# Customer Owned Service Conductor Poles



## LanceBass (Mar 22, 2013)

Good afternoon,

I have a customer who has a cabin located about 200 yards from the utility service point. He’s installed poles (10 foot 4x4s) with service conductors and guy wire from the utility to his cabin.

He wants me to install the service mast and meter at the cabin and connect it to the service conductors he’s run. Then have the utility come and connect the other end of his service conductors to the utility.

Article 230 deals with clearances and mechanical strength, mostly. But is his installation NEC compliant? Some of the poles he’s set look a little hokie.


I’m thinking of telling him that I’ll install his meter and service mast/weatherhead. What he wants to do from there is his own business. I don’t want to own anything that happens with the 200 yards of poles and service wire he’s run by himself.

Thoughts? What would you do?


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## wildleg (Apr 12, 2009)

10 ' poles. are you kidding ? run away. doesn't meet anyones' standards.


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## Signal1 (Feb 10, 2016)

I'd stick with your plan.

Let the utility work out the rest of it.


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## MechanicalDVR (Dec 29, 2007)

I guess if you need the work go the way you mention.

If you don't, walk no on second thought RUN the hell away!


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## Bird dog (Oct 27, 2015)

No AHJ would ok this & no POCO would tap to it (what's the customers attitude?). Save yourself from a pain in the neck customer. Btw 200yds is 600' & the voltage drop will be enormous unless POCO is willing to set a xfmr closer. Genset might be better maybe.


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## tmessner (Apr 1, 2013)

Agree with all of the above. Let somebody else deal with it or do it right.


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## 99cents (Aug 20, 2012)

10' 4 X 4's aren't poles, they're fence posts. Leave this one alone. If you're moonlighting, stick with changing light bulbs for grandma.


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## daveEM (Nov 18, 2012)

99cents said:


> stick with changing light bulbs for grandma.


:vs_mad: Just wait till you hit 69. :sad: Damn someone has to do and if they can;t they gotta pay. :smile:


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## Bird dog (Oct 27, 2015)

Are you an apprentice or an electrician?


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## daveEM (Nov 18, 2012)

LanceBass said:


> I’m thinking of telling him that I’ll install his meter and service mast/weatherhead.
> 
> Thoughts? What would you do?


I'd tell him was no good. Then I'd call the POCO and find out what is required and who sets poles for them

In other words handle the job so the guy gets the connection. That's what I'd do and have actually done it. In one case the poco subbed the poles out in the other case they set one pole themselves.

Customer of course paid and was pleased.


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## daveEM (Nov 18, 2012)

Bird dog said:


> Are you an apprentice or an electrician?


Apprentice... since he joined in 2013 but...

maybe he is just lousy in school. :biggrin:


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## 99cents (Aug 20, 2012)

Bird dog said:


> Are you an apprentice or an electrician?


Almost positive he's apprenti.


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## 460 Delta (May 9, 2018)

Seems to me the only way to work that would be to have a house trailer service at the road and then connect to the combination clothes line / power line. With all that rigging, is he going to be better off than the poco setting a pole or two? What gets into peoples heads sometimes is beyond me. I would politely say I'm too busy to do the job and ignore the phone calls.


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## LanceBass (Mar 22, 2013)

Bird dog said:


> No AHJ would ok this & no POCO would tap to it (what's the customers attitude?). Save yourself from a pain in the neck customer. Btw 200yds is 600' & the voltage drop will be enormous unless POCO is willing to set a xfmr closer. Genset might be better maybe.


Customer is absolutely convinced that I’m going to be cheaper than just having the utility come out and set poles. I mentioned a propane generator (it is a camp after all and is only occupied sporadically) but customer doesn’t want the noise. I also mentioned it would be to their benefit to have the utility set poles because if they’re ever damaged then the utility LEGALLY HAS to repair them at no cost to customer. Customer isn’t worried about it as there’s “no trees tall enough that would fall and damage the line”

So far as I can tell this would require parallel 4/0 lmao :sad:


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## LanceBass (Mar 22, 2013)

daveEM said:


> I'd tell him was no good. Then I'd call the POCO and find out what is required and who sets poles for them
> 
> In other words handle the job so the guy gets the connection. That's what I'd do and have actually done it. In one case the poco subbed the poles out in the other case they set one pole themselves.
> 
> Customer of course paid and was pleased.


I think this is sound advice. I’m going to call the utility tomorrow and see if I can get a price. There’s no way it could be more than the price of parallel runs, conduit, trenching, etc.


