average price to convert electric service in a home from 110 to 220 amp?

Question

House is a cape in Long Island, New York. 50 years old with original meter.

Answer 1

First of all, electric service isn't stated in 110 amps or 220 amps.

The typical service entrance is 100 amps for residential units. Larger houses may have 200 amp service entrances, and in some municipalities are requiring this on new houses. Still 100 amps is typical.

There are older entrances. Usually the smallest is 50 amp but some are 75 amp. These are simply too small, and often way out of code.

If you are talking about converting a 110-volt leg to a 220-volt leg, that can be problematic, depending on what you intend the leg to be used for. Typically, they use a minimum of 10-gage wire for 220 volts.

Normal wiring is 12/2 plus ground. What this means is there are two insulated wires with one bare ground wire. Some legs can be 12/3 plus ground. These are typically switching one of the lines, like a switch outlet. One section is hot all the time, while the other switch.

The costs can vary, depending on your area. I have had service entrances and weather head replaced for under $600 and over $700. Usually they have to replace the meter base and the cable into the house as well.

They now use a 4 lead cable, with neutral isolated from ground.

Hope this explanation helps some.

Answer 2

Yes, depending. If you have three wires coming in, you should have two hots and a ground. If this is the case, you will have to use one of the hot wires as a neutral (mark it clearly as such and change its location in the panel.) If possible, move the old wiring up to approximately eye level and set a single pole 30 amp 6 circuit sub panel. You can feed the rest of the rooms electric from that source. Even though you have 6-15 amp breakers in this panel, you will generally not draw more than 30 amps unless you are running an AC and many lights and other household applainces. Each 15 amp breaker will protect each branch from overload, and the 30 amp breaker in the main panel will protect the entire room. If you have four wires, (two hots, a neutral, and a ground) then you can add a 6 circuit 2 pole subpanel. It will still utilize the same principle, but will not require the moving of one hot to become a neutral. You should always have a ground. Do not use a ground in place of a neutral.

Answer 3

Truly the only way to determine this is to have a licensed electrician look at it, they can determine the size of service panel needed. Factors involved are the size of machinery, lighting, heating and cooling equipment. Code may require wiring upgrades.The total amps the electrical component operates at will determine the wire size and circuit amps for that component only. IE: 220vac-60amp requires a bigger wire than 220vac-20 amp. Most homes in the U.S. will have 2-110 vac lines for power for single phase and an additional 200+vac line (stinger) on 3-phase, plus the required grounds.

Answer 4

It depends upon companies.Aplus electric company offers electric services at an affordable price.