I have an old Pushmatic panel that I would like to replace but am struggling with a pretty glaring clearance issue as you can see in the photos. The house is a tri-level in Columbus, OH and was built in 1958. The only available space I really have that would meet NEC 110.26 is on the opposite side of the wall, outdoors, under a covered porch. Is that my best bet or are there any other reasonable options I'm not considering?
They are "the finest residential panel ever made" in the opinion of many electricians. If you heard something about them being dangerous, that is incorrect. They are obsolete (not well supported with new styles of breaker), but that is a different thing from dangerous, such as FPE and Zinsco types which are both obsolete and dangerous. Of course, some pro electricians will froth up people's paranoia to get them to spend money on unnecessary work.
What has me concerned is the totally exposed service entrance wiring above and below the meter. If you managed to bean that with a rake or something, it would blow you into next Tuesday! That has no fuse protection whatsoever, it will hotshot up to 10,000 amps right off the utility transformer. That's about 2 megajoules per second, or the impact force of the Gatling gun on the F-15 Eagle. Even if this was permitted when the house was installed, for my own family's safety I'd want that in metal conduit like a modern riser/weatherhead.
By the way, that is why the main panel is forced to be right next to the meter. To keep that service entrance wiring as short as possible to reduce risk.
So if it were me, I'd keep the Pushmatic and focus on the service entrance. And this is where I would seek to "kill 2 other birds with one stone".
First bird: the obsolete meter pan. Modern "meter-mains" have the main breaker right at the meter, which does several things. First, it means the line to the breaker panel is now protected by a breaker. So that wire is safer, and the panel can be anywhere. That's neat for a future upgrade. But also, the main breaker at the meter means you can fully shut off the Pushmatic panel, which you can't do now. This greatly improves the outlook for DIY work. So main breaker at meter is a win.
Second bird: you need more breaker spaces and/or a place to put modern breakers like AFCI, solar, EV, Eaton smart breakers for demand side management so you can run more loads on the service you have ... or whatever the future holds. Generator interlock maybe?
So to kill all those birds, I would actually look at a "combo panel" which contains meter + main + a bunch of breaker spaces. And I would site that right about where the meter is now. A couple inches over maybe, so you can build the new one while the old one is still in service, but if you could plop it right on top of the old one, you could exit straight out the back of the new meter-main to feed the original panel.
That telephone "demarcation box" is pretty easy to move. Are you even using land-line anymore? They switched me to fiber so all my copper wiring is obsolete.
Normally I'm not a fan of combo panels because advanced breakers don't do well outside... but this is a sheltered location so it'll work fine.
A pro could do this work in a day, meaning you wouldn't need to live in a hotel. It might be possible to DIY it, but given the "learning curve" for getting all the entitlements correct, I would expect delays due to errors. If you're into DIY, then the "meter-main" is a bullet you bite once, and then you have an easier time.
The only work that needs doing in the old panel is to separate neutrals and grounds onto separate buses. That shouldn't be hard, look in the back of the panel for holes tapped #8-32 or #10-32 intended for accessory ground bars to be mounted.
