Underground electrical service

timberwolves · May 8, 2012

Not sure how deep the ground freezes but deep. The utility co. & my electrical contractor both stated the 2" conduit had to be buried 24" in the ground. The line would be a primary line not secondary. The only incentive the power company would give us is 500' of distribution line allowance & 100' of service allowance if we hook up to a approved ceptic system within two years. Because the cabin has no septic we do not qualify for anything.

tnmike · May 8, 2012

There is no way in **** I would give any electric utility 17 grand for the installation of a service they own and then have to pay them a monthly bill for usage. (I worked for one for 34 years in engineering)

Solar panel prices have come way down. I have seen prices as low as $1.25 per watt. Call the folks at Arizona Sun and Wind before you shell out that much money. I do not know what your electrical loads are but you could have a pretty nice system for that price and a hedge against future rate increases which are on the way due to epa regulations against the use of coal and the devaluation of the US dollar.

Solar electric power components and solar panels

jonyyuma · May 8, 2012

Really the price for the Electricity does sound like a lot...I was only speaking from the tech side, there were not many people whom could be trusted to put that line in...the risks are very high with the installation..we even used steel pipe screwed into the ends for the risers ... for better sheer and protection of the wiring..sounds like you are paying for the pad transformer too?

tcartwri · May 8, 2012

In my opinion solar is not going to be reliable enough in this case. If he's not able to visit the cabin all winter round and clean them off, they will be non producing for months at a time. It is true that the cost is very attractive now for an off grid system, particularly for something like a cabin. Just not in this case.

For heat, I would install an LPG woodstove. They do not need power to operate, and will save your butt in power outages. Saved ours during the great ice storm of 98.

My opinion on the hydro run, is that it sounds pretty reasonable for what's involved.

Groo · May 8, 2012

I am looking to build somewhere not to close to a power pole myself. I was rather shocked at the cost too. Then I looked into solar, and ran some numbers, and figured it would run me about $100k to get all the solar power I'd need in the winter months.

Swiftriver · May 8, 2012

One thing nobody mentions about solar is battery life. Those batterys don't last forever, especially if you don't know how to take care of them. 10 years is usually the high end. A good sized system will have $10 grand or more in batterys. Do the math and grid power doesn't look so bad. I'm not against solar. We have solar at our camp and it works out great for how we use it, but we just ran over a mile of primary to feed the new house we are building. It was cheaper than building up the solar to handle the loads of a house and large garage and then replacing batterys every 8 or 10 years.
Timberwolves, I would go with the underground primary. That price sounds pretty reasonable to me. I wish I would have had that option but we ran up the side of a state highway and they said no way, overhead only.

2458n · May 8, 2012

Get a bid from someone with a directional boring rig. No ground to move and replace. You run underground ground and pull back the liner. The electric cable is then installed in the liner. My relative has lived in Colorado off grid for ten years, and he says it is even more doable now.

timberwolves · May 8, 2012

tnmike, I would not be paying the local utility company nothing. I picked out a private electrical contractor. The local utility will not exted this line or construct this line for me. The only way they will extend this line is if it was on a maintained road, which it is not.
jonyyuma, the local utility supplies & maintains the transformer. It will be located 125' from the cabin.
tcartwri,you are correct about not going to the cabin year round. I would be worried about the batteries & solar panels. As for heat we currently use a woodburning stove.
2458n when this machine bores a hole can you put conduit in it ? The line needs to be in 2" sched 40 conduit.

crazyal · May 9, 2012

When I built my house I had to run about 1600 feet of primary. Our COOP is a little different but basically they had three prices. The first was for them to do all the work, the second was for me to trench and they would do all the electrical work, the third (what I did) was I did the trench, ran the conduit, and installed the electrical vaults (along with drains and ground rods). They even specified the size of rope I needed inside the conduit for them to pull the wire.

The rules required a vault every 600' and 2 1/2" conduit. If you can dig the trench then it's real easy to do. The day they showed up to pull the wire they had a 4wd atv to pull with and a second guy guiding the wire into the conduit. The wire was on a giant spool that would unwind as they pulled. I would have pulled the wire myself but they didn't allow it. I left the trench exposed so they could verify that I went down to the proper depth but they never checked and wanted it covered asap once they pulled the wire.

tnmike · May 9, 2012

There is no way you are going to spend ten grand on a battery bank for a cabin. Two grand tops. And that would be a large bank. I got twelve years on my last set of Trojan L16s. What are your critical loads? As far as reliability I would be much more concerned with a grid failure. Think ice storms, wet snow and tropical storms. I know you have seen all of those in the past five years.

Whoever you are paying, seventeen large is a lot of dough. You could have a very nice cabin system for five grand if you are not wanting electric heat or air conditioning and you can turn a wrench. I am in the process of installing a system in a farm shop that will also feed critical loads in the house. I have everything on hand except the batteries. I am debating Trojan T105s versus L16s. My total cost will be 3000 dollars. That is me doing the install and some scrounging for panel mounting, wire, hardware , etc.

The pricing on solar has come way down and in my opinion is a no brainer for new construction especially if you have to pay a ridiculous amount of money for a grid extension. Be sure and consider the price per kwhr LILCO or whoever it is is going to charge you for monthly consumption. I am in no way a raving greenie. I worked for decades as an electrical engineer for an investor owned utility in the distribution/ construction field. I have designed and overseen the installation of hundreds of miles over power lines both overhead and underground. I have also spent months repairing the same lines after storm damage.

That is my opinion for what it is worth.