bigdog wrote:Hi Jerry, I saw a feed to a well pump for irrigation wired thru a meter can to the loadcenter on the adjacent wall in the garage today. As this is not typical it seems like it may not be proper.
Can the AHJ ok something like this?
David,
Can the AHJ approved something like that? Sure, they - can - approved something like that but it is not allowed by the code so I doubt that they actually did approve that, at least not knowingly (contractor may have hidden the conduits/cables so the inspector would not see them entering or leaving the meter can).
The only conductors allowed in the meter can (with possibly a very few exceptions, none of which I can think of) with the service entrance conductors are the service entrance conductors.
One can installed the service entrance conductors from the service laterals/overhead service drops through a CT can then continue to the main disconnect service equipment panel, where the conductors from the CT's run into the meter can, but the service entrance conductors are not in the meter can, they are in the CT can. The meter then displays the power used by calibration from the CTs and the reduction of the current in the service entrance to the current in the CT conductors to the meter. An example might be that there is 800 amps through the service entrance conductors, the CTs are 100:1, with the current in the conductors from the CTs being 8 amps, and it is that 8 amps which is run through the meter, which is then calibrated to read at 1:100 and the reading shows up as the actual power used based on the meter 'reading' the 800 amps being drawn through the service entrance conductors.
However, back to your question: the conductors from the CTs and the service entrance conductors are not both in the meter can, both are only in the CT can.
No conductors others than service entrance conductors are allowed to be run with the service entrance conductors - note in the above example that the conductors from the CTs are not 'run with' the service entrance conductors. The service entrance conductors exit through one raceway to the main disconnect and the conductors from the CTs exit through another raceway to the meter.
Your scenario is not permitted by the code. As you were thinking - it is not proper.