100 Days of Article 100: Service (and everything that goes with it)

[@nhzxboi]

Definitions become fun in heavy snow storms. Customer: Your service drop ripped the 'service' off my house. Utility: Your tree fell on my cables. Gets to be a crap show. Usually, the utility wins. There is great incentive for the utility to declare the 'service point' to be as far from dwelling as possible. It helps when trouble happens. Yea, sure, we installed the wires but, you own 'em...our gift to you(we made sure they're NEC compliant). It's fun to observe the fights that happen. Snow/ice country.

[@joelwalsman773]

Super helpful Ryan! I love your precision of language and clarity.

[@alejandrovelasco9573]

Learned a lot from you Ryan. Im taking my Registered Master Electrician exam this April in the Philippines. NEC terms or PEC terms now about service are clear to me.

[@garbo8962]

Loved it when people told me that frayed old cloth covered service cable feeding their meter socket was owned & therefore maintained by the utility company. Told them to call the utility company and get me the name title & phone # of person that okayed this. Hated upgrading underground services. They always had 75 year old fraying cloth covered short conductors. Was fun splicing a 4/0 copper wire into this old #6 gauge wire. Thanks Ryan for another great easy to follow vid.

[@MrMaxyield]

Wow 👏 what a great video..!! Ryan you're on fire..!! Thanks..!! Best electrical channel on KZbin...!!🔥🔥🙌

[@K2DXK]

Ryan this was a great explanation. Once you identify the service point everything else falls into place. Great video, keep them coming.

[@dwayneburrell4556]

Awesome tutorial on article 100 (Services). It is such a pleasure listening to you talk code

[@elc2k385]

I think it is a real blessing to have this so important education available for all of us who really want to be professionals as electricians.

[@realvanman1]

That was a really well done explanation. I learned a lot! I once had a house that the 45 year old Service Lateral failed. Thank you for teaching me that term. Fortunately not the neutral, just one line. More fortunately it was not Underground Service Conductors that failed! In other words the utility happily replaced them for me at no charge to me. Something to think about if one is buying a home. I know a poor guy that actually owns the overhead high voltage wire after their fuse, down to a utility owned, pad mounted transformer, then he owns the wire to his house. He also owns one pole with the high voltage on it, and it needs to be replaced. It has become quite the fiasco for him!

[@chadg6874]

What a breath of fresh air! Your details and thorough explanations are so helpful!

[@effinawesome3088]

Thanks for this video! Will definitely be showing my crew this along with several other of the article 100 videos

[@carlosrodriguez9480]

Ryan, thank you so much for making these videos. You have helped me a lot to straighten up concepts that I had not clearly understood.

[@ed6837]

Excellent description. Thank you!!

[@effinawesome3088]

At 19:29. Those breakers could also NOT be service disconnects, right? If the equipment was marked as NOT SERVICE EQUIPMENT, that would move the service disconnect to the next disconnecting means, right?

[@RyanJacksonElectrical]

Yep! 230.85 is rather strange...

[@mr.g937]

Thanks!

[@stevenpederson1645]

In the last example, why are the buss bars not considered a service conductor? They provide "service" from the service point to the disconnects, and they conduct electricity.

[@RyanJacksonElectrical]

The NEC doesn't recognize a busbar as a conductor. Yes, it conducts electricity, but in the language of the NEC a conductor is not just anything that conducts. A metal pipe, for example, conducts electricity but isn't considrr a 'conductor' in the code.

[@Dan__W]

Interesting. Our utility (city) is moving to all-underground laterals to feed residences, and they set the service point atthe terminals of a breaker that sits below the meter cans located in a bank at the alley. (The breakers were added as centrally located emergency disconnects for responders.) Service entrance wire is then run to the home and into the structure. Adding an exterior service disconnect now seems redundant, and it makes me wonder how they'll deal with the new (for this area) code. My state didn't adopt 2020 because of Covid, and will likely skip directly to 2023. 🤔

[@nhzxboi]

Sorta abstract question/historical reference... Does the REA(Rural Electrification Act) from the '30s still serve any purpose? Back then it was supposed to provide electricity to even the most rural of customers. Now: Can anyone build a house in the middle of nowhere and have the REA apply? I.e. is the utility obliged to and given loans for the infrastructure to supply the odd dwelling off the beaten path? Or, does the fool that built the thing required to provide the infrastructure? If they do provide it, do they own it and become a utility themselves for any other dwellings built along it's path? May seem like a silly question but I've seen it in NH.

