Help; power lines to house

Yes, it may have required an inspection IF a permit was pulled for whatever was done, whenever it was done, which could have been decades ago. But given that the wires are laying cut off on the dirt, doesn't sound like a permit was pulled.

Other than that, even here in suburban NJ, with a sale, the municipality does a very basic check before issuing a CO. They look for smoke detectors, missing railings on stairs, fire extiguishers, illegal basement bedrooms, etc. But they don't do anything approaching an electrical inspection.

For the OP, sounds like you didn't have a home inspection done before the purchase. Even a monkey of an inspector would have flagged this. I'd start with getting one now, followed by an electrician to take care of the line problems. If you have to ask here how to determine if those lines are hot, I recommend not screwing around with it.

Reply to
trader4
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Yes, I thought it was very clear what he's talking about too. It's the total capacity that the seller stated.

Reply to
trader4

Mac

There are non contact voltage testers available at any good hardware or home center. Simply holding the tip of one of those these against the insulation should be enough to tell you if it is energized. In order to use your multi-tester you would have to remove or pierce the insulation which would expose you to accidental contact with the conductor itself. Given the low cost of a non contact voltage tester I would think it a worthwhile investment. The two hundred ampere breaker at the yard pole can usually be exposed without a great deal of hazard. If the breaker enclosure is in good condition and you can readily make out how to remove the cover you might consider doing so. Your description; "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)."; is puzzling me. Can you describe the thing you are calling a service panel? Does the conduit from the crawl space end at the enclosure for the two hundred ampere breaker? Does that enclosure appear to contain only the two hundred ampere breaker? What does the service panel contain. If you have anyplace you could post pictures it would be real helpful. You could even send me the pictures and I would be happy to help you puzzle this out. I am an electrician by craft and I have farm and ranch wiring experience.

I hope that is helpful.

-- Tom Horne

Reply to
Tom Horne

The fact that after it's been explained to you several times, and you still don't get it, means you really really really should NOT be touching this. AT ALL.

Call an electrician. Pay attention to what he does, take notes, learn. Don't go after this on your own. You will get fried.

All a 200 Amp service means is that the wire from the pole to the breaker box is of heavy enough gauge to conduct 200 Amps of electrical current. You need to know the gauge of the wire from the pole to the breaker box to find out how big a service the house currently has.

The fact that there is only a 100A main breaker in the panel simply limits the current that the house can draw to 100 Amps.

Farmhouses have often had their services replaced. The extra wires you see are likely remnants of the old service.

Reply to
mkirsch1

No, you need to check the rating of the main fuse. A house COULD be wired for 200 amps from the pole and only have a 60 amp service (which is not common or likely today)

Which means the HOUSE has a 100 amp service

Reply to
clare

Mac wrote: ...

The point was more that w/ a loose wire probing the ends in a crawl space is likely a good chance to have a set of leads cross or other "woops!" event. That would likely be nothing but a spark a tripped breaker on a service circuit; on a main feed it could weld you to the line and be fatal. It's just a iffy thing to be doing w/o a _lot_ of care and w/ the questions asked and usenet being what it is, one doesn't know to whom one is suggesting something. Hence, caution must rule... ...

Unless that box is at the top of the pole and/or tagged by the utility as a meter, don't see why you can't do that. But, again, it's where if you need to ask and/or have doubts, one hesitates to suggest...

I'd say still given the tenor of the question and response the electrician _is_ probably the wiser choice.

--

Reply to
dpb

Yes, but you can't just swap out the main panel with a 200A unit and necessarily end up with a 200A service. The wire from the pole to the house must be heavy enough.

Reply to
mkirsch1

That's odd.

That's just screwy. Why one in their right mind would place two sets of three conductors (cables), each with an ampacity of 100, instead of the VASTLY more typical set of three conductors with an ampacity of 200 eludes me.

From what you describe (200A breaker at pole and 100A in house) implies much or nothing at all, particularly if, as is typical in farm installations, it's all "beyond" the meter - often on the main pole in the center of the farmstead.

Rural and farm electrical wiring, particularly if it's beyond the meter (power company demarcation point), is notoriously DIY and, as such, probably NOT to code, not inspected and potentially dangerous.

Still, I can't imagine even the most brain dead DIY farmer leaving LIVE, bare wire on the ground UNDER his dwelling. My guess is they're dead. I'll still bet they're from a previous, now-abandoned service. My guess is that that inside the breaker box on the pole you will find only three conductors.

If there are powered outbuildings, how are they fed? Aerial? Underground? From the house or the main pole?

Take a long screw driver into the crawl space, too. You can jam it into the ground for a (duh) ground to use for your tests. While you're in there, carefully inspect the cable jacket and record any information that is visible. You may need a rag to wipe them off in order to see the print. This will reveal the type and gauge of the cable. Inspect all six conductors for such information - after you have verified that the exposed conductors are dead.

If it's relatively modern cable and the insulation is in good shape, killing the power is probably not absolutely necessary although it never hurts to err on the safe side.

Calling a professional, licensed electrician might be a worthwhile investment although, given the rural location and the crawl space he must enter, it won't be cheap.

Please leave your usenet log-in and password by your computer so your widow can let us know how it went.

Reply to
Jim Redelfs

I believe someone suggested reading the wire size as printed on the wire. There isn't information on what the wire size is. My guess is it is rated 100A and then is required to be protected at the source end (pole) at 100A (instead of 200A). It is possible the original intent was to parallel 2 sets of 100A wire (but according to the NEC the wire is not large enough to parallel). The crawl space is under an addition. The wires may have all been connected before the addition.

Reply to
bud--

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