ECN Forum Forums Photo Discussion Forums Violation Photo Forum Some BAD Services ....

Randy, the first time I visited San Diego I was pretty surprised to see the meter main thingies. Looked pretty foreign to my east coast eyes. I kinda like them, everything's in one place.

Anyway, I asked some of the "electricistas" wiring the $500K stucco "starter homes" in the nearby tract and they said it's a code requirement to have the main breaker outdoors. Can you confirm or deny this?

LOL about that east coast service in Lake Forest, Ca. I haven't seen a combo here yet (New England). I'll let you know if and when I do.

Peter D.

[This message has been edited by CTwireman (edited 01-03-2005).]

To those of you in areas that SE is not used it is no surprise you are skeptical of it's safety.

But think on this a little, we are not a bunch of mindless dolts here in the North East. OK we keep electing Ted Kennedy but you guys have the Governator.

We continue to use SE as it works well, it has a long history of good service (small pun)

Look at the side of your own house, how many marks are on it from it being struck hard enough to damage a cable?

I am 40 years old and have been in the trade 23 years (oh no!) and in all that time I have never personally seen a problem / fault with SE and the large majority of houses and some businesses are SE.

I did see a piece of SE in a code class that a cable guy drilled through. He was inside the house drilling out with a long bit and nailed the SE, he would have just as easily drilled a PVC.

Admittedly RMC would have probably stopped him, unless he tried real hard.

For us in the North East seeing a service riser in the wall as is done in CA is surprising. We would fail for that here even though it is in RMC.

In the end if SE was as bad as you imagine the use of it would be prohibited. We use the NEC with 60 or 70 amendments, some more restrictive then the NEC some less. My point is here in MA electrical safety is top priority issue with our local code makers.

I will try to get some picture of nice SE jobs, but none of them will look as good as a flush mounted meter with the riser in the wall. It is not possible for a surface mounted equipment to look as good as hidden equipment.

I hope all understand that I am not saying one way is better than the other, only that both ways work and have a proven track record.

Bob

By the way I agree with Peter most of that ugliness is from the vinyl guys.

The first guy I worked for had a deal with a couple of siding crews to handle rehanging the services.

They would pry the meter, cable and weather head of the wall and let all of it hang from the splices at the top.

Even the old cloth covered SE seemed to handle this abuse even though it scared the heck out of me to get near it.

These pictures look like they're from this area & it is the siders as mentioned. The services are probably from the 1940s and are pulled off and rehung by siders. Usually the original install had supports every couple of feet, but the rehang gets one or two supports for the whole run.

Dave

Exactly. On my part, at least, it's purely what I imagine the cable to be. I've never seen any, except for the horror installations sent in to ECN.

I think it would be nice if we could get more photos of quality installs...of everything under the Sun. It's nice to know how the Other Guy does it.

What's typical in one region is unheard of in another, and that doesn't make either one better. It's just different and possibly better suited to its purpose.
I wouldn't want to go outside in snow/below 0° weather to reset a branch breaker, but there aren't many basements out here on the West Coast, & our climate permits us to conveniently put it all in one enclosure outside.
I'm interested in learning the "other way" too, not a joust.

Randy, did you think Long Island had the slowest suppliers in the World? They probably had to special order a service for "Some CA Nut Case", and ship it all the way across the country.

About Aahhnold : CA elected another actor/governor almost 40 yrs ago.
This guy starred in "Bedtime for Bonzo", where he tried to teach morals to a chimpanzee. He ended up being the US President for 2 terms...Reagan. We are electing governors with better movies, now, give us a break



[This message has been edited by electure (edited 01-15-2005).]

Bob,just remember the "Guvernater" is married to a Kennedy.

They actually had a Siemens all in one there... about a foot of dust on it but I had it same day =)

-Randy