In this picture the two banks of 4" towards the back are utility secondaries. I am taking the picture at about the corner of where the transformer will be. Obvious is the difference in length of the two duct banks. One of the requirements for this utility on a service of this size is a six foot separation between ductbanks. The reason is for heat dissipation. I initially had the conduits running together because it is such a short run it was impractical to obtain the required 6ft separation but was made to do this by the big boss at the engineering Dept. Maybe they don't understand how parallel conductors operate. (Granted they will probably only pull conductors in three of them anyway)
Do other utilities have this requirement around the country? They must not have problems with it or they wouldn't keep up this practice.

May seem obvious, but a foot difference in a 10-foot conductor run will disrupt equal division of current to a much greater degree than a foot difference in a 100-foot run.




[This message has been edited by Bjarney (edited 10-18-2002).]

Nick, maybe they expect you to ball or wad the excess condutor length of the short runs in your gear.

Roger

Review 310.4 and look at this:

"Where run in separate raceways or cables, the raceways or cables shall have the same physical characteristics.

Conductors of one phase, neutral, or grounded circuit conductor shall not be required to have the same physical characteristics as those of another phase, neutral, or grounded circuit conductor to achieve balance."

Joe, this would mean their intent is to run say,

A phase in two of the conduits on the right, B phase in two of the conduits on the right,
C phase in two of the conduits on the left,
Nuetral in two of yhe conduits on the left.

Not neccassarily this exact combo.

So, if heat dissipation is the issue,it doesn't make sense. (besides being buried)

Roger

310.4 -- "1. Be the same length,"

All phases are not required to be all of the same length, for example, All of Phase A can be 15 feet, all of Phase B can be 17 feet, all of Phase C can be 19 feet, and all of the neutrals can be 23 feet.

Lengths for these SEC's all depends on the overall length of the run --- to the service point at the overhead or lateral.

Joe, I agree, being that these are non metalic conduits this would be the case, ie idividual phase conductors and neutals in their own conduits. I still don't get the heat dissipation angle.

Roger

Joe,
I know and understand this rule but that is not how they install the conductors. They always instal per the usual A,B,C,N per pipe.

Nick:

I was thinking about that when I replied, so each phase, in each raceway would be the same length.

The code rule that allows all of each phase in each raceway is found in 300.5(I), Exception No. 2, and can only be applied for underground installations.

[This message has been edited by Joe Tedesco (edited 10-19-2002).]