wushaw
Elite Member
Mine is @400' in a conduit 36" deep. The guy that did the job said it was 14k volts going through that line.
Underground electric service
- Thread starter RobA
- Start date
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tommu56
Elite Member
Another for direct burial reason is the dirt removes the heat from the wire better than the conduit.
One thing to watch is the screenings on the bottom of the trench make sure they are flat and smooth and the back fill carefully with more screenings to prevent damaging the wire till you get 1 ft over the wire.
The high voltage and the transformer close to the house is the best choice.
one wire in trench. to the transformer and it will be 100 times smaller wire size at 12000 v verses 220v 3 wire.
tom
True, but if the wire, and conduit are sized properly, its no problem.
Steve_Miller
Veteran Member
I wouldn't want to buy the wire to run 220Volts 2000'. It would probably be a second mortgage.
Steve
Steve
dmccarty
Super Star Member
From the last power pole to our driveway is about 1600 feet. Then up our driveway another 300-400 feet to a transformer. Then another 100-200 feet to the back of the house to the service panel.
All underground. No conduit.
Thankfully I did not have to pay from the power pole to the transformer. Supposedly I was going to have to pay to go from the transformer to the service panel since they had to go around where our future garage will be placed. But I don't remember paying the bill.
Later,
Dan
All underground. No conduit.
Thankfully I did not have to pay from the power pole to the transformer. Supposedly I was going to have to pay to go from the transformer to the service panel since they had to go around where our future garage will be placed. But I don't remember paying the bill.
Later,
Dan
jbos333
Bronze Member
I had service put in at my "camp" about 2 years ago. Since there was not a "residence" there (yet) the electric co. needed the meter to be near the road......they don't use the remote read ones yet.
I ran 4/0 direct burial 400' to my building for 200A service. It was pulled through 4" flexible corrugated pipe (drainage pipe).
Now I am looking closer at where I want to put the house(eventually). The spot I really like is another 450-500' from the building the service goes to. That kinda stinks because I will need to run another service (high voltage to a step down transformer at the house) because the run is too long for 240v.
Oh well, live and learn. Actually I might reconsider the location of house anyway because that will mean another 500 ft of road that would need to be built, etc.
Also a note to those who want to do it themselves....I went out and bought a ride-on Ditch Witch specifically to do this job, then I priced all the wire, pipe, boxes, posts, conduit, etc. Then I found a guy fom the area who would do the entire job, get it inspected, etc. for $500.00 more than what I would have spent on the materials!
I have used the trencher for other stuff anyway, but sometimes it's money well spent to have a pro do it.
So, I guess my point is, try to plan a little better than I did! Although I'm still happy I have electric service, I might have done it a little differently....
I ran 4/0 direct burial 400' to my building for 200A service. It was pulled through 4" flexible corrugated pipe (drainage pipe).
Now I am looking closer at where I want to put the house(eventually). The spot I really like is another 450-500' from the building the service goes to. That kinda stinks because I will need to run another service (high voltage to a step down transformer at the house) because the run is too long for 240v.
Oh well, live and learn. Actually I might reconsider the location of house anyway because that will mean another 500 ft of road that would need to be built, etc.
Also a note to those who want to do it themselves....I went out and bought a ride-on Ditch Witch specifically to do this job, then I priced all the wire, pipe, boxes, posts, conduit, etc. Then I found a guy fom the area who would do the entire job, get it inspected, etc. for $500.00 more than what I would have spent on the materials!
I have used the trencher for other stuff anyway, but sometimes it's money well spent to have a pro do it.
So, I guess my point is, try to plan a little better than I did! Although I'm still happy I have electric service, I might have done it a little differently....
JB4310
Super Member
So I take it this would be the only way to go that far of a run, using a transformer? makes sense.
So only 1 wire is needed to feed a transformer, I know the 2-110V leg split is done at the transformer, but what about ground, is that all done at the site of the transformer, with no ground going back to the grid?
Also anyone know how small a wire could be used to feed transformer 1500 ft from the road if primary was average 15-18KV?
Are those single house transformers expensive or prone to any problems?
And how about what size cable would be needed to go 1500 FT and deliver 200 Amp service.
Just curious, JB.
MikeD74T
Veteran Member
RobA, Ask your power company who's going to pay for the wire if it fails -either direct burial or in conduit. Then ask who's going to pay for the digging if you don't go with conduit. Ask who's going to repave the driveway if needed, etc. I'll bet the price of the trench is far more than the conduit. Also consider whether this will be your problem or the next owners.
Some people buy life insurance, some don't, everybody dies eventually. Conduit is insurance.
As for fire path -I work at a nuclear power plant & a major part of my job is tracking fire barriers in ducts, conduits, etc. The ability of a conduit to propogate a flame path is measured in pipe diameters, in other words beyond a certain number of pipe diameters the flame path will deminish completely. A fire would have to be within a few feet of the end to be adversely affected and even then the termination point -meter box, etc- is rated for fire. Their fire path excuse is not valid. MikeD74T
Some people buy life insurance, some don't, everybody dies eventually. Conduit is insurance.
As for fire path -I work at a nuclear power plant & a major part of my job is tracking fire barriers in ducts, conduits, etc. The ability of a conduit to propogate a flame path is measured in pipe diameters, in other words beyond a certain number of pipe diameters the flame path will deminish completely. A fire would have to be within a few feet of the end to be adversely affected and even then the termination point -meter box, etc- is rated for fire. Their fire path excuse is not valid. MikeD74T
Pilot
Veteran Member
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In '92 when we built our house, the phone company plowed in both the phone & power lines at the same time using an orange plastic conduit.
They showed up at 7, the power guys talked to their shop steward for half an hour because the phone guys were non-union, then they got to work. Dug a pit on each side of the road, pushed the wires across, then started plowing, 1,200 ft. Done by noon. Slick.
Cost was about the same for poles vs. plowing except I would have had to dig the ditch if the phone co. hadn't had a plow. Since we were going thru forest, I wanted it underground; we get enough power outages as it is.
They showed up at 7, the power guys talked to their shop steward for half an hour because the phone guys were non-union, then they got to work. Dug a pit on each side of the road, pushed the wires across, then started plowing, 1,200 ft. Done by noon. Slick.
Cost was about the same for poles vs. plowing except I would have had to dig the ditch if the phone co. hadn't had a plow. Since we were going thru forest, I wanted it underground; we get enough power outages as it is.
