Question regarding running electric service to a new home site?

[Ski-me]

We just ran ours and the main stuff was aluminum.....not copper. Our contractor said it would be way too much to run copper. Our electrical guy ran the trencher and dropped in the conduit. The electric company pulled the new wire from pole to transformer and then my electrical contractor ran from transformer to house. I did the backfill but we just finished so I don't know all the costs yet.

[02ProstarSammyD]

Aluminum is fine. Copper is $$$. Just need larger wire and conduit

[jkski]

Thanks for all of the replies and info, I am still waiting on the Ohio Edison engineer who figured this up to call me with a breakdown.

The price he provided, did not include trenching, as I told him I would handle that as well as the backfilling. So his price is for 2 poles, wire, labor and transformer, they are not using conduit unless I took the trench under my driveway, so I figured it was cheaper to just stay away from that idea.
There is a pole on my side of the street roughly 100' away, could they simply run off that pole, along the street and to a pole at the end of my drive, thereby eliminating the need to sink 2 poles? I will ask about the boring however, I have a sizable ditch on my side of the road which required me to install a 24" culvert pipe in order for my driveway to go over and build up to the road level, which ended up being about a 12 foot lift. Even if they bore, they will want to sink a pole across the street from me to support the line coming down, as my drive currently falls between 2 poles.
Can I run the line myself and simply have them sink the poles and make the connections at either end?
Thanks again for the help.

[medicmoose]

The price sounds high...but if they are supplying two poles I think that drives the price up pretty quickly. I think here I would have to pay about $1,500 per pole.

We ran underground wiring when we built our garage. Underground trenching from pole to garage (300 ft), wire up garage and install meter and panel, underground trench to the house (100 ft) and tie into house service = $7,500. This was about 3 years ago and the price included all trenching, filling, etc.

[JohnnyB]

I am surprised they are not directional boring under the road to your padmount xfmr as most utility companies are trying to reduce overhead lines. Make sure they work with the phone co and pull your voice/data line from the road too. Do you have natural gas service as well? If so, you should coordinate the three so they run in the same trench....then it may be more practical to trench......make sure your utilities are coordinating

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[liledgy]

99% of utility's use aluminum wire. In some downtown areas they use lead and copper. 4/0-2/0 neutral is a fine choice for your secondaries. Defiantly fill your trench up with spare conduits, water pipe, cable phone etc. I would also install pull boxes every 450-500 feet for your own stuff.

[jkski]

Thanks guys.
Regarding the trench and other utilities, the only other thing that would need to go into the trench is phone and/or cable. We will be on well water and I have a gas well that site about 100' from my home that will be providing me with free gas. I do plan to run cable in the trench and simply go with cable phone service, but as an alternative, would I have to run a phone line and/or cable if I went with something like Direct TV or Dishnetwork?

I just came back from the property and was taking a good look at how power is coming across the street and where, etc.. My sister-in-law lives in the house next door and has 1 pole on either side of her driveway, one feeds her house, the other feeds a line going back to the gas/oil well, so would you think it would be possible to come across the road to one of those 2 poles then simply 75' down the property line parallel to the road to a new pole they could sink at the end of my drive? This would at least eliminate the need for 1 pole.
Another option would be to come off the pole that is on the side of her drive closest to my property and take it directly underground from there, this option would require that my electric service be buried under a portion of her property for roughly 60'.

Let me know what you think.

[CruisinGA]

Gas well?! Never of heard of it, sounds pretty cool. Whats the story?

[JimN]

Originally Posted by jkski

Looking for some advice from you guys regarding running electric service to the site where I will be building my home. In my area, Ohio Edison is the local electric company, so I met with their engineer to determine what would be required to get the power from the street back to my build site, which is roughly 1500 feet back (following the driveway path). The engineer stated they would have to put in 2 poles, one across the street from my driveway to suuport the line and a second one at the ned of my driveway to run the line to and down into the ground where it would then run underground to the site. I would have to dig the trench and they would install the 2 poles, drop the wire into my trench, set and set a transformer back by my site for 200 amp service. They do not require any conduit.
Grand total for me to pay before I dig the trench: $10,614.

So based upon your experience, is this in line or way out of whack? Can I hire an independent contractor to run the line or can I run it myself and simply let Ohio Edison set the poles and make the connections?

Thanks in advance for the advice.

I would go with solar. Not only would it keep you from being tethered to the power company, it keeps you from being affected by other problems with the grid. Unless the power companies get Congress to allow them to create surcharges to off-line customers, it looks like the payback is getting shorter and shorter. Also, state and local credits are still a way to decrease the out of pocket expenses. By the time the batteries need to be replaced, something new will be out there.

[jkski]

Originally Posted by CruisinGA

Gas well?! Never of heard of it, sounds pretty cool. Whats the story?

The short story is that a number of years ago a company approached me to drill and oil well on my property which they paid me for and own, however, I receive royalties. About 3 years ago the well began building up natural gas and now it pumps both natural gas and oil, so I get free gas up to "x" per month, which is far more than I could ever use even if I left all of my windows open and heated the house and barn to 90 degrees!

As for solar, I never really considered it as I just figured the upfront cost would be astronomical, so any idea what it actually costs...ballpark? I certainly like the idea of being "off the grid".