"James Sweet" wrote in message
news:ZQawi.3100$hK5.368@trndny02

I'd love to have 3 phase, I've never seen it in a
residence though, and residential equipment is all single
phase anyway, it works.

The German town I lived in during the late 70s had something like 440/3
phase which was used for the water heater. Obviously, it would work wonders
with motors.

As you no doubt know synchronous motors are the big thrill for 3 phase.

We seem to be making an end run on the issue by running DC motors through
transformerless AC-powered intelligent controllers.

I kinda like above ground power, at least for the big
stuff.

Interesting, because a lot of big stuff around here is underground until it
hits the neighborhood pole transformers. IOW, the next regional substation
up has all its ins and outs underground. Underground lines run to the
neighborhoods. They feed strings of poles in people's back yards.

Some people such as myself have converted their house feed to underground,
but it is pretty rare around here.

My application is peculiar - I live on a corner lot with a very narrow back
yard and lotsa trees. Also, my previouis above-ground drop was never code
and eventually failed. The part of the house where the power entry was no
longer exists.

Above-ground feed to the house was ugly no matter how it was done. The
utility's pricing scheme made the conversion to underground very
economically attractive, because my house needed a minimal length feed.
Their marketing people made up a price list with minimal initial costs and
buried most people's installation fees in the per-foot charge. I got quite
a bit of hardware and labor for my $250.

I hear that some utilities will convert people for free in some
neighborhoods.

Most of the houses around here from the late 70s
on have underground power, but some of the old lines are
starting to deteriorate so they've had to dig up streets
and flower beds to replace them.

Our neighborhood was built up from 1930 to 1955, so everything is above
ground. I've seen individual home conversions, but nothing on a neighborhood
scale.