Rural Living

[Got2BTru]

Hey all, newer to the forums.

We purchased 32 acres and are planning on placing the house to the back of the properties (or the middle to be more precise) so we can enjoy the open views. That being said, it means our driveway is 1300' long. Which in turn means an EXPENSIVE electrical run! The local utility (National Grid) is estimating $25k to run my power 1300 feet from the road to the house.

Anyone have a similar situation - what did you do? Can I dig it myself to save money and have them place it? I've looked at going off-grid, but the batteries don't tend to last long enough for a good ROI. Even the new Tesla batteries I'm a bit uncertain of.

I also need to run cable/internet feed as I work from home!

Thoughts/Suggestions?

Chris...

 

[oosik]

Hello,
I have a similar situation only my power run is 5400 feet and was completed in 1982. The cost at that time was $4750. I had no way to do it myself and besides if I did, it would have meant that all that I installed myself would have to be maintained by me also. The choice was obvious - they installed and maintain the line.

I have never had a land line telephone. The power company would not allow the phone lines to be hung on their power poles. The cost to ditch & install a telephone line in '82 was $25K. Here again the choice was obvious - we went without phone until the Motorola bag phone came along. We slowly upgraded until now I have a "normal" cell phone which gets two bars of signal reception on a good day. I turn the cell phone on almost every evening to see if anybody left a message worthy of a reply.

I would suggest that a 1300 foot run is not something the normal homeowner is set up to do. This is a job for a professional contractor.

 

[Wagtail]

Just a personal anecdote... having been raised a 'townie' & worked (Navy) in 'big smokes', I always wondered why rural houses were invariably built close to the road. "Look at all that land, why build so close to the noise of traffic?"

Now I know why; the prohibitive cost of hooking up to power, landline and (Lord forbid) town water/sewage. Plus, here in Aus, you're responsible for maintaining everything beyond the initial hook-up point, beyond a set (short) distance.

 

[coobie]

Hey all, newer to the forums.

We purchased 32 acres and are planning on placing the house to the back of the properties (or the middle to be more precise) so we can enjoy the open views. That being said, it means our driveway is 1300' long. Which in turn means an EXPENSIVE electrical run! The local utility (National Grid) is estimating $25k to run my power 1300 feet from the road to the house.

Anyone have a similar situation - what did you do? Can I dig it myself to save money and have them place it? I've looked at going off-grid, but the batteries don't tend to last long enough for a good ROI. Even the new Tesla batteries I'm a bit uncertain of.

I also need to run cable/internet feed as I work from home!

Thoughts/Suggestions?

Chris...

Ask about going halfway overhead primary line and the second half secondary underground.See what the savings might be.

 

[coobie]

Hey all, newer to the forums.

We purchased 32 acres and are planning on placing the house to the back of the properties (or the middle to be more precise) so we can enjoy the open views. That being said, it means our driveway is 1300' long. Which in turn means an EXPENSIVE electrical run! The local utility (National Grid) is estimating $25k to run my power 1300 feet from the road to the house.

Anyone have a similar situation - what did you do? Can I dig it myself to save money and have them place it? I've looked at going off-grid, but the batteries don't tend to last long enough for a good ROI. Even the new Tesla batteries I'm a bit uncertain of.

I also need to run cable/internet feed as I work from home!

Thoughts/Suggestions?

Chris...

double post

 

[BHD]

I have never done this but I wonder if one would have 460 volts put in at the road and then run a line to the buildings and use a step down transformer.

there are many irrigation circles around us that have 460 volts at the edge of the field and they run it into the center of the field and run 100 hp + motor and then the 7 or more towers that are a few more HP each, and the average run would be 1320 feet, yes the circles are three phase, but I know of one farm that had a single phase 460 line, that ran the towers as the pump was natural gas,

IF my figures are correct that would be a little over 200 amps single phase by going 460 volts one could cut down on the size of the wire and the step down transformer would take from the buildings.

one may end up with having to use three phase, (I have 240 delta on my place that also provides very good 240 volt single phase, and allows the use of 240 volt three phase on the shop tools and walk in cooler and freezer,

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Is that the buried price? Can they do it on poles?
Do you have to do water too? Sewer? Phone?
It will cost you a small fortune in gravel to do a 1300 foot long road. Look up RDrancher on this forum for that. He's the best I've seen.

 

[ArmyPair2]

We live almost 1,900 ft. from our road and the power company cut us some slack when we was building. We had to buy six power poles for just a little over three grand that they maintain. I did have to give them rights for a right away on the driveway.We did have one issue with them a few years ago when they sprayed and almost killed my wife's plumb tree. In about five years only seen them two times, one for spraying and one for trimming the trees.

 

[scesnick]

I had to bury my lines from the nearest pole which is on my property 2,500ft away. I was not allowed to use poles even though I own the land they would be on. I had a contractor come dig the trench and then cover it once the line was installed. I would call around to a few excavating companies or even ask a few locals if they know anyone who would dig it for you. Chances are someone will want a bit of extra cash and it will be much cheaper on your end too.

 

[s219]

Wow, $25K seems high. In 2012 we paid a hair over $2K to run a primary about 600' from the road into our property, then get a transformer installed, and another 100' of service wire to the home. At the time that was a lot of unexpected money added on to the construction cost, since normally the power company does not charge for hookup at all. But in retrospect, it seems extremely fair considering the amount of trenching, wire cost, and transformer cost. I am sure the actual cost was far higher than that, and the power company may have only charged us for whatever overage is higher than typical -- perhaps the transformer and some wire.

So all that leads me to believe $25K is the full cost with no subsidy from the power company. I guess I'd want to discuss it further with them and see where the costs are and where they could be reduced, or shared, or maybe you can do the trenching to save some. In our case, the power company subs the whole thing out to a third-party, and they just show up with a mini-hoe, wire, and transformer on a truck. There wasn't anything special about the trenching that any other person couldn't do with the proper equipment.