my latetest stick in the spokes

[joedrum]

the rural power co op ..came by and condemn the power pole out by the gravel road .... put a red band on it ... then pullled in my drive ...got out and went behind my house .....patty said someone was outside ... went out myself ...he told me i needed a pole put in my back yard ... and if i didnt do it they wouldnt hook my power back up .....cost over a 1000$ for that and i would have to give easement and tree would have to come down ...have to be 30ft tall and climbable ...cause my hook up is to far from pole ......well they lied really and thats not happening .. but the hook up dose have to meet there new rules even tho it was them that approve this to begin with ...it still me that has to pay for ...some pics

if you look to right of the house you can see the condemn pole and low hanging wire ... i never like this ..but as said it was them that approve the set up ...you can see how low the weather head is ...

you can see how low wire is with my push mower in pic

well this is going to cost me ... must go through roof with new pipe to get weatherhead above roof 1 week before meet and greet sheeesh ....this is like stepping into a pole you didnt see

 

[Omega Man]

What a bunch of sh!t... Thirty days like you're made of money.

 

[slabghost]

Like stepping on a garden rake. That really sucks.

 

[mcgovern61]

Joe, can't you put it underground instead? All of our utilities are underground.

 

[joedrum]

thats not available in these parts gerry ... not a option and not anything i could afford ... it always amazes me how they make people who never had a say responsible for something to change that was all there doing and approval of ....simply a railroading plain and simple ..a clollection of dumb moves by them that i have to pay for or they wont rehook...sheesh i have better word but wont use them

i will say the low wire always bug me that these experts engineered out :doh: :rant: in the end something needed to be done ..that part is good

 

[zman]

That is a fancy setup you have, never seen that before but I can see why they did it that way, Is that a metal roof?
can you run that conduit right through the eve and up about 4 foot then have another 4 foot anchor in the front then off to the power pole with a shorter run...If it is metal though..that could be dangerous but maybe acceptable to them.
I really dont know but I bet Dan knows.

 

[mcgovern61]

joedrum » Sat Aug 23, 2014 11:38 am[/url]":3gkrvpd1]
thats not available in these parts gerry ... not a option and not anything i could afford ... it always amazes me how they make people who never had a say responsible for something to change that was all there doing and approval of ....simply a railroading plain and simple ..a clollection od dunb moves by them that i have to pay for or they wont rehook

Sorry to hear that Joe! Here in New Jersey, the utility company is responsible to safely run the line to your meter and the home owner is responsible from the meter to the distribution center. Around here, the law makes it that way so that the live wires and gas lines are always installed per code and that way they control and are responsible for power/gas to your home.

 

[zman]

Joe, Gerry makes a good point about the power run being their responsibility..They obviously ran the 3 wires from where it is at to the power pole, are you sure they aren't trying to pass the cost of an upgrade to you?

 

[Omega Man]

I'll bet it's because he lives in a rural setting, they make you pay for almost everything including firemen, they will watch your property burn if you haven't paid for their services up front.

 

[dan filipi]

I have lots of input on this and my take on why they are requiring you fix it joe.
I'll post when I get home.

 

[joedrum]

im ok with things really as said ....something needed done ..... its just bad timing for sure and really putting the crunch on me....they wanted to have me put a 35 ft pole in the back of my house and charge me for ...that was going to way over a 1000$ ...so modifying the house instead is a win to me big time ...just want to get it right and still get to meet and greet sheesh

 

[dan filipi]

Joe I can understand where your beef is coming from and it's justified really.
Looking at the second pic, those wire connectors at the service head were obviously done by the utility so it stands to reason they approved this hookup.
But for whatever reason, usually their liability, they are requiring it be corrected and brought up to code.

Joe and I have been chatting about this for a couple days.
Here's my take on it.

Doing their check on utility poles (which IS wise of them to do) they found your's needs to be replaced.
In doing so they have to reconnect you.
They found your end is unsafe.

1. The drop is too close to the ground.
2. The drop is right outside the windows and can be touched. Here they require 3' minimum.
3. Inadequate support for the weight of that long drop.
4. The drop conductors close to touching the building at the corner.
5. Probably other things.

