A friend of mine bought a house and one of the things that the home
inspector noted was some wear or damage to the insulation on the service
entrance cable on the outside of the house that runs down to the meter.
She was buying the house as-is anyway, and at a discounted price, so she
didn't ask the sellers to do anything about that before closing the deal.
Now she is just trying to figure out what, if anything, needs to or should
be done regarding repairing or replacing the service entrance cable.

I have not had a chance to look at it yet, but I will, so that I can
observe what the home inspector saw and maybe take a photo or two. If the
service entrance cable does need to be replaced, I do know of an
electrician that I can suggest to her to do the replacement.

But, my question is..., If the only issue is some minor cracking or wear
in the service entrance cable insulation, is there a way to just repair
the insulation? I assume that it is gray in color, so is there some type
of insulation repair product that can be applied that is made for this
type of situation -- possibly gray in color so it doesn't look bad?

Thanks all for your replies.

I went to look at the Service Entrance Cable today and I took some photos.
The cable has two distinct damaged areas as shown in the two photos below.
I also took a photo of the meter but I decided not to post it since it is
not my house and the photo shows the meter number etc.

This is in New Jersey (South Jersey) in the PSE&G service area. In this
area, the utility company owns the "drop" that goes from the pole at the
street to where it attaches to the house up near the roof line. From that
point down is owned by, and is the responsibility of, the homeowner -- with
the exception of the meter itself. The utility company owns the meter. On
this property, the Service Entrance Cable runs down along the house and into
the top of the meter box. Another cable/conduit comes out of the bottom of
the meter box and goes into the house to the main electric panel.

Here are the photos of the two damaged areas on the Service Entrance Cable:

http://tinypic.com/r/t7jpd5/8
http://tinypic.com/r/wr10eg/8


*The SE cable needs to be replaced. That type of cable was not UV resistant and the outer jacket became brittle as a result. What usually happens is water gets inside and drips down the cable sometimes going all the way through to the electrical panel.

Is there any evidence of water inside of the electrical panel? How about the meter socket?

John Grabowski
http://www.MrElectrician.TV