Going Underground

I’m a big fan of underground service conductors. New developments almost always have them, but a new house in an established neighborhood might not, depending on which side of the street it’s located. If you’re on the same side as the utility poles, consider burying your line. It will involve digging a trench at least 18 inches deep (check local requirements) and possibly doing so across a neighbor’s property. A buried cable results in a much cleaner appearance, and there’s no chance of it being damaged during severe weather, massive flooding notwithstanding. (The utility’s power lines can still go down, however.) It’s also out of the way when you have to set up ladders to paint or to work on your roof.
With an underground service, your utility company installs service lateral conductors (which may or may not have to be contained in conduit, depending on your local code). The conductors then enter the meter, via at least a short section of conduit, from underneath the ground. As with any outdoor wiring done by an electrician, you can save yourself some money by doing the digging and trenching yourself or by hiring it out to a less-expensive laborer than an electrician.

Overhead and Exposed

It’s a lot simpler to install an overhead service in an established neighborhood than it is to start tunneling under streets and sidewalks to run conductors underground. Overhead wires are exposed to the weather, however, and this means your service can be disrupted if a tree branch falls on it during a high wind. Modern electrical service consists of two hot conductors and one neutral conductor coming into your home. They come out of a transformer, which steps down the voltage, and must clear roofs, fences, and outside structures as they connect to your service head on top of your service mast. The conductors form a drip loop as they enter the service head so that any rain landing on them will not run down the mast.
The service conductors are pulled through the mast and then pass through the meter (which records your electricity usage). Your utility connects the wires coming out of the weather head to the conductors (service lateral conductors or overhead wires) coming from the pole and the conductors to the meter, which the company usually supplies. Rules for installing an overhead service govern …

➤ The location of the meter.
➤ Clearance requirements for the conductors.
➤ Securing and supporting the service mast and raceway to your house.

Your utility company determines where the meter will be located. The company’s main concern is that the overhead conductors will be in a safe, unencumbered location. The clearance requirements for the conductors and the length of your service raceway (the mast and head) must take the following factors into account:

➤ The distance from the service mast to the utility pole
➤ The pitch of your roof
➤ Whether you’re using an IMC, PVC, or steel raceway (conduit)
➤ The proximity of windows to the proposed location

Finally, the conduit or raceway must be secured properly so it doesn’t loosen or bend. Any hole you drill for the raceway or its supports must be sealed so you don’t get water leaks. Your local electrical inspector can give you more information about clearance requirements and securing your service mast.
As you can see, this is a complicated process—and we haven’t even gotten to the service panel yet! In case you were wondering, you can’t attach any other cables (phone or TV, for example) to your service mast.

One New Service Coming Up

Your service panel is the primary distribution center for all the electrical currents in your house and yard. It connects your CD player, lava lamp, and 27-speed blender to your utility’s service lines. Fuses serve the same purpose as the circuit breakers in a modern service panel, but they are considered dated and no longer are installed for residential purposes. Some old fuse services are as small as 60 amps, which is hardly adequate for modern electrical demands. The National Electrical Code calls for a new service to be a minimum size of 100 amps.
There are two types of electrical services:

➤ Overhead service
➤ Underground service

Most older services are overhead. That is, the utility company uses overhead service conductors, usually from a utility pole, that often connect to a service mast on the outside of your house. An underground service, commonly found in new housing, is buried. Each must follow prescribed installation procedures.

What to Do When There are Power Outages?

You can’t do much to control power outages, but you can control what happens when the power comes back on. Unplug your computers and television sets, even if you have surge suppressors. The suppressors should take care of any initial charge from your electrical system, but unplugging these appliances guarantees that you won’t have any problems. Make sure any kitchen appliances that might have been left on, other than your refrigerator, are shut off. Any heat-producing appliance, such as an electric blanket, a heating pad, or a portable heater, also should be shut off, lest you forget about it and it stays on while you’re not home.

General Precautions in Working with Electrical Installation

Einstein considered common sense to be all the prejudices you acquire before the age of 18. (This was the belief of someone who apparently had to be reminded by his housekeeper to dress warmly before venturing out into Princeton winters.) Semantics aside, a certain amount of common sense should be applied to your electrical dealings.
Precautions for electrical appliances, devices, and wiring include the following:

• Buy only items that are UL-listed or approved by another accepted testing agency.
• Keep children from playing near portable heaters and kitchen appliances.
• Use kitchen and bathroom appliances on or near dry surfaces only.
• Keep combustible materials such as clothes and curtains away from heaters of any kind.
• Never cut off the grounding pin from a three-pronged plug.
• Never file down the larger prong on a polarized plug.
• Use child-resistant caps in unused receptacles.
• Install smoke detectors.
• Make sure the contact between a plug and a receptacle is solid and tight.
• Allow plenty of free space around computers, televisions, and stereo sound systems to prevent them from overheating.
• Keep metal ladders away from all power lines.
• Stay away from any downed power lines.
• Have your electrical system inspected if it’s more than 40 years old and you have no record of a recent inspection.
• Make sure all switches and receptacles have cover plates.
• At the very least, install plug-in GFCI receptacles into existing bathroom and kitchen receptacles that do not have grounding.
• Make sure light bulbs are the correct rating for their lamp or fixture. (Excessive heat can be a fire hazard.)
• Unplug portable appliances when they’re not in use, especially those near sinks. (You can be electrocuted if they fall into water—even if they’re turned off.)
• Leave electric blankets untucked.

Beware of Fire Hazards

Fuses and circuit breakers are designed to protect you from inadvertently overloading a circuit. When your loads demand more current than the circuit is designed to handle, the circuit breaker will trip or the fuse will blow. This prevents the conductors or wire from overheating and causing a fire. A conductor can only offer a certain amount of resistance to a current; if there’s too much current, the conductor can heat up enough to melt its insulation.
A homeowner can create a dangerous situation by replacing a fuse or a circuit breaker with one of larger amperage, thus allowing more current to flow through the wires than they can safely resist. A fire can start without tripping the breaker or blowing the fuse because the larger-amperage fuse cannot sense the problem. Some signs of a potentially overloaded system include …
➤ Thirty-amp fuses used for lighting circuits.
➤ The use of extension cords as permanent wiring.
➤ Dimming lights when appliance loads go on.
➤ Excessive use of adapters that allow more than two loads to be plugged into one receptacle.
➤ Multiple service panels and sloppy wiring practices.

Power Cords

Any cord-and-plug combination is subject to damage and wear. Lots of pulling and twisting, especially when a plug is pulled out by the cord rather than by grasping the plug itself, can cause the wires inside the insulation to break. This is particularly true with lamp cords because they use wire composed of multiple strands with a very small gauge. If the insulation protecting a cord cracks open, you could get a short circuit. It’s usually a better idea to replace these cords than to repair them.
Although it is less likely that you’ll ever have to replace a 240-volt appliance cord, these also can be changed out:

• Unplug the cord and unscrew the end that’s attached to the appliance, noting which wire (by color) went with which screw.
• Buy an exact replacement for the cord and plug.
• Connect the new cord to the terminal screws on the appliance, noting any color coding on the screws to match the individual wires (black to black, and so on).