been meaning to ask about this since frances hit.
after frances, we were without power for about 52 hours. we lost it again
during ivan for another 24 hours or so. when the electric co-op crew got
around to fixing the lines, one of them remarked that burying the lines
would really be better, especially in our neighborhood since we have all
these trees, etc. so I called the company headquarters, and they said they
didn't recommend it.
I actually pay a separate utility for service (who leases my account from
the co-op that fixed the lines). I called them about switching accounts
and mentioned buried lines to them and they said they recommend customers
bury their lines if they want to, for the reasons the crewman listed.
anyway, this brought to mind a trip to home depot about a year ago when I
ran into an electrician buying several hundred feet of wire to do this very
thing, he said. it seems simple enough - trench, conduit, run wire, connect.
so...can I do this? or, more appropriately, why shouldn't I do this? we
have a three hundred foot run from the house to the pole at the road. can
I not run a trench, run the wire through the trench, and let an electrician
hook it up. all I'm going to do is dig, lay conduit, and run the wire
through. I'll let someone *else* hook it to the pole and the house.
the only obstacle I can think of (providing the utility just doesn't
recommend, but doesn't prohibit) is that about two thirds of the run from
the street to the house is, uh, "high-tension" wire (?). i.e., it's an
unsheathed wire that terminates at a pole in my front yard with a gray
cylinder (I assume that's a transformer). it then runs over my yard with a
thick(er) black-sheathed wire about 75 feet to the house. can all this run
underground? if not, why not? other neighborhoods have nary a line in
sight, but their lights seem to be on. the other issue would be that the
pole to which all this connects is on the other side of the street from me,
but since I legally own that section of street (private road) I can dig it
up or tunnel under it as I wish. I believe the pole itself is actually on
my neighbor's property, but I don't think he'd care if I trench two feet of
his land.
naturally, an electrician will be involved in all this, but they're all
kinda busy at the moment and it'll be a few weeks before any want to come
out. just trying to determine if I should even have one bother looking
around or not. I really think if this can be done, it should be done,
since my yard is chock full of large pine trees whose sole function as far
as I can tell, is to drop branches on, or fall over on, the power
lines. this is compounded by the utility's position that if the power goes
out to only your house (and not the whole neighborhood) then you are at the
very back of the list while they take care of lines that would help greater
numbers of people. understandable, but I'd like to minimize my chances of
being one of those people as it took two plus days for power to be restored
when a block of three hundred houses was without power, and frances turned
out to be the equivalent of a light thunderstorm. were that a real storm,
I'd have been screwed. ivan wasn't more than some light wind here, but
somehow, no power. for whatever reason the utility is unable to keep power
on here.
anyhow, just figured there must be someone where with knowledge about
this. any insight would be appreciated.
thanks in advance.
scott
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