Vinyl Siding – How to Mount a Meter/Main on New Construction with Vinyl Siding

I'm looking at moving my service drop (with cooperation from the utility, of course) from near the front entrance to the side of the house on a new addition that will be built (and covered with vinyl siding) this fall.

I see two options for mounting things to the wall:

1. Mount the meter/main panel and the service entrance conduit directly through the sheathing and into studs, then detailing around everything with vinyl J-channel and siding up to it.

   • Con: In my mind, this leaves quite a bit of room for water to get in through any place that isn't perfectly caulked (i.e. all of them).
   • Con: I think that this would look funny (an off-topic opinion, I know, but important in my decision making).
   • Con: It makes the siding job much more complex by adding a lot of cutting and fitting to work around all the pieces.
   • Pro: It's simple and easy to mount the panel and conduit as I can see exactly where the studs are and can get them mounted directly to studs with no issue.

2. Side the wall with vinyl then mount U-strut (or similar) and mount the panel to that. I'd imagine the conduit clamps could be mounted directly through the siding with a good glob of silicone in the hole/around the threads to prevent moisture ingress.

   • Con: I'd have to make careful note of where studs are to ensure that we get everything mounted properly.
   • Con: I have to buy the U-strut and appropriate mounting hardware, and get the strut lined up exactly with the mounting holes in the panel and with the studs.
   • Pro: It makes the siding part of the project much easier.
   • Pro: It seems to be a much "cleaner" install. (Again, an off-topic matter of opinion.)

I'm leaning toward option #2, but my wife likes option #1.

• Are there any other Pros/Cons to the two options that I haven't thought of?
• Are there any rules/regulations (NEC 2008) on how this should be done?
• Are there other options that I haven't thought of that might work better?

We've looked at a number of new construction houses in our area, but few of them have vinyl siding and many seem to have underground service feeds so I haven't been able to find anything that seems representative.

Note: We will be working with an electrician to get the feeds to a new panel in the garage and the existing panel in the house set up properly. That isn't a part of this particular question.