Underground utilities. Pros and cons

[Budweiser John]

Spend what it takes to put everything in nonmetallic conduit. At best, direct burial wire is only a temporary instillation. Sooner, or later, you'll find that out.
Additionally, skip the TSC variety plastic water line and get the good stuff from a professional plumbing supply house for the same reason.

 

[mdjohn1427]

The good Stuff. For water service lines you mean PEX or CPVC?

 

[boggen]

underground and crossing creek = most likely some sort of permits. that will need be done.

post 15 by LD1 *big thumbs up* contact local electrical company. generally they will send someone out and talk with you at the property. and actually see the lay of the land and what needs to be dealt with. they should be able to get back to you after that with a price, possible cost for transformer, if they can not hook up to a transformer going to a neighbors.

electrical company first plan of attack.... should be free bid per say.
next contact a couple electrical companies, and get a couple bids from them. they might be able to install it all. and then just require actual hook up via electrical company.

if you got the know how and machinery, you might be able to put some of it in yourself to save some costs. maybe trenches, or putting a hose, and back filling. but it completely depends on the power company. if there transformer is going between there lines, your diy stuff, and then finally to there transformer. they may say "heck no" and require this or that be done and by a certified person. forcing you to pay for someone to do it for you. which may be a good thing. if any down wires = there problem and not yours for cost.

 

[Dr_Zinj]

House is 1400 feet from the road, so would have taken several poles to get electricity, phone, and cable there. We buried them about 3 to 4 feet down, running them through 3 separate pvc pipes, and yellow plastic warning marker tape about a foot above the pipes. Haven't had a single problem with any of them since 2001.

 

[ultrarunner]

Getting a meter can be a very expensive proposition.

The Hospital has leased one of the smaller sites for an imaging center and part of the deal was the tenant was to install a dedicated utility owned electric meter.

The estimates to add a single meter are coming in between 80 and 100k... just to add a meter!

The building is already served with a separate 600 amp 480v breaker and has a dedicated panels and transformer inside.

The existing 600 amp breaker is only 5' from the utility transformer...

Just saying something that should be simple can get expensive fast...

 

[Budweiser John]

Mdjohn1427
There are various grades of direct burial plastic pipe. What I was referring to is the type typically used by well contractors which I believe is schedule 40.
I've never used pex or CPVC for under ground although, I don't see any problem with pex underground as long as the fittings and band clamps are non corrosive.

 

[Osu98]

Don't bury the pex underground without sleeving it. I was going to do the same thing to run some water for stock tanks. The 25 yr old young lady at our plumbing supply place brought up the good point that underground critters can eat through it.

As far as underground utilities, our homesite is 1700 ft off of the road on a hill. The local electric coop ran underground lines and we ran the water line. The only problem so far has been controlling the erosion after filling in the trenches. It has kind of been a nightmare. Other than that we are very pleased.

 

[mdjohn1427]

well, met with the electrical companies engineer today. option 1...bury power line down the middle of my driveway 1900' from source to site...price $37,000. option 2...install power line above ground down the side of my driveway (same distance 1900')...price $23,000

needless to say...I'm speechless....

 

[Billrog]

I do a lot of under ground services for the under ground can you hire some one to dig the trench buy the cable yourself have the utility company inspect before burying? The under ground wire is very expensive with copper for a 200 amp service it could be $19,000 for the wire alum. would be cheaper but a heavier gauge necessary.
For overhead are there private contractors that could give you a price.I had my over head installed for 1/5th the price the hydro company gave me by using a private contractor.

 

[Osu98]

well, met with the electrical companies engineer today. option 1...bury power line down the middle of my driveway 1900' from source to site...price $37,000. option 2...install power line above ground down the side of my driveway (same distance 1900')...price $23,000

needless to say...I'm speechless....

That sounds pretty consistent with our electric coop here in Oklahoma. 1500 ft of underground was about $26,000. I just lucked out because of the setup I was able to split it three ways with my neighbors. I still almost threw up when I wrote the $8000+ check.