[@RyanJacksonElectrical]

Not sure, sorry.

[@nhzxboi]

@@RyanJacksonElectrical Sorry, didn't mean to distract from subject. Was remembering my great-grandfather talking about when the utility ran electricity to his farm in the '30s. He was thrilled. I'm sure the utility wan't thrilled unless they had incentive...I'm sure the metered electric bill was not incentive enough for the utility, it took an act of congress to get those places 'hooked up'.

[@garbo8962]

Remember when the large hospital that I retired from was building ambutory care buildings that usually had 2 OR'S so they always wanted to have a dual services. At one location they nearest 13,000 second service was miles away so Ultility company wanted the hospital to pay for a few miles if pokes & high voltage wires.

[@WardCo]

Super well done, Ryan. Just to be a pedant, on your last slide, the bus bar that takes current from the service point to the service disconnects is a "conductor" -- so it seems to me that there IS a service conductor in that cabinet, even though it is not made of wire. Crazy?

[@RyanJacksonElectrical]

Not crazy, but also, in my opinion, not accurate from a definitions perspective. I went down the EXACT same rabbit hole about 15 years ago.

[@billcowhig5739]

@@RyanJacksonElectrical I think I am also in your rabbit hole. Using 2017 NEC, but you implied that version would be adequate to discuss this with you when you said "15 years ago." There are only three definitions of "Conductor" (Bare, Covered, Insulated) in 2017 NEC. They are all circularly defined: "a conductor, bare, is a conductor. . ." There is no "Conductor" defined as a wire in article 100, so how can I know that a metal bus bar, or even a metal box, isn't a "Conductor, bare"? A reasonable person would think that a wire is a conductor, even though a mound of copper would be conductive; so you say conductor, they think wire. But I don't see "wire" as being in the definition of "Conductor." Further, there is no definition for "Wire" but there is a definition of "Branch Circuit, Multiwire." OCD? That's an extended nit. Your videos are excellent.

[@AFmedic]

I admit that this question is coming from a non-electrician, but I'm trying to wrap my head around this logically' If a "conductor" conducts electricity from point A to B and if there is NO conductor then how does it get there? I can only think of two ways: 1) magic or 2) awesome arcing. Am I missing a 3rd option?????? P.S. Your video was interesting though. :)

[@alvilla701]

Great video my friend, I just subscribed, about how often will you have a new video?

[@RyanJacksonElectrical]

The Article 100 stuff is (was) everyday. After that I'll be back to around 1 per week I think. That's the plan anyway.

[@hangngoaigiare]

More about service installation ryan

[@electricianslife1984]

Thank you 🙏

[@damoncarfagna6559]

At what point is the service point determined? Does the utility company determine that in writing ? Seems like they could change their mind at some point

[@RyanJacksonElectrical]

It is usually set in writing, although they usually reserve the right to change it on an installation-by-installation basis.

[@jessiesantos1641]

Ryan, in 9:40, could that also be called an Auxiliary Gutter?

[@RyanJacksonElectrical]

No, because it is being used as a raceway. A gutter and a wireway are the same piece if equipment, the difference is how they're used.

[@husejnmujali5004]

Hi Ryan, I have a question. Where the 2 meters are and it shows entrance conductors. is there requirement that from the meter there have to be a service dissconnect within 6ft?

[@RyanJacksonElectrical]

No.

[@rezadargahi9040]

What is covers in table 300.5 Service lateral

[@RyanJacksonElectrical]

300.5 covers service conductors, not service laterals.

[@johnwhite2576]

They. Can’t stop before their meter can they ??

[@sjain9383]

👍👍

[@realestateservicessaleshea99]

😎👍🏻

[@chrisavcs]

None of this is new, been this way always, and is completely logical.

[@RyanJacksonElectrical]

Not really. You should see the 2005 NEC and earlier editions.

[@chrisavcs]

@@RyanJacksonElectrical When I was in school we were on 96. The point I was making was if it’s the poco’s property or it’s on the line side of the meter they set the rules, not the NEC. Almost always the load side is fatter cause it’s regulated by the NEC.

[@ChadwickFerguson]

Watched 2 minutes aged like milk lol

[@RyanJacksonElectrical]

Excuse me?

[@ChadwickFerguson]

Oh just the definition of service has changed is all