New park infrastructure - Sewer and Electric

mobile home university
#1

Hey guys, I am expanding my park and I have 2 quick questions…

  1. I am on city sewer and have a gravity sewer system. The new pump station will be located at the lowest corner of my park. I need to chose either a grinder or a solids handling pump for this new pump station. The wastewater department recommends a solids handling pump since they had bad experiences with the grinders (apparently they didn’t work that well and the sewer dept had to pump out the city pump stations 1-2 times per year so they switched to the new solids handling pumps). My pump station vendor is recommending the grinder because they say it will handle solids like diapers, wipes, etc better than the solids handling pumps. Does anyone have experience with this? Right now I don’t have enough information to make the decision in favor of one or the other.

  2. I have 100 amp services at my existing park. My electrician says I should stick with 100 amp services at the new pads also since there is no need for 200 amps because the homes are not electric heat. Does anyone see any reason to go with 200 amp???

Thanks in advance

#2

Definitely 200 amp. A dealer near us continues to have 200 amp Model homes on his sales lot.

1 Like
#3

I put the solid pumps into my lift station. Grinder pumps have more moving parts and more prone to jam up over time. Make your tenants exceptionally aware what goes down the drain and what doesn’t. Not a whole lot else you can do unless you want to become a utility and establish lift station costs and bill back for it…that was what I had to check and wasn’t worth the hassle for my park.

Keep a spare pump on hand always regardless which way you go.

2 Likes
#4

@jhutson Great point about the moving parts. Excellent info. Thank you

#5

@JAY-E Any idea why? Does 200 amps give you more flexibility with what/how much you can power in the home vs the 100 amp? I am a dealer too and I always just bought 100 amp homes for my park just because that’s what I already had set up.

#6

95% of my existing pedestals are 100 amp. So when a person wanted to move their one year old home in with 200 amp service into my Park guess what? I had to spend $1100 for a 200 amp pedestal to accommodate them. [My 40 old pedestals couldnt take a 200 amp breaker]

1 Like
#7

@JAY-E that makes complete sense. I had a similar situation with a park model home that moved in. I spent like $700 to put in a special pedestal for the RV type of hook up it had. Little did I know we just got a new code enforcement officer who started enforcing rules for the first time in decades and kicked the park model out of my park. I ended up removing the RV pedestal and put a 100 amp back in lol

#8

I’m curious. Why did they bounce the park model out? As long as electric was up to code… I have a mobile home park, with about 10 rv lots with pedestals.

#9

@brakes172 The city I am in does not allow RVs or Park Model homes. They have to be HUD code at minimum.

#10

I “General,” before all these homes started becoming LEED compliant, the newer homes that were mostly electric were energy hogs especially with air conditioning. In the past 5-8 years the homes have become much more efficient, so 100 AMP may be adequate. If I was replacing or developing new I would still opt for 200 AMP as the cost differential is not that different, especially if you get a home or homes that need that additional amperage.

2 Likes
#11

@PFM That makes sense…if I go with all 200 amp services in the subdivision but I get someone with a 100amp MH, do I have to change the service to a 100 amp to match the home or is a 200 amp service good for 200 and 100 amp homes? I’m completely incompetent when it comes to this topic so thanks for bearing with me.

#12

Downward compatible…yes…but not the other way around. You can connect a home with a 30, 50, 100 AMP panel to 200 AMP service, but if you bring in a home with a 200 AMP panel, you will need to upgrade the 100 AMP service to 200 AMP.

1 Like
#13

@PFM Okay, in that case it’s a no brainer. 200 is the way to go! Thanks

#14

Please check local electrical codes that apply. In some locations the Amp service has to be the same.
For example if the MH has 200 amps the meter box breaker has to be 200 AMPS or if the meter box is 150 AMPS the code enforcer will not let you make the connection or vice versa.

1 Like
#15

@carl Good point! I have not had this happen yet, but it could be a possibility.

1 Like
#16

@carl thanks for the advice. That is definitely something that could be a “gotcha” down the road. Especially in my city lol

#17

Most cities and municipalities follow the National Electric Code (aka NFPA 70). I am not saying there aren’t places that will have a problem connecting a 100 A service home to a 200 A service line, but if they do, they are morons that don’t understand how electricity works. There is zero technical justification for this. It would make no sense to have that restriction in place and I can’t imagine why anybody would require that. Not that government always makes sense, especially small yokel ones…

2 Likes