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underground house electrical supply?

To: shop-talk@Autox.Team.Net
Subject: underground house electrical supply?
From: Scott Hall <scott.hall@comcast.net>
Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2004 20:26:36 -0400
been meaning to ask about this since frances hit.

after frances, we were without power for about 52 hours.  we lost it again 
during ivan for another 24 hours or so.  when the electric co-op crew got 
around to fixing the lines, one of them remarked that burying the lines 
would really be better, especially in our neighborhood since we have all 
these trees, etc.  so I called the company headquarters, and they said they 
didn't recommend it.

I actually pay a separate utility for service (who leases my account from 
the co-op that fixed the lines).  I called them about switching accounts 
and mentioned buried lines to them and they said they recommend customers 
bury their lines if they want to, for the reasons the crewman listed.

anyway, this brought to mind a trip to home depot about a year ago when I 
ran into an electrician buying several hundred feet of wire to do this very 
thing, he said.  it seems simple enough - trench, conduit, run wire, connect.

so...can I do this?  or, more appropriately, why shouldn't I do this?  we 
have a three hundred foot run from the house to the pole at the road.  can 
I not run a trench, run the wire through the trench, and let an electrician 
hook it up.  all I'm going to do is dig, lay conduit, and run the wire 
through.  I'll let someone *else* hook it to the pole and the house.

the only obstacle I can think of (providing the utility just doesn't 
recommend, but doesn't prohibit) is that about two thirds of the run from 
the street to the house is, uh, "high-tension" wire (?).  i.e., it's an 
unsheathed wire that terminates at a pole in my front yard with a gray 
cylinder (I assume that's a transformer).  it then runs over my yard with a 
thick(er) black-sheathed wire about 75 feet to the house.  can all this run 
underground?  if not, why not?  other neighborhoods have nary a line in 
sight, but their lights seem to be on.  the other issue would be that the 
pole to which all this connects is on the other side of the street from me, 
but since I legally own that section of street (private road) I can dig it 
up or tunnel under it as I wish.  I believe the pole itself is actually on 
my neighbor's property, but I don't think he'd care if I trench two feet of 
his land.

naturally, an electrician will be involved in all this, but they're all 
kinda busy at the moment and it'll be a few weeks before any want to come 
out.  just trying to determine if I should even have one bother looking 
around or not.  I really think if this can be done, it should be done, 
since my yard is chock full of large pine trees whose sole function as far 
as I can tell, is to drop branches on, or fall over on, the power 
lines.  this is compounded by the utility's position that if the power goes 
out to only your house (and not the whole neighborhood) then you are at the 
very back of the list while they take care of lines that would help greater 
numbers of people.  understandable, but I'd like to minimize my chances of 
being one of those people as it took two plus days for power to be restored 
when a block of three hundred houses was without power, and frances turned 
out to be the equivalent of a light thunderstorm.  were that a real storm, 
I'd have been screwed.  ivan wasn't more than some light wind here, but 
somehow, no power.  for whatever reason the utility is unable to keep power 
on here.

anyhow, just figured there must be someone where with knowledge about 
this.  any insight would be appreciated.

thanks in advance.

scott 






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