Overhead & Underground Electrical Utility Service

Electric Pro Academy - Real Skills to make real money.
Synopsis:
Whether you’re repairing your electrical utility connection or wrapping your mind around whose responsibility it is, in this video Joel will walk you through some components and troubleshooting tips. With over 15 years of experience in the trade, he’s also got a couple stories, recommendations, and points of professionalism that have been passed around Jefferson Electric masters, journeymen, & apprentices. With all the differences in underground vs. overhead, commercial vs. residential, & 100-amp vs. 200-amp+, we’ll attempt to simplify things with a pared-down example in the warehouse. Watch our other videos for local home and business services.
If the instruction in this video is unclear or skew to what you are searching for, feel free to comment below for additional assistance. Got a question or ideas for a future video? Leave a comment below and submit your idea here: forms.clickup.com/f/23xa9-70/...
Thank you for watching; we value your feedback and monitor this channel daily.
Products We’d Recommend:
[] iDEAL NOALOX Anti-Oxidant Compound: www.homedepot.com/p/NOALOX-4-...
[] Square D 200-Amp Meter Socket: www.homedepot.com/p/Square-D-...
[] Lag-Style Porcelain P-Knob: www.homedepot.com/p/Halex-2-1...
[] Mast-Clamp Porcelain P-Knob: www.homedepot.com/p/Halex-1-1...
[] 2" PVC Utility Weatherhead: www.homedepot.com/p/2-in-Serv...
[] 2" SCH 80 PVC Conduit: pvcpipesupplies.com/2-x-10-sc...
Minimum standards referenced in this video:
NEC Free Access Here: www.nfpa.org/codes-and-standa...
AES Goldbook Free Access Here (Note: AES is the AHJ for Indiana, not nationwide): www.aesindiana.com/goldbook-e...
Outline:
0:00 - Introduction
0:14 - Meter Box Assembly
2:46 - Wiring Transitions
4:03 - Utility Drop/Attachment Requirements
5:28 - Utility Drop Components
7:09 - The House That Blew Up
9:56 - How To Keep Your House From Blowing Up
12:09 - Underground Requirements
13:30 - Swimming Pool Issues
Connect With Us:
Jefferson Electric services residential, commercial, solar, and Tesla systems in Indianapolis, IN.
www.jeffersonelectricllc.com/
/ jeffersonelectric
/ jefferson-electric-llc

[@Jody_VE5SAR]

My neighbour and I were fed from a common pole, and lost the neutral to our two houses. Lots of damage - especially to motorized equipment. But surprisingly, not much damage on electronics - especially those with switching power supplies. A lot of low power electronics is worldwide rated (120/240, 50/60Hz) and saved the day! The worst damage was losing large freezers - not just the pain of quickly relocating the food, but replacing a large and cumbersome appliance. I did have a MOV-style surge bar that had burned out, but luckily self-extinguished before any damage - leaving just a smoke stain on the wall.

[@mitchellbarnow1709]

Your channel is really awesome and informative! Thank you for creating it, Joel.

[@Gruntled2001]

Joel, this is some amazing, well-delivered content. I absolutely love this channel.

[@rupe53]

Any time there is an issue with the neutral affecting a whole house you will always have 240 volts but each leg will read quite a bit different from the nominal 120 volts. Examples I often give will be 50 volts on one leg versus 190 volts on the other or similar. They will still add up to 240 volts nominal so the key is to see what the legs are doing. Do NOT go around using your hand to check for hot spots. Quite often you can see the discoloration on a terminal or smell something burning. Outside crimps on a service feed are my first look and always look at the other end toward the pole while you are out there. At any rate, if you have this condition you MUST turn the utility power off to prevent further damage. The power company has equipment to test at the meter pan so they can tell if it's their stuff (on out to the pole) or something inside the home. Been there, done that at least a half dozen times in the last 20 years.

[@jovetj]

Wow. And that's something that should _never_ happen. And no liability from the utility company?? Bullshart!

[@rupe53]

@@jovetj ... They will tell you it's beyond their control and contact your insurance company.

[@jovetj]

@@rupe53 Acts of God are beyond their control; negligence is not.

[@joshhowie4071]

Sounds like your either not bonding your neutral or you have an open neutral on a circuit.

[@rupe53]

@@joshhowie4071 ... we're usually talking the whole house because a single circuit is not enough to upset the neutral and a ground rod can probably take up that slack. Most people forget that there are many ground rods. You have at least one at the house, one at the pole transformer, and more at each additional home that's tied to the same transformer. Once you realize there's another half dozen grounds tied in, but well beyond the home you are working in, you can see that a bad neutral wire / connection on the service can go wrong very quickly. The pole transformer is also center tapped, which is where the majority of power wants to flow.... and the best path is the service wire.

[@samsen3965]

Very informative and all thanks to you for your effort in putting these together and uploading such valuable content. You're the Man. The Electrifying Man!

[@jackkreighbaum783]

Not long after we moved into a previously occupied home, in Cheyenne, WY, we noticed the living room plug-in lights flickering. The house wiring was aluminum and the contractor had used plug-in receptacles! I rewired the outlets and was unaware of the requirement to use an Al to CU compound. We had no other problems for the seven years we were there.

