Was talking to one of the guys at my office who lives in the sticks.
He said when they put in the electric to his place they told him to
use 4 inch conduit because they needed to run 6 wires. Most houses
only have 3 wires run to their meter, two black/hot wires and one
white/neutral wire and that gives them 220 volt service. But the
electric company told him the service in his area had no neutral so
they had to run three wires into his meter and circuit box AND three
wires back out. All the wires go to a transformer on a pole that's
then connected to the hi-tension system. It's not a three phase
system according to him.

So what's going on with this 3 in and 3 out? Why the 3 wires back
out?

Coming in two are hot and one is the ground. The Neutral is bonded to
the ground at the main panel or main breaker. They must be running two
wires in parallel for each conductor to reduce the wire size. I
normally only see that in a very large service. I am not an
electrician, only an HVAC contractor, but I have seen that done in
large buildings.

Stretch

"Ashton Crusher" wrote in message
...
Was talking to one of the guys at my office who lives in the sticks.
He said when they put in the electric to his place they told him to
use 4 inch conduit because they needed to run 6 wires. Most houses
only have 3 wires run to their meter, two black/hot wires and one
white/neutral wire and that gives them 220 volt service. But the
electric company told him the service in his area had no neutral so
they had to run three wires into his meter and circuit box AND three
wires back out. All the wires go to a transformer on a pole that's
then connected to the hi-tension system. It's not a three phase
system according to him.

So what's going on with this 3 in and 3 out? Why the 3 wires back
out?
Stretch has it pretty much correct, on a large ampacity service you can run
real big wires or parallel wires larger than 1/0 which can be easier to
pull. If it is a single phase 120-240 volt service two sets of wires would
be hots for your 240 and the third set, which may be slightly smaller is the
neutral, which is grounded by the utility company at the pole and by the
electrician at his house. I think your friend just misunderstood

On Sat, 21 May 2005 20:18:33 -0400, "RBM" rbm2(remove
wrote:


"Ashton Crusher" wrote in message
.. .
Was talking to one of the guys at my office who lives in the sticks.
He said when they put in the electric to his place they told him to
use 4 inch conduit because they needed to run 6 wires. Most houses
only have 3 wires run to their meter, two black/hot wires and one
white/neutral wire and that gives them 220 volt service. But the
electric company told him the service in his area had no neutral so
they had to run three wires into his meter and circuit box AND three
wires back out. All the wires go to a transformer on a pole that's
then connected to the hi-tension system. It's not a three phase
system according to him.

So what's going on with this 3 in and 3 out? Why the 3 wires back
out?
Stretch has it pretty much correct, on a large ampacity service you can run
real big wires or parallel wires larger than 1/0 which can be easier to
pull. If it is a single phase 120-240 volt service two sets of wires would
be hots for your 240 and the third set, which may be slightly smaller is the
neutral, which is grounded by the utility company at the pole and by the
electrician at his house. I think your friend just misunderstood



It's just a house with a 200 or maybe 250 amp main service. They ran
the line 150 feet in the conduit. Would that be enough of a run to
need the extra wire??

In some jurisdictions utility companies dictate the size and type of
materials to be used. Anything is possible. After the installation the
utility company may assume responsibility for the service and want to be
sure it won't cost them in the future
"Ashton Crusher" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 21 May 2005 20:18:33 -0400, "RBM" rbm2(remove
wrote:


"Ashton Crusher" wrote in message
. ..
Was talking to one of the guys at my office who lives in the sticks.
He said when they put in the electric to his place they told him to
use 4 inch conduit because they needed to run 6 wires. Most houses
only have 3 wires run to their meter, two black/hot wires and one
white/neutral wire and that gives them 220 volt service. But the
electric company told him the service in his area had no neutral so
they had to run three wires into his meter and circuit box AND three
wires back out. All the wires go to a transformer on a pole that's
then connected to the hi-tension system. It's not a three phase
system according to him.

So what's going on with this 3 in and 3 out? Why the 3 wires back
out?
Stretch has it pretty much correct, on a large ampacity service you can
run
real big wires or parallel wires larger than 1/0 which can be easier to
pull. If it is a single phase 120-240 volt service two sets of wires would
be hots for your 240 and the third set, which may be slightly smaller is
the
neutral, which is grounded by the utility company at the pole and by the
electrician at his house. I think your friend just misunderstood



It's just a house with a 200 or maybe 250 amp main service. They ran
the line 150 feet in the conduit. Would that be enough of a run to
need the extra wire??