Electrician in Mentone, Indiana
Mentone is the Egg Basket of the World, and the electrical work out here looks like it.
A poultry barn is a climate that runs on electricity, and the birds do not get a grace period while somebody figures out why it stopped.
At McClone Electric, WE KNOW AG. Farmers were our first customers when the business started in 1981, and now, in the second generation, they still are.
What is actually on the circuit
In a modern barn, most of what keeps the birds alive is electric:
- Ventilation fans, with the inlets and curtains that work alongside them
- Feed lines and augers
- Watering systems
- Lighting, on its own controls and dimmers
- Heaters and brooders
- Alarms and monitoring
We do all three: new buildings, added buildings, and the twenty-year-old barn that has had three things bolted onto it since. Most of what we see is the third.
When the power goes out
This is the part that matters in Mentone.
On a poultry barn near Mentone we wired the standby power so the generator carries the whole building at once, with no staging and no shedding loads. Six automatic transfer switches split the barn up so each section picks up on its own. One of them is labeled for the ventilation fans and the electric room, because that is the one you cannot be without.
It starts by itself, so nobody has to be home for it to work.
We install standby generators on propane, natural gas or diesel, depending on the barn and what fuel is already there. See generator installation and our work.
Alarms
We wire the alarms and monitoring as well, not just the power they run on.
On a barn here that means putting the alarm where the generator keeps it powered, so it still works in the outage it is there to report. Decide it at the same time as the generator.
Lighting and controls
Barn lighting comes with controls and dimming, and we wire those as well as the fixtures.
Getting the power to the building
New barns go up away from everything else, and the power has to get out there.
Underground feed, trenched in. Three-phase where the utility has it out that far.
Then it has to land somewhere. On a bigger site that means real distribution gear: a main, and the feeders leaving it for each building and each part of a building, laid out so the next thing added has somewhere to go. A panel sized for what actually runs, not for what ran ten years ago, and not for exactly what runs today either, because something always gets added.
Farm shops and pole barns
The shop is its own job: an air compressor, a 240V welder circuit, a heater, lights on the outside. See pole barn wiring.
Houses in Mentone
We do the house as well, and usually on the same trip. The breaker that will not stay in, service upgrades and panel replacements, lighting and ceiling fans. See residential.
When it cannot wait
Fans stopped. Power out. Something smells hot.
With a barn full of birds, do not wait until morning to call. Somebody picks up at night, as they have since 1981. Emergency electrician.
Questions people ask
- Do you work on barns, or only build new ones?
- Both, and most of it is existing buildings that have been added to over the years.
- Can you size standby power to carry a whole barn?
- Yes. We have done it, with the generator picking up the whole building at once.
- Do you wire the alarms and controls, or only the power?
- Both: the lighting controls, the dimming, the alarms and the monitoring.
- Do you work on somebody else’s wiring?
- Yes. That is most of the job out here.
Get a quote
Contact us today for a free, no hassle quote on your upcoming project.
Call (574) 594-3532 or send us a message.
We also work Warsaw, Winona Lake, Pierceton, North Webster, Syracuse, Leesburg, Milford, Claypool, Silver Lake and Atwood — all our service areas.