Hello,
I am having a house moved to my property and attached to my existing home which will be treated as "an addition" by city officials.
I contacted an electrician who said I'd need to replace my meter to a 400 amp meter and then run a line with 200 amps to the addition and the other 200 amps to the existing 1200 sq. ft. home.

This is at an overwhelming cost of well over $10,000.
I am wanting to know if there is any other way of handling getting power to the new addition which is 2500 square feet.

Thanks

A) How big is the "addition"?
B) What is the existing service size?

With special permission you can have two 200 amp services for your home. Normally you will need to label both boxes that there are two means of main disconnect for the structure.

OR

Just add the additional service onto the building area that will be new. Same deal (with permission from the AHJ and labeled)

A) How big is the "addition"?
B) What is the existing service size?

Hello,
The addition is 2280 square feet, the existing home is 1400 sq ft.

The existing service is 200amp

With special permission you can have two 200 amp services for your home. Normally you will need to label both boxes that there are two means of main disconnect for the structure.

OR

Just add the additional service onto the building area that will be new. Same deal (with permission from the AHJ and labeled)

Hello and thanks a heap for your suggestions. I hope I can get the special permission to do it in either of these ways as they seem a lot less costly.
However, at the rist of sounding naïve, what exactly is the "AHJ" you said I'd need to get permission from? What does AHJ stand for?
Thanks again.

Authority Having Jurisdiction. Usually a electric inspector working for the county or his boss. In our area we use common sense for items like these other areas might be different. This exception is in the NEC. National Electric Code.