ᐅ Looking for a suitable location for the meter cabinet

Hello everyone,

I am currently planning to renew the house electrical system and need advice on the optimal positioning of the meter cabinet and wiring to the floors to keep cable lengths as short as possible. The house was built in 1965.
Where would you place the meter cabinet?
The cabinet will be 800 x 1100 mm (31.5 x 43.3 inches) in size.

Regards, Daniel

Hey,

Whether you end up with 15m (49 feet) or 25m (82 feet) per cable run doesn’t make a huge technical or financial difference. You’re more likely to lose out on details like the installation method or circuit protection.

Much more important is the location within the building structure. Place it centrally in the building, as close as possible to the vertical service core—like the staircase or service shaft—this will save you headaches later. If you run cleanly star-shaped cables from there to the floors, you’ll be more flexible, also for future upgrades. Everything else quickly becomes quite complicated, especially if you want to expand something later.

And by the way, the connection conditions from the utility company also matter, key points being accessibility and the main connection room. The best location won’t help if the utility refuses acceptance later on. Have you already clarified where your main connection point is or will remain?

Thank you for the feedback.

I have marked the main electrical connection box in the floor plan at the bottom left. The utility company does not allow relocating it, and the technical connection conditions (TAB) only state that the meter cabinet must be located nearby... whatever that may mean, it seems to be open to interpretation :-)

The main electrical room is relatively small, so I was considering relocating the meter cabinet.

“Immediate vicinity” – usually we are talking about 1–3m (3–10 feet) of cable length between the main connection box and the meter panel. Anything beyond that is quickly scrutinized, even if technically longer runs are possible. If your utility room is already tight, an external cabinet only helps to a limited extent, because you then extend the main cable run, and that’s where the requirements are strictest.

I would rather suggest placing the cabinet at the edge of the utility room and running the cable straight up from there, so you move just slightly out of the room but still within the acceptable tolerance. Anything else will just cause more discussion later without much benefit. And honestly, if you save 5m (16 feet) per floor, that advantage quickly loses its significance.

I would now choose this spot for the meter cabinet. See picture.

The main electrical connection box is not far from there, and you would have roughly 1.5m (5 feet) of cable length if you route it neatly.
From there, I could relatively easily run the cables through the ceiling into the ground floor.
Should I pull all the cables for every room on the ground floor through one spot, or would you run them on the surface in the basement and branch off to each individual room?

As far as I remember, there must be a 1.2m (4 feet) workspace in front of the meter cabinet. I would assume that installation directly in the doorway area is therefore not permitted...