Earlier this month, a comment string on the posting, More from News for Nerds - Heat pumps, led to another posting, Determining electrical service requirements - for the non-professional, with an abundance of comments. I do not intend to extend (I like that phrase; ) the discussion in this posting, but merely wish to provide a place to document some of the information and sources that I ran across during the earlier exchange. In no particular order, I include the following items.
City of Derby, Kansas, Underground Wiring in Residential Subdivisions
I've made previous mention of utility supply lines of various sorts' being delivered to our homes by underground installations, and below is an excerpt pertaining to electrical and telephone service supply from our city's Subdivision Regulation, Article 7 Installation of Required Improvements (Download Article 7__201304041240165680).
Overhead Power Line Service
If the electrical service is delivered via overhead power lines, as has been the case in about half of the homes in which I've lived, the electrical service entrance is through the roof or through an exterior wall - above grade.
The graphics, below, are from a simplified presentation at Electrical Academia, and illustrate some of the routing and terminology having to do with conducting overhead power line electrical service into a residential dwelling. The graphic on the left shows a "mast service drop"; on the right, a "clevis service drop".
Dealing with restoration of electrical service following damage due to a disaster
It is a sticky wicket, figuring out whom to call when disaster strikes a home, damaging the electrical service entrance. During my volunteer disaster relief work, in coordinating with governmental agencies, I have been party to several conversations concerning what various levels of government can/cannot do, what utility companies can/cannot do, and the responsibility of the home owner (who may engage a qualified electrician) in restoring electrical service following a disaster. It got very frustrating for the stressed home owners.
The following table of responsibility is from Basics of Residential Electric Service Drops (thespruce.com).
| How [sic - should be Who] Is Responsible For Fixing the Service Drop? | ||
|---|---|---|
| Power Company | Qualified Electrician | |
| Overhead wires running from pole to house | X | |
| Service bracket attaching service wires to house | X | |
| Electric meter | X | |
| Weather head that attaches to service cable | X | |
| Service cable from weather head to meter box, then to service panel (circuit breakers) | X | |
| Meter socket | X | |
Comments