Help; power lines to house

[Mac]

Hi, My wife and I just bought our first house. It's a great house but needs some attention here and there (what else is new, right?). It has a full basement with a crawl-space under an addition. Getting to the point: I found where the power lines come into the house from the pole (it's a farm house). They come into the crawl-space through a short conduit but the conduit ends and the lines are just laying on the dirt. I know this isn't great but I know where to cut the power at the pole so I can run them through more conduit before entering the fuse box. My question is this; there are six lines running into the crawl-space, three of which go to the fuse box and three just laying on the dirt, no caps or anything, just chopped off flush and laying there. The box is 100 amp and the previous owner said there is 200 amps coming into the house. How can I tell if the cables lying on the dirt are hot? Why are there six lines, does that make 33-1/3 amps per line? I would like to run one or two of these unused lines to my garage (to it's own panel). Thoughts? Comments? Panick attacks?

[Mac]

Okay, sorry, brain-fart. I'm assuming one of the lines running into the box is for the ground bock. So that would be 50 amps per line?

[ransley]

How about the inspection by the city, what did they say. Call them.

[RBM]

You have to see how or what they're connected to on the outside of the house.I would suspect there is a meter outside, but not necessarily. A typical 120/240 volt service will have three wires coming in, two hot legs and a neutral. A larger service can have parallel conductors, two sets of hot legs and one set of neutrals, however the smallest allowable size conductor that can be in parallel is #1/0, which would probably make it more than 200 amp. Because of the variety of unknowns in your situation, I would have a local electrician stop over and check it out, and give you all the details and possibilities. Good luck with the new house

[RBM]

How about the inspection by the city, what did they say. Call them.

What city is it that inspects electrical wiring at farmhouses?

[dpb]

Mac wrote: ...

a) I'd simply pick the cable up and use cable clamps to run it across the joists -- don't see any real need for the conduit. Can if want, but for what purpose?

b) The six wires are two sets of two 240V feeds or, more likely a pair of feeds and a spare/future expansion pull. I'd guess the cut-off set aren't hot, but I'd certainly not count on that until I had measured the voltage on them or traced them back to the other end to make sure they're either not hooked up at the other end, too, or on a pulled fuse or a thrown breaker at the pole/meter/whereever.

240V service consists of 2 "hots" and a neutral; that's the three of each set.

What service is rated for depends on what the meter size and the service wire size(s) are. It sorta' sounds like he had two 100A drops made but only hooked up one.

Again, I'd not trust that conclusion until verified it.

You _CAN_ measure the voltage carefully w/ a VOM/DVM whatever you have, but you need to be _dxxx_ careful as you do it. The voltage is "only"

240V max, but there's a lot of current behind it if it is hot and not just a 15 or 20A breaker for a "little short" to trip. If you're not comfortable around power and used to doing such stuff (and it doesn't really sound as though you are), I'd follow the recommendation of the other poster and get an electrician to tell you what you got.

--

[ransley]

The one that collects the TAX on the property. The same one that inspects it for safety and sale. So thats all of them.

[dpb]

ransley wrote: ...

That would be none...not in a city jurisdiction and the county doesn't have inspections so that would negate "all"...

--

[RBM]

The one that collects the TAX on the property. The same one that inspects it for safety and sale. So thats all of them.

I've never heard of such a thing. In the suburb of NYC where I live, there's no government entity that does anything like that. If you want something inspected, you hire yourself an inspector

[JIMMIE]

Rural farmhouse and NYC are oxymorons. For the rest of the country they dont come out and inspect even in the rest of NY state.

Jimmie

[Mac]

Okay, so I shouldn't stand in a puddle of water and grab ahold of the bare wires, got it. I don't mean to be flip, I know a of of folks with a lot of drive and little sense. Fortunately I'm not one of them. Life's been pretty tough lately, I don't want to make it worse....or over. My first thoughts were that the lines couldn't be hot but I checked the breaker on the pole and it is a 200 amp breaker. Of course everything is hidden in conduit so I can't see if it's hooked up. I suppose I need to cal an electrician to access the box at the pole. Thanks everyone,

-Mac

[aemeijers]

Snort. In the parts of the country where I have had contact with inspectors, once you are outside city limits, the inspections, if any, are drive-bys. Some of the 'stupids' I found in the addition to this place definitely would not have passed a real inspection. Around here, as long as they get their cash for the permit, and recognize the name of the person doing the work, they are happy.

-- aem sends...

[Ed Pawlowski]

There are a few possibilities. If the wires are on the ground they most likely dead, but check anyway. There are simple testers that you can touch to the wire end and it will indicate power.

I don't know your abilities, but if you don't know how to test them you probably should call an electrician that can do the test and show you how. Better to spend a few bucks that risk a jolt. As for running them to the garage, that depends on what, if anything, they are connected to.

Aloe, no, they are not 33 1/3 or 50 amps per line, Two are 120V each and one is neutral in typical home wiring. If it is a farm that had heavy equipment, it is also possible that there was/is three phase power.

[Jim Redelfs]

Are the cut-off cables the SAME as the three going to the fuse box? If not, it's likely they are abandoned cables - that NEW cables were added later and pulled through the same conduit.

As for them laying on the dirt: I would LEAVE them alone unless you plan to USE the space thereby exposing the cables to potential damage. That is, of course, assuming the space is perfectly dry. Then again, if they are suitable for direct burial, laying on the ground shouldn't hurt a thing.

The recommendation to clamp them to overhead joists is a good one but there might not be enough slack to do so.

For not a WHOLE LOT of $$ more than ordinary conduit, you could enclose them in "split duct" which would allow them to remain in service while being enclosed. This would provide excellent mechanical protection allowing them to STAY laying on the ground. Good luck!

[Mac]

Yes, they are exactly the same. This fact along with the seller's claim that 200 amps are running into the house but only 100 hooked up tells me that they are either hot or just need to be hooked up. I have a multitester so can test them fairly easily. I'll take all precautions. Thanks for the split-conduit idea. I would still kill the power at the pole but at least I wouldn't need to unhook from the panel.

-Mac

[AZ Nomad]

Only a person who doesn't understand electricity could make such a statement.

You can only have 200 amps running into a house if you have enough power consumption to cause such a current draw.

A house could be wired to handle 1000 amps, but unless you turn something on, there'll be *zero* amps running into the house.

[RBM]

These conductors should have their size and type written on them. If you could post what's written, it would help in determining the amperage of the service

>

[clare]

However, the description is correct. The house has 200 amps of capacity , but only 100 amps of capacity connected. The house has "200 amps at the stack" and only a 100 amp panel and a 100 amp main breaker.

[HeyBub]

Okay, you've got one end of the cable. The other end has to be somewhere.

See if you can find it.

If the other end is hooked up to a transformer, you've got a set of live wires. If the cables are just dangling on the pole, it's dead and you can sell the wire to a copper salvage company.

[Mac]

From the crawlspace, the cables run through the ground in conduit to the pole. The conduit comes out of the ground, runs up the pole, into the 200 amp breaker, and then into the a service panel (mounted on the pole). I'm assuming the cables are in the panel but not connected (of curse I'll test this first). Anyway, the "other ends" are not vidible.