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Posted By: gfretwell SER cable in RNC for service lateral? - 09/11/07 02:54 AM
Legal?
Sure ... why not? I can't imagine the code denying extra protection of the conductors.

OTOH .... as such, aren't you required to bond the raceway at both ends? If you're going to do that ... well, that implies a splice, which in turn says 'transition to pipe as wiring method.'

I'll wimp out, and say "I don't know" laugh
Posted By: gfretwell Re: SER cable in RNC for service lateral? - 09/11/07 06:30 AM
Raceways are typically plastic around here. Sch40 or 80 in the ground with sch 80 risers.

I was asked the question because someone has a 110' service lateral to put in, piped all the way and they have that much SER in the shop. Money is the main issue

I was thinking it should be OK and I can't really find a violation but 338 and 230 are pretty vague in this area.

Posted By: EV607797 Re: SER cable in RNC for service lateral? - 09/11/07 02:40 PM
Wouldn't this simply be a case of RNC in the ground being considered a wet location and SER is only rated for damp locations?
Posted By: gfretwell Re: SER cable in RNC for service lateral? - 09/11/07 03:12 PM
SER is wet location, this one is marked THWN conductors.
Posted By: EV607797 Re: SER cable in RNC for service lateral? - 09/11/07 05:08 PM
That's a new one to me. I've only seen type XHHW conductors in SER cable, but that's irrelevant. I asked if our local inspector would allow this and he said no. His reasoning in my situation was due to the fact that the cable contained paper spacers in it. I didn't put up much of an argument, in fact THWN was a LOT easier to pull anyway.

In your case, I'd think that THWN conductors pretty much sums it up.
Posted By: gfretwell Re: SER cable in RNC for service lateral? - 09/11/07 06:12 PM
There is no "paper" in this cable. After all it IS a wet location wiring method.

I bounced this off the IAEI BB and they say no because U/L doesn't list SE for underground laterals, for that matter THWN is not listed that way either. USE is the only option according to IAEI if you take the White Book as gospel.
Posted By: EV607797 Re: SER cable in RNC for service lateral? - 09/11/07 07:52 PM
Yeah, that's exactly what I meant to say! wink
Posted By: Redsy Re: SER cable in RNC for service lateral? - 09/18/07 11:11 PM
Athough PVC was discussed at the link below, the issue of a SE type cable installed underground was kicked around.



https://www.electrical-contractor.net/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/78280/page/0/fpart/1
Posted By: gfretwell Re: SER cable in RNC for service lateral? - 09/19/07 02:14 AM
OK here is the result for "this" installation. FPL and Lee County have blessed the SER and it is going in the ground tomorrow. I suppose your mileage may vary and it might even here next time. I certainly hope the same inspector (who gave the blessing) shows up for the 305.
I am planning on going by to watch and they say I may get a chance to demonstrate my skill at shooting a pipe under a sidewalk.
We did have a volunteer who was going to strip off the jacket for the bare copper we won't need but that doesn't look like it will be necessary.
Posted By: gfretwell Re: SER cable in RNC for service lateral? - 09/21/07 01:28 AM
Well Lee County passed it and FPL is going to juice them up.

It was a heluva pull. It turned out they had #2 copper SER and 110' of 1 1/4" pipe with two 90s over and up to the meter base. They cheated and pulled the straight part in, slid the 90s on and then the riser. Not legal but certainly practical.
It is the way the FPL contractor does it so I didn't feel too bad about it.
BTW a golf cart makes a great "tugger". We had to tie the raceway to a tree to keep it from being tugged out of the ground tho. One thing they did come up with was to shoot a little squirt of soap in each section of RNC while they were gluing it together.

They only hit one water line! On a golf course that is amazing to me.
Greg- I'm surprised you'd be a party to this type of installation. We both know that it is not code compliant. SER is not Listed for use underground or in conduit. I would never have approved this type of installation. On the other hand it probably will work just fine and they will probably never have to replace it in our lifetime. If they do they will have to replace the conduit also. Okay I vented. smile
Posted By: gfretwell Re: SER cable in RNC for service lateral? - 09/22/07 02:27 AM
I have tossed this around various groups for a month and the answers were all over the map. The THWN marked conductors are certainly OK in pipe underground so the safety issue seemed minimal to non-existant. The licensed EC made the decision to use it and the AHJ said it was OK so I figured it was NOMB.
Bear in mind I also had no real authority to say they couldn't. I was just an observer.
In fact I just took my required my CEU law course and I would face a $1500 fine for impersonating the AHJ if I did say something.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it. ;-)

They did strip the last 10' that goes through the turns so I wouldn't bet you couldn't pull that out if that was your concern. I can't imagine why they would want to and if they did replace it they could go back with #6 if they wanted to since this is only supposed to be a 60a service and they are only using about 5 of it. (two 15a circuits)
Okay Greg- With that explanation I guess it makes sense. My thinking was aside from the SER not being listed for use in conduit, the possibility of damaging the conductors was there. Now if they removed the outer jacket the conductors would possibly flex more and not end up being damaged. I would be the last person to say I never approved a job that was less then perfect because sometimes a contractor can accomplish what I call "equivalency" and not meet the code to the letter of the law and I would approve the installation.
Posted By: gfretwell Re: SER cable in RNC for service lateral? - 09/12/08 03:03 AM
bump This one ... and George didn't like it last year either wink
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