Cost to connect to the grid?

[4570Man]

They make direct bury. Is that a no go?

They won’t allow that here and I doubt many places that are being inspected actually would.

 

[dirttoys]

The cost of conduit is about 4x what it was 4 years ago. It’s $70 plus tax for a piece of 3”. We frequently have to use concrete for cover because the depth can’t be obtained due to rock. In my area it’s $10ft for labor. I think the local electric company will give you the transformer but they charge for wire beyond 300ft. Doing underground electric isn’t cheap but 80k is still insane.

Yup I know **** is high, I was lucky to get built and done, and have a decent interest rate on the little that we borrowed. This will be my last.

At $10/foot I could make money, I don't think locally it would be that high even now, I paid a guy $125 an hour with a big hoe and he got done in half a day, and we have a ton of rock. I have a little x and would go trench for $150 an hour, but, I think folks can get a bigger machine for the same money.

Roll it all up, even $20 per foot is ONLY 18k which would kill me, but is a far cry from 80..... If I remember right, if I didn't mind having a poll in the yard the electric company would have set 3 for $1000 each.

Best,

ed

 

[airbiscuit]

Our local electrical cooperative is $5,000 plus $5/foot

 

[oosik]

In 1982 I had the local electric co-op run power down my mile long driveway to where my house was going to be built. In 1982 it cost $4500. I can almost guarantee it would be more now. If I wanted power - I had no other economical choice.

HOLY CARP - I just checked with my local co-op for cost estimate. For a 2000 foot run with underground from the final meter pole to the house - $43,560. My run is 5450 feet. More than double the 2000 feet. More than double the cost - ??? I don't know what my 5450 foot run would cost. Their estimator only goes to 2500 feet.

Even at $43,560 I would still be burning candles. THAT is simply INSANE!!!!

 

[dirttoys]

Our local electrical cooperative is $5,000 plus $5/foot

That sound right.

 

[jyoutz]

Wow, my nearest poll was about 1200 feet, I brought it underground, had to be 4' deep or encased in concrete, we went 4 feet down. Power company set the transformer about 50 feet from the house, I ran the 220 underground and did the connect. Cost me just under $3500 4 years ago.

I know stuff has gone up, but, 70 or 80 k is too close to the cost of a house!! Even at 10 bucks a foot, I don't understand where all the cost is?

Rent me a good sized hoe or x with a breaker if you have rock, and I'll come do it for a fraction

Best,

ed

A lot of the cost is in the cable. Go price that stuff per foot.

 

[etpm]

We are off-grid with our property here in Ontario-Canada for few years already and it has been a really challenge every winter. Solar is not a viable solution for Ontario and I hate when people trying to sale something which they really didn't try it just looking at the profit for them. Because now is the time for us to replace the batteries in our system, we decided to investigate the cost of connecting to the grid. Unfortunately, the last grid pole on the road is at 1000ft from our gate and our house is at another 1000ft from the gate, so 2000ft in total.
Checking with our electrical distributor (Hydro One) they suggested an alternative to connect is to the neighbor's pole which is at 900ft distance from our house over the property line but that will required an easement. Our neighbor kindly accepted, so we need to work with a lawyer for that. Because the power lines will be located just on private properties the local electrical distributor (Hydro One) will not do the work or quote so our only chance is to work with the contractors.
Does anybody knows how much will cost to run the power lines on poles or underground over 900ft? We found only 2 contractors in the area but already 4 weeks passed and they keep saying that they are busy to quote. I have a fell they are checking us to see how "hungry" we are to bite in this.

If you know a contractor in Grey county Owen Sound area please let me know.

Thanks in advance.

I don't know what the code requirements are where you live so I don't know if what I did will work in your situation but I will tell you what I did anyway. I had to put in underground wire for about 300 feet. I used direct burial aluminum wire. I dug my own ditch. The wire is 3 feet deep but I think code was only 2 feet. I bought a backhoe to put my septic system in so I used it to dig the ditch. When I bought the backhoe I had never even sat on one so I was a real novice. And the machine was pretty beat up. I bought the Case 580CK backhoe about 15 years ago and I could sell it today for more than I paid for it. Digging the ditch wasn't that hard to do even though my land has tons of rocks. I suggest that you buy a used backhoe, dig the ditch yourself, lay the wire, get it inspected, cover it, then either sell the machine or just keep it. Just doing the earth works myself for my septic system saved me more than the 5 grand I paid for the backhoe. You would probably be able to do the same. And then after the job is done you have a backhoe. There is nothing about burying cable that requires a highly skilled person to do the job. I strongly suggest you do the job yourself if code allows it.
Eric

 

[WM75Guy]

The impact fees to pay for infrastructure upgrades is what is ridiculous for people doing new construction in incorporated cities and towns. The city where I retired from, the current water & sewer impact fees for a new 1" residential water meter service is $7,000. In San Antonio it can be over $10,000. Power companies are coming on board with impact fees in some areas. In 2009 to get power to our new house the co-op power company put in 3 poles, 750' of overhead wire, a pad mounted transformer, and 130' of underground wire. Total cost was $4,500. We did not have to pay any impact fees.

 

[4570Man]

The impact fees to pay for infrastructure upgrades is what is ridiculous for people doing new construction in incorporated cities and towns. The city where I retired from, the current water & sewer impact fees for a new 1" residential water meter service is $7,000. In San Antonio it can be over $10,000. Power companies are coming on board with impact fees in some areas. In 2009 to get power to our new house the co-op power company put in 3 poles, 750' of overhead wire, a pad mounted transformer, and 130' of underground wire. Total cost was $4,500. We did not have to pay any impact fees.

Locally the electric company only charges a few hundred dollars for a new connection. That’s good for 300 ft and doesn’t include any underground work. The water company charges $1200 for a new meter. That’s only for the meter. The cost of getting it to the house is on you. A sewer tap is expensive. Around $10,000 for that. Building a house 1-2000 feet off the road gets expensive fast after you get all the utilities brought in plus building a driveway and clearing enough land to make room for it all.

 

[Patrick Herd]

I'm a power systems engineer with a bit of experience with off grid systems (used to be in a similar situation to you) If you want any advice on improving your current power system without evaporating huge amounts of cash.