And yes, I’m a licensed electrician have my own LLC and insurance. Have just never encountered someone who manufactured their own poles and ran 200 yards of service cable/guy wire on it. Not really something you handle everyday


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## 99cents (Aug 20, 2012)

Electrical code can be miniscule compared to a utility's metering guide (I believe ours' is around 200 pages but it's computer friendly now).

No doubt you will have lots of rules and specifications to follow, perhaps drawings will have to be signed off and money will need to change hands. For a cabin?


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## LanceBass (Mar 22, 2013)

99cents said:


> Electrical code can be miniscule compared to a utility's metering guide (I believe ours' is around 200 pages but it's computer friendly now).
> 
> No doubt you will have lots of rules and specifications to follow, perhaps drawings will have to be signed off and money will need to change hands. For a cabin?


Oh to heck with that haha. No, I just want to see if I can get a price on a pole so I can relay it to the customer and show them how much easier it would be to have the utility company do the work. 

I just want to set the meter and the mast and keep it moving.


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## frenchelectrican (Mar 15, 2007)

LanceBass said:


> Good afternoon,
> 
> I have a customer who has a cabin located about 200 yards from the utility service point. He’s installed poles (10 foot 4x4s) with service conductors and guy wire from the utility to his cabin.
> 
> ...



I dont know about your customer but the POCO will not touch 10 foot poles at all basically not really legit at all for few reasons.

If he have lot of woods I would just bury the primary and slap up a small transfomer near the house which it is more common to do that. 

Majorty of POCO will tell the customer the specs of type of poles they want to use and the cost of poles are typically few hundreds bucks per pop but not including the drilling charge to drill the ground to stick the pole in.


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## Cow (Jan 16, 2008)

Just remember, this isn't your deal to fix.


The customer took it upon himself to set poles and run aerial wire without consulting anyone on how to do it correctly. I have no mercy for folks like this that scab $hit together and expect us to do the "hookup." 



SOP for me? He started it, he can finish it.


Or he can tear it out and we can finish it. Or he can call someone else. Their choice.


EDIT: Why does the quick reply option put so much spacing between paragraphs????? Add that to the list of crap that needs to be fixed around here...!


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## flyboy (Jun 13, 2011)

LanceBass said:


> Oh to heck with that haha. No, I just want to see if I can get a price on a pole so I can relay it to the customer and show them how much easier it would be to have the utility company do the work.
> 
> I just want to set the meter and the mast and keep it moving.


What you need to do is find yourself and electrical contractor that does pole line construction (sets poles) and sub the pole work to him. 

He'll probably do it a lot cheaper then the utility. Assuming the utility is even willing to do it on private property.


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## Bird dog (Oct 27, 2015)

Cow said:


> Just remember, this isn't your deal to fix.
> 
> 
> The customer took it upon himself to set poles and run aerial wire without consulting anyone on how to do it correctly. I have no mercy for folks like this that scab $hit together and expect us to do the "hookup."
> ...


Are you single spacing between paragraphs?


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## Cow (Jan 16, 2008)

Bird dog said:


> Are you single spacing between paragraphs?



To state the obvious, yes.

I wouldn't put multiple lines between paragraphs and then complain about it!:biggrin:


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## LanceBass (Mar 22, 2013)

flyboy said:


> What you need to do is find yourself and electrical contractor that does pole line construction (sets poles) and sub the pole work to him.
> 
> He'll probably do it a lot cheaper then the utility. Assuming the utility is even willing to do it on private property.


10-4. Very good information. Thank you.


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## LanceBass (Mar 22, 2013)

I did take a picture of one of the posts the customer set. Pretty sweet set-up I’d say:


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## daveEM (Nov 18, 2012)

LanceBass said:


> I did take a picture of one of the posts the customer set. Pretty sweet set-up I’d say:


Perfect. I'd ask for 25 grand upfront before I'd make a phone call.

Sometimes you just don't need the work.


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## 460 Delta (May 9, 2018)

If this guy is fine with this kind of work I wonder what he wired his interior with? Lamp cord and extension cord? Tack it up with barb wire staples? That post is a breakaway model!


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## 99cents (Aug 20, 2012)

460 Delta said:


> If this guy is fine with this kind of work I wonder what he wired his interior with? Lamp cord and extension cord? Tack it up with barb wire staples? That post is a breakaway model!


That's what I was thinking. That cabin must be a shack.


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## Wcbrackets (May 27, 2018)

what about a farm service on the utility pole with a second pole next to it and then overhead from there. be able to follow the open air conductor sizing then, still have to have proper clearances and poles. ive seen 20ft 8x8s used in a similar situation. the problem the home owner ran into (having done it himself, we came and fixed) was that he ran his consumer conductors up the utilities pole, had he put his own pole in beside it he would have been ok.


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