The leccy board are coming next week to put in a new overhead service cable to my house at their request. Currently I have separate neutral and line but I understand they now use a single cable. Is this coaxial or a twisted pair in an outer jacket?
I spoke to their surveyor chap and told him the route i wanted the cable to take to hide it from view. He agreed what I want could be done. I can't be there when they do the job so just to encourage them to use the routing I want I plan to drill holes though the brickwork. My question is how big is this cable. I currently have a 100 amp board fuse. Does anyone know or point me to a website with physical details of this cable?
If it's the same as what we've just had installed; neither. Ours is a "Figure 8" aluminium conductors packaged in black plastic & twisted roundone another, about
10 turns per foot. (A guess from peering out of the window at it...)
They have just re-plumbed along the street with what I thought was twisted cable but whilst I did not see them do it, one of there trucks was towing a reel of single core cable so I assumed they twisted it into a 4 cable bundle as they went. The taps off to the houses are just bundled into the twists a few inches apart for isolation. I've just drilled a 22mm hole in the wall ready for them, so if they use figure 8 stuff and need more room they can drill out my pilot hole.
Ah! So we can look forward to you posting again in a few days time complaining bitterly about the idiots who completely ignored what you wanted and did it in a totally different and very unsightly way.......
:-))
(I was in the industry for 35 years, and never ceased to be amazed at the - at times - apparent stupidity of some of the staff).
What no protective entrance 'pipe' or mast with a minimum clearance above ground now (AFIK) of 15 feet. Used be 12 I think, at the house. Other wise supposedly minimum 18 feet across driveways for 'service wires'.
Very little if any trouble with ours for last 38 years, although inside our meter socket had some corrosion; it faces towards the North Atlantic and we had to install some new innards at around 35 years.
Many of our houses, ours included, are single storey and of wood frame construction. The triplex aluminium service wire from a pole mounted distribution transformer a couple of spans away serving several homes, step down to 230/115 volts from the 13 kv overhead primary. It is anchored to a splke in the wooden eave of each house and the three conductors go down a vertical metal or plastic pipe or mast to the outside mounted meter socket. Thence through more pipe to the main circuit breaker panel or CU. in the basement. Worst case scenario is if heavy ice formation drags or breaks the service wire off the house anchor (happens very rarely) but even then service is often not disrupted.
The voltages of the service wires to the house are plus and minus 115 to ground/neutral. The 230 volt between the two hot 'legs' being used for heavier appliances. Normally the service wires are taken back to the service pole, although there is provision occasionally by use of mid span taps.
BTW: mainly overhead services seem to allow (here) for very quick restoration by very dedicated, well equipped and service conscious hydro utility crews. In a climate that at times can be unkind. Imagine digging for underground services with 24 inches of frost!
We are well served by our elctrcity supplier. Also the utility bills accurately and efficiently and is contactable and helpful when needed. Average cost of domestic electrcity in this part of North America (mainly hydro generated) is about 10.5 cents per unit (kilowatt/hr) all costs, including sales tax and monthly account fee, included.
Completely different system here in UK 230volts one side earthed at the transformer down the street. Option to take all three phases for industrial loads but virtually every home takes 1 phase only.
The blokes who recently replaced the poles and overhead to my house did a splendid job and we're delighted with it. When they came and did the original survey I asked if we could have taller poles so the farmer didn't drag the phone lines down with the combine every year (the poles are shared between phone and power) and they said yes.
I does mean that Toothless Dave doesn't have to climb out of the combine cab and carry the phone lines over the back of the combine, then climb back into the cab, while it's going along, which was always good entertainment to watch. From an appropriate distance.
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