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Submitted by Bill Addiss

what's this Bill ? a run of se cable, disapears in the soffit, reappears , enters pipe? , another run of pipe up to an AC unit??

Sparky,

That's about it! The seu cable for the 100 amp service was sided over when the outside was redone at some point. It comes down through a conduit sleeve into the Meter pan. The second conduit is romex sleeved in conduit and sill-plated at both ends from panelboard up to A/C unit.

Several years ago, I came across a house where the SEU cable passed through a soffit on it's way down to the meterpan - or, that's what it did when I saw it. When going up in the attic I found the remnants of something that told me that the previous owner (a Utility Employee) had tapped into the service drop as it passed through the soffit. What I saw was a piece of SE cable coming into the attic and Soldered or Welded onto two Fuses Hanging open in mid air! the load side went down to the location of his electric stove. I think about going back there just to take a picture of it, maybe someday...

This must be fairly common.

Around here, this occurs when the owner gets the house bricked. The service entrance cable ends up behind the brick, which means it is inside the house. It amazes me that the homeowner will spend 10 to $20,000 on a brick job but won't pay to have the service cable replaced. The sad part being is the cable is usually the old cloth/tar type & it is definitely ready for replacement.

Tom

The thing is...it looks bad to US, our trade , not many others..

What surprises me is that many siders will have no fear of ripping the service off the House to side behind it. Then they make straps out of vinyl to reattach it. I've seen them even unscrew the point of attachment to make a neater job of their siding (of course they can't put it back again) As for myself, I would not feel safe taking off a 40 year old ring type Meter pan and letting it hang while I moved and twisted it around to work behind it.

You been there too !
I recently watched siders "float" an old service , one of those 40 yr old ones you mentioned, the meter can is'nt much bigger that the meter, cloth wire....

I went by on the way home, purposly every day. It hung by the nuetral, the long wood screws were hanging out of the meter can flappin' in the breeze....

I had one of those where the meter got half full of water. While changing the service I tried to let it drain, I didn't want to break the seals though so I called Power Co. and told them I was flat connecting it. I did not want to see what would happen if I plugged it back in while it had water in it.


Bill