meter box is a pretty simple box that really will never need anything done to it.
You will also have a sub board in your garage. It's this sub board that may need upgrades if you get solar or add an air conditioner or the like. It's also this bub board that has the main switches, breakers and rcd's.
Most modern homes would hardly ever open their meter box nowadays because all the important stuff is on the sub board.
The meter box just gets painted the same colour as your wall and normally just blends in.

Great thanks chippy. appreciate your time. Is this the standard of keeping the meterbox and sub board separately? bec i saw most of the homes have everything kept inside the meterbox in the side of the home.

I am adding my 2cents to this thread.

Chippy is completely correct, you will have a sub-board inside your house. That can be the garage or a cupboard somewhere.

We like to put them in a central point as we run all our cameras and NBN and the location depends on the design of the house. NBN only allows 2 bends in their conduit inside the home so sometimes this means the garage, or a cupboard in a discrete location.

I personally like having all my switches in the kitchen so if lights go out on a rainy night or the toaster burns a piece of toast and trips a circuit you can easily reset the switch.

It is also possible to just have your sub-board in the garage and your cameras and NBN in another location, just comes down to what works for you and your electrician.

thats really a great point. but my builder told the standard is to keep all the switches, meter inside the meterbox. any idea how much it will cost if i want to separate the swtiches and meter.

noviice · Feb 21, 2024 10:19 pm

building-expert

Perhaps the most important point has been overlooked, Meter box and the "smart meters" inside should be as far away from the living, sleeping areas to reduce electromagnetic radiation.
During my pre purchase inspections I have found many times, meter boxes as close as 300mm from bed heads.

Excellent contribution.