As far as telling you to install a pole, I'd bet this is only one option presented by them to you so far.
Their thought is if you install a pole in a place that would reroute the drop away from the house then that might make it all safe but there are other possible options I told Joe about that he has to present to them and have them sign off on. Options you might not know about unless you do this kind of thing.

The most important thing is to talk to them and have them specify in writing what they will allow be done to fix this.
I NEVER move forward on anything until I have a sketch including all requirements signed by the rep.

One major issue I see here is your roof and the maximum that a service drop can extend OVER a roof.
That is 4' here in Cali.
I would present to them a 2" rigid galvanized riser be installed on the house corner but you have to figure out if the drop would not be over the roof more than their requirement.
Usually 3-4 feet above the roof is required for this support riser.
This riser would serve as the drop's point of attachment to the house only.
I don't think they'd allow the drop be attached to this new riser with the wires extending down to the existing service head below the eave so that riser would have to be extended above the roof also.
There is a maximum distance these 2 risers can be spaced apart and you have to bond those 2 pipes together with a minimum #6 copper.

Again, all of this must be specified by them and in writing.

When I do this type of correction, if I don't do anything with the existing riser then I don't have to pull an electrical permit.
Usually I even do the final hookup.
If I had to replace the existing riser (or extend it in your case) then the utility would not hook up unless I pulled a permit and had it inspected first.
I hope you don't have to go there.

I'm judging all this by what Cali requirements are.
I have see some really strange (and what I consider unsafe) installs get approved in rural areas that would be laughed at, red tagged, and disconnected in the city so there could be other options like using exposed surface entrance cable from the meter to above the roof.

Any way I can help just ask Joe.
You can even have the rep call me.

This is one I did a few months ago.
The new pipe will serve as the point of attachment.

 

[dan filipi]

This is some of what we have to go by.
I get the most current requirements online. Your utility might have a site also for electric service requirements (ESR).

 

[slabghost]

Looks to me in the first pic. that if they'd put the new pole about 20ft further down the road it wouldn't be above very much of the roof.

 

[Ansimp]

Sorry to hear about your unfortunate " stick" Joe. I was wondering if your utility company will allow a payment plan for the cost of the infrastructure upgrade ( new pole, cabling etc) ?
Nice explanation on the coding requirements for household supply Dan.
17 years ago when we built our house we had a couple of options on how to get power to the house / shed. Down here the utility company ( Energex, back then Seqeb) comes off their grid to your property A pole and you are responsible for the cabling to your premises. We elected to have them supply high voltage (11kv) to a 20kva 3 phase transformer that is a 700 mts from the road which by using high tension lines allowed them to do this run with 4 poles ( Admittingly big poles). At the time it was $15k for them to do it and between $10-12k if we used a private contractor using 8 poles ( maximum span 100 mts) and 240v cabling with us owning the poles. By using the utility co to supply our power they now have to maintain everything up to our A pole as what we paid for is now classed as part of their infrastructure/ grid. My only gripe is 17 years ago we had to sign an agreement to spend at least $750 a year on power ( or pay another $3500 initially for the install) where it know costs us at least twice that amount per year. I am mainly pissed off about the rising cost of electricity because if I hadn't used their grid I would of spent another $10-15k and gone stand alone off the grid ( solar and batteries ) but I didn't because Qld has so much brown coal and I thought mains electricity would always be cheap :doh:

 

[joedrum]

well today i will clean up around this area it is where i am splitting the last bit of wood ...sheesh some tuff stuff

 

[Ansimp]

joedrum » Mon Aug 25, 2014 12:10 am[/url]":yszmc7mv]
well today i will clean up around this area it is where i am splitting the last bit of wood ...sheesh some tuff stuff

With all this log splitting I am surprised to still see trees in your area Joe! :smilie_happy:

 

[Omega Man]

Thread moved to Way off Topic.

 

[joedrum]

the earth is safe from any threat from me LOL :heat: :heat: :heat:

 

[Ansimp]

It should be in the 1000 section as it has spokes :smilie_happy: :smilie_happy: