Date: July 12-14, 2024 and January 14, 2025
Another pesky leftover from our house construction in 2007 was the presence of the power pole in the front and center of our view. The power from that pole to the house goes though a buried conduit up to the back side of the house where the meter is.
I bear some responsibility for this eyesore since I met with the power company field engineer shortly after we bought the land and agreed that the new pole should be placed where the old pole was. All family members been thinking about dealing with that pole (i.e. converting that to an underground feed) for as long as we've had the house and its view.
An enticement from a more recent field engineer visit that turned out to be phony was that if I converted my home electrical service from 200AMP to 400AMP, the power company wouldn't charge me for the switch from a pole transformer to a ground transformer. So that got me to thinking that upgrading to 400AMP service would be a good idea since the new building is going to need a full set of breakers. I suppose the regular thing to do would be get a separate meter for that building, as we did for the lower barn. A separate meter would cost $20/month forever, but more significant is that our power company does not do net metering with solar panels. That means when power is coming from the grid to me I pay the retail price, but when my solar panels generate extra and the power flows the other way, I get back the wholesale price. So it would behoove me to have as much load as possible on the same side of the meter as the solar panels, that is, to have only one meter with two 200AMP legs, one for the house and one for the shop.
Like most power poles, that one has a transformer on it that steps down my local French Broad Electric grid primary voltage (about 7000V) to the house secondary voltage (240V). The rules followed for underground wire change at that transformer. When you run primary service wire underground, it must be buried deeper (6') than the secondary service wire which goes from the transformer to the meter, and the maximum buried distance is shorter for the lower voltage line (4'). In the picture you can see the penultimate pole on the left just on the other side of the second branch. That is too far to run the low voltage line, thus we can't just move the transformer from one pole to the other. So the plan became clear: bury primary line from the farther pole to somewhere close to the bothersome pole, then put a ground mount transformer there with a 400AMP meter base, then re-route the wire currently running up the pole to a one of the poles in the new meter base. Oh - and move the meter from the house to the new meter. Sounds simple, eh? After digging into it, it became clear this was a two-phase project.
Phase 1: Bury the Wire
We forked just over five figures to the power company to pay for their side of this change. Because of the six foot trench and the fact that it has to cross two branches (creeks), I ruled out using the backhoe on my Kubota. I spent a lot of mental cycles worrying about how to run a ditch that deep under the branch which has year round flow. One French Broad field engineer said they might require a concrete pipe under the creek. Another said its OK to just stack ready-mix concrete bags on top of the conduit and let them harden in vitro. What if it was solid rock under there?
At any rate, when Ryan was done fruitlessly scratching at the bedrock (see previous post), he swapped out the big Trackhoe for his littler one, and got to work with the trench.
The pole to be removed is in the distance behind the trackhoe:
Source pole:
Creek crossing - it was no problem, soft dirt all the way down!
With the ditch open you need to get the French Broad guys out to lay pipe right away.
So the next morning, I witnessed some of the best trailer maneuvering ever:
They snaked around the fruit trees and flower beds.
As soon as the French Broad guys ran the wire, Ryan used the trackhoe to fill 3/4s of the ditch and the warning tape and a "might as well while we're here" strand of Fiber Optic cable were added:
This is the first time I've seen one-gauge wire. It turns out its just a bundle of 12 gauge wires:
Crossing the bigger branch:
Smaller branch is dry so you can see the ready-mix approach to protecting the conduit from creek erosion.
Funny part is that the French Broad linemen who actually did the work said they'd never heard of using ready-mix bags much less a concrete pipe and they normally just bury it with no extra requirements! The difference between field engineers and linemen is a lot like the difference between theory and practice: in theory there is no difference but in practice there is.
Next day Ryan completed the covering and prepared a spot for the ground transformer.:
Phase 2: Actually Use that Wire
In May one of those French Broad field engineers gave me a list of electricians who might help with the new meter base. I called around and had a couple visits and one guy came out to look right away and really impressed me with his organization and straightforwardness. So when phase 1 was scheduled I reach out to him to line up the next step. Well he was going out of town with his family in July. Then I called him when he got back - all booked up through August - bummer. Well I was booked up until September 25 with my Ridge of the Rockies bike ride - hey! There's a blog for that! So a week before the end of the ride I start to call again and get no reply. And what happens the day after I get back from the bike ride? Hurricane Helene
As might be deduced from the state of overhead wires above, I was not going to be able to get that Phase 2 going for a while.
So in November I gave up on the electrician I was originally impressed with and and contacted the guy who had followed up with me a couple times --- like he actually wanted work! French Broad power company couldn't get to me until January - I think they replaced something like 35,000 broken poles. But on a cold day in January we got it done.
The linemen cut the wire going to the upper pole leaving the house without power. They were able to isolate our branch of the grid so no neighbors were affected:
Once our power was off, my electrician removed the 200AMP meter base at the house to be replaced by a 200AMP subpanel.
They cut off the pole below ground level. I would've thought they can use the pole but they left it with me. I'll use it. Someday.
New 400AMP base tucked in close to the holly so it doesn't stand out too much. This much digging I would do with the Kubota.
Look Ma! No pole.
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