[@quanle-un3zd]

Thank you for all your true story/experience . Love your video. Thanks

[@Joe-qw6il]

Semi-Pro DIY electrician here, that is some good knowledge to have, thanks! Recently had a crazy issue on a circuit in my home the lights were dimming intermittently, I replaced the breaker but issue continued, inspected all electrical connections and found loose neutral on ground bar in panel!!!

[@michaeljavert4635]

I often wondered about that. In trade school, they never could answer why when I questioned that. We were told that we could go from a larger gauge (Thicker) to smaller (thinner) gauge. Me being me, I questioned that very instance about the utility. He looked shocked and said "That's a very good question, Michael." I often got that same response in PSR classes. I knew I wasn't going to get an answer. Giving it thought, it would behoove the electric company to use thicker wire. I can't tell you how many times that my electric went out from a down wire but the telephone wire on the same pole was fine, and when the electric was restored, the cable TV service still worked too. For what they charge me in electric, those wires should be pure gold. If I had money to invest I'd get solar panels and a system to sustain us at night and tell the electric utility company where they can stick it. Great video, Now I need to see if I can find the other 2. The You Tubes mixes things up and there is never a video where you point to. Not sure if it's my ad blocker or because the You Tubes changed format. I can't imagine being shocked in a pool. That's horrible. And to think Mother had a pool, ran the filter off an extension cord plugged into the garage for years. (before GFCI) came along. Then one day, I was playing hooky from school, a code enforcement guy with a badge comes along, wanted to talk to my parents. Of course they weren't home. That's part of my plan to have the house to myself. I thought it was a truant officer. Mother had to have a GFCI installed or take down the pool. So the electrician was there the next day. Back then, you telephoned, and they came right away. None of this "Well we'll get out there in a few days or sometime next week..." business. They came right away and it was completed 3 days later and inspected. Had a little sub panel right off the main panel with two breakers just for the pool. A main and the breaker itself to the outside GFCI then a receptacle with a switch at the pool pump. If that buried cable became damaged, it would have tripped at the house. But I am pretty sure they ran conduit with a special machine that just drove it down into the ground, somehow. Called a "Ditch Witch" or something like that.

[@robertmungenast4193]

thanks for another good video , i am enjoying them keep up the good work .see you on the next one .

[@pedropereira8924]

I really appreciate it, thanks for sharing!!!

[@bretthibbs6083]

I had the neutral problem a few years ago I think about 5 years or so ago and I heard a buzzing sound and it was like around 6am and so I shut off the main breaker and I called the power company and they fixed it and I'm not sure if it was on the pole side or the house side anyways I was very lucky that I suffered no damage to my electronics or appliances.

[@reneangulo5550]

Thank you! Joel 🙏

[@jovetj]

Great stories!

[@chrisidzerda2963]

I had a floating neutral at a house I lived in and I plugged in my fluke and watched the 120 VAC floated between 105 and 119 degrees. It was the Utility transformer

[@BartlettTFD]

An unusual situation I ran into a number of years ago. Large new home with an in-ground pool. Kids were complaining about a tingling sensation when swimming near one of the underwater lights. I took a voltmeter, connected one lead to the diving board support and dropped the other lead into the water. I was able to measure between 10 to 15 volts in the water. Turned off the 400 amp service to this brand new house and it made NO difference. Turns out the metal light fixture case that was grounded to the house electrical service + the pool water was providing a better neutral ground than the utility company ground. They immediately upgraded their grounding system and that cleared the stray neural voltage from entering the pool.

[@jameswright-2024]

Hi, your presentation is really good. Thank you. I am doing the "customer responsibility" part of connecting to the service lateral and installation of the meter and service disconnect device. The company gives out a sheet with comprehensive instruction, and so does the county. I am pleased. I get to trench the ground hole (4 feet long away from the transformer by 3 feet deep by 2 feet wide). All of a sudden, I came to the realization I am not supposed to come near the service lateral coming out of the transformer. My question: How in the world am I going to make sure I don't hit it? Is it 1 foot out of the transformer? 2 feet? what direction is it pointing in? Should I trench all the way and stop 2 feet away from the transformer, then wait for the power company crew to dig their way to the transformer to connect their service lateral part to my cable? Or is their cable still folded and tucked inside their transformer and not in the ground already? What is best practice here?

[@lewy1]

As a utility worker, the major Ontario utility that I came from the utility owned the wire to the top of the meter base on UG services and to the stack on overhead services for residential customers. On commercial services the customer owned the wire to the transformer on UG. If you have those problems after turning off the breaker like he said call the utility first, they are free and if it turns out it is the customer’s problem then you call your electrician. Some utilities require special sand for up to a foot or in some cases within 6” of grade.

[@MAD20248]

there's a Neutral to hot and ground to hot loop impedance test, it's a live test that has to be done on all service's in the UK and Europ. you can read about it. that's the only test that could have caught this issue. I'm shocked that we don't do these tests in the US.

