View Single Post
  #26   Report Post  
Posted to alt.home.repair
[email protected] clare@snyder.on.ca is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 18,538
Default Residential electricity

On Wed, 11 May 2016 08:15:12 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03
wrote:

On Tuesday, May 10, 2016 at 4:24:32 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Tue, 10 May 2016 12:20:04 -0700 (PDT), GARYWC
wrote:


Does the public utility's responsibility end at:

* the electric meter
* the main breaker in the electric panel box
* the individual branch circuit breakers in the panel box.


It is called the service point and typically that will be the crimps
where an overhead drop connects at the drip loop or at the street in
the case of a service lateral. You own the wire coming down the side
of the house and the meter socket but they own the meter and they have
common carrier power to seal the meter can.


I'm going to muddy the waters a little ask a different question:

Who is responsible for the actual connection device that is attached to the
house? i.e. the standoff and the support cable? The reason I ask is this:

A few years ago an ice event pulled the wires off of my house and damaged
some of the vinyl siding. The standoff/insulator that got ripped out
had been screwed through the vinyl siding and into the original clap-board
siding of the house. This left a large hole in the siding.

When the utility company came to drop the service wires so I could replace
the siding, the first thing the guy did was screw a new standoff through the
trim board just below the eave, so that it was actually screwed into a rafter.
This was a much more secure connection to the house.

I was thankful that he did it, but also surprised. Was he just being a nice
guy or is the utility also responsible for the standoff and support cable
that bears the weight of the service wire?

In most cases the owner/electrician is "responsible for" the stack
(or mast) and the "weatherhead". The "service bracket" generally
attaches to the "mast" and the tension cable, carrier, or whatever you
want to call it attaches to that.

On a gable end installation where the mast does not protrude above the
roof, a 3/8" eye bolt is henerally specified to take the tension
cable, and is normally notated as "customer supplied"

However, your line-man was responsible for installing the cable, and
to "cover his ass" he made sure the cable was attatched to something
substantial so he could not be blamed for the cable coming down in the
future.

So yes, he was "being a nice guy" - the option was to refuse to
install the service cable untill the eye bolt was installed, meaning
another trip back, and the customer calling him a "prick" or worse.

There are still SOME service people who don't make "service" a "4
letter word".