220 V table saws and ground

[Martin H. Eastburn]

Yep - I have two (two-phase) High Voltage lines and a ground line that branches off the highway my road attaches to. It is 12 to 1500 feet long and has two transformers on it for me and I shared my line with the neighbor who put in a shop. His house was powered off the highway.

I have two 'dummy' transformers - they are primary connected only as line terminations while the house branches off and then the shop. Oddly, both house and shop are on the same line. They are in the air and has caused a lot of expense in tree trimming. Thankfully most of it was by the power company and the rest by myself.

This county doesn't consider it an easement and tax the ground as tree property. Martin

Lew Hodgett wrote:

[RonB]

Brian - Truthfully now.

Did you ever imagine your straight-forward inquiry would return 151 (errrrr...152) responses :^} ??

[Pat Barber]

In North Carolina, you would be hard pressed to NOT find a underground service. They made that the standard here well over 30 years ago.

Sw>

[Swingman]

Then you have much better politicians then we have ... assuming that there is such a thing as a "better politician", of course? :)

[Pat Barber]

Naaaw...we got the same bunch up here you got.

I'm not sure exactly who got that thinking in place, but that's the way it's been for a very long time.

They are even taking down older aerial hook ups and putting them back with underground.

We have had our share of hurricanes >> Sw>>

[Robert Bonomi]

I have. The '11th power' figure comes from a college dorm-mate. He'd interned with GE in their lighting manufacturing operation. And his masters thesis was on the subject.

yup. But many people (erroneously!) consider _only_ the cost 'per hour of operation', in which case the de-rated bulb is _always_ less expensive _per_ _hour_ than the one operated as rated.

With standard light-bulbs, that may _not_ be an option. Try and find an off-the-shelf (i.e., that you can by in a grocery, hardware, or home- improvement store) 'lower wattage bulb' with, say 10% less lumens than a standard 100 watt 120V one. Quite simply, they don't exist.

On -that-, we are in complete agreement.

[Robert Bonomi]

One minor detail -- *I* didn't write _that_ bull. Nonny did. He left in the "Robert Bonomi.. wrote", while taking out everything I'd said in my posting.

That said, when _I_ am in Australia, I just mount the saw to the ceiling, and everything runs in the proper direction for me.

[Lew Hodgett]

Ever spend any time at Nela Park?

Lew

[Robert Bonomi]

Me? no. (I was studying entirely different things -- and succeeding at that (got one assignment back from the Prof. with "and now for something completely different:" scrawled across the top f it.)

Him? I dunno.

[CW]

In the little town I live in (population 2000), all our power is on poles. The towns around us, one of which is butted right up against us, have underground systems. In the 17 years I have lived here, the longest we have ever lost power was about 20 minutes. Not so with the towns around us. They loose power for at least a few hours per year. One time, for two weeks in a certain section. I remember my boss coming in in a less than good mood for a couple of weeks when his power was out due to an ice storm. I lost a couple of antenna but I still had power. I'm not advocating above ground power. This doesn't make sense but I'm glad it has been that way.

[Lew Hodgett]

Just curious.

Some of your posts suggest you have/had the Monogram tattooed on both cheeks.

Lew

[krw]

,

AFOAF? ;-) Doesn't much matter which, the point stands.

You assume *exact* illumination is required. Like most physiological things, vision is logarithmic. There really isn't that much difference between a 75W bulb and a 100W bulb that a 100W 130V bulb would squeeze between.

I may do that for my great room can lights and ceiling fans. The fans only take a 10' ladder to get to, but the can lights are going to be a real PITA. I don't use them because I really don't want to get up there until I have to paint the ceiling. ;-)

[Nonny]

That's ridiculous, you'd get sawdust in your hair. Sorry for not clearing out the attribution properly.

[krw]

IL, NY, and VT, too. Not sure when they did it in AL (we've only been here a year) but all the new developments are underground.

Bad assumption. Underground utilities aren't coming out of the politicians pockets either. Politicians never care about unfunded mandates.

[Swingman]

Utilities here are regulated by the State, and payola to politicians for favorable regulation, would of course, never cross their minds, and politicians would never think to accept such favor.

Yeah, right ... ;)

[krw]

Underground utilities are funded mostly by builders (costs passed on to buyers, obviously).

[Lew Hodgett]

------------------------------------------- A natural for CFLs where longer life provides a benefit.

Lew

[krw]

The light sucks, they are slow to start, not good in can lights, and their life is grossly overrated (particularly when abused by being held hostage in confined spaces like can lights). I don't own a CFL anymore and have no intention of ever buying another.

In short, no thanks.

[Swingman]

Being a "builder", I agree to the extent that I do so for that which I build ... unfortunately, it is not a requirement for builder's to do so in this state, and even if it was, the chain is only as strong as it's weakest link ... for neither are the utilities, responsible for the "infrastructure", required to do so ... a fact to which my original remarks were addressed.

[krw]

It certainly was a requirement in NY and VT when I lived there. It wasn't a requirement on the power company beyond the housing developments, though. With only a few exceptions (only one I can think of) it wasn't a requirement for any transmission.

The requirement is an unfunded mandate on business, thus politicians love it, was my point.