[@jerrypruden887]

In Canada we cannot screw a pvc male T.A into a metal hub. We use pvc meter base adapter or we use a female T.A a close nipple to transition from pvc to metal

[@mjcintenn]

If you answered this already I am sorry for asking, but who owns the service drop cables from the house to the pole?

[@DJMaverickk]

That is why it is best to bond your neutral to earth (provided that you have an earth rod buried in the ground) at the main load center. This means in the event of a slack, corroded or disconnected neutral, your bonded earth will provide a secondary path through the dirt for current to flow back to the transformer, (via the transformer's earth rod which is typically bonded to the transformer's neutral) thus preventing voltage swings between your line 1 to neutral and line 2 to neutral.

[@steveschulte8696]

This is another instance of test-test-test. In the case of the exploding house, there was no bonding of the grounding element to the power neutral. It could be that someone disconnected the ground wire from the underground pipe or from the grounding electrode system. I agree that if you have lights that dim or brighten when a large 120v motor is energized, then call an electrician.

[@davelacroix4590]

Is this actually code in USA? The meter base is really small for 200A. That would be fun

[@pauldow1648]

Does the electrician run the wire in the mast or does the power co. ?

[@BearStar1]

In Texas that 2'' Service Riser from the Meter Cabinet to the weather head has to be Rigid Galvanized Steel Conduit .

[@jovetj]

I would think it does everywhere. PVC isn't going to work, not even Schedule 240.

[@ranger178]

i have exactly that problem of pine tree in way of my house wiring it is the neighbor's tree that surrounds the telephone pole and when i called the power company that wire is rubbing in tree, they said it's not really rubbing that much so they did nothing to clear power line of tree

[@joshm3342]

Same issue in L.A. County: SC Edison told us "our wires are insulated, so we don't care if tree branches rub against them".

[@RafaelSwit]

I’m currently in the market to buy a house, and I’m surprised just how many homes have overhead power line connection with a main service wire simply tapped against the wall and going down to the service panel without any sort of PVC conduits. Ideally I’d prefer to have all utility wires buried.

[@DAT-TEXAS-DUDE]

Hiw much is it to extend the height of the service riser to go through my roof

[@bayareaelectical]

As per green book PVC can’t be used for service riser. Long back I had to redo everything.

[@ElectricProAcademy]

Oh no! Even Sch80? What jurisdiction are you in?

[@Lee-dn3ou]

I had a job that the neutral burnt off behind the meter 2 other electronics could not figure it out If you pull a load on one leg and the voltage drops and the other leg voltage goes up you have an open neutral

[@jamessmallwood7448]

i want to run a metter to my sheld will they let me do that? i live in indina

[@DAT-TEXAS-DUDE]

How much does it cost to extend the height of that pvc thing you hold on your hand ?

[@james64468]

I had lights flickering for at least 2 years. Before landlord was forced to upgrade the meter and breakers.

[@kayotik33]

Hello my name is Regis and I'm from Indianapolis Indiana.. How can I contact you.. This video is very helpful.. Also it took me forever to find a meter socket lol..200 amp milbank. I'm am not a professional I need help.Its getting cold. COACH

[@randypaul5427]

Are you required to use an expansion coupling/fitting on an overhead service above 15 feet?

[@randypaul5427]

Excellent video!

[@alexb.1524]

Yo, Easy on the handyman workers.

[@SeanFitz-vo4fm]

Referring to 13:36 of the video (Family getting shocked while trying to exit pool). It could have been much worse, including multiple deaths as people attempt to rescue other people from the pool, before anyone realizes the cause of the problem. This 'stray voltage' is why all pools and the fixtures and area around a pool must be BONDED. Everyone who owns or manages a pool should absolutely be familiar with the topic.

[@jakebuchanan5648]

Does this affect your power BILL. And if it does I’m sure nothing is said. Customer pays for all the excess voltage.

[@johnhershey4010]

I saw somebody house did the same thing

[@JorgeJimenez-qq8jt]

I'm not a license but I do a lot work and it's happening to me

[@jeffbecraft7174]

I had same problem. Microwave fire. $50k damage

[@ajsingh4406]

👍

[@samfish6938]

We can't use plastic we need ridged conduit its a good idea to rust proof screws

[@ElectricProAcademy]

Interesting, what region are you in?

[@DanBurgaud]

That is the problem with split phase system: in case you lost Neutral, your weaker appliances (lights, toasters, microwave, ref) will experience higher voltage than usual.

[@jovetj]

But it's all a very interesting combination series-parallel circuit, from an electrical standpoint.

[@DanBurgaud]

@@jovetj A costly education though..😅😅😅

[@jovetj]

@@DanBurgaud Prefer to keep it theoretical!

[@DavidJohnson-tv2nn]

How does a utility get away damaging a customer's property? They made the faulty connection which came loose! Seems like greedy corporations manipulate the system and get laws passed to favor them.

[@martybgood62]

I just don't understand why the utility company wasn't held responsible for that neutral coming loose!!?? It was their fuckup!

[@ThePoot_tf2]

4:05

[@shavkat84]

Do you really need back round music

[@ElectricProAcademy]

Maybe a bit much in this one, sorry 😅. We've backed off in our more recent content.