ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Amazon Truck Drops the Service Drop

An item in today's news reports a dispute between a homeowner, Amazon, and the power company. It seems the Amazon truck caught the wires of the service drop and cut the power to the trailer. The PoCo billed the homeowner $2500 for the repair; The homeowner wants Amazon to pay; Amazon says the wires were too low (less than 15-12 ft.)

A couple of points to consider:
The first is the matter of codes. Folks are always surprised when I pull out a copy of the PoCo's services manual. Yes, that's another code you need to know. The NEC pretty much stops at the meter. (PoCo standards are found for free at the PoCo web site).
Next is the matter of pole height. How high is your weatherhead? Were I to have made mine "minimum" height, that weatherhead could have been as little as twelve feet off the ground. I was too lazy to cut the pipe, so my connections are about sixteen feet above the ground. The inspector was delighted. "You're way above the minimum." "You think I was planning to hang laundry,?" I replied. The codebook gives MINIMUMS. It's OK to do better!

Let's look at the poles we place. They're twenty feet long. With proper setting, that leaves sixteen feet of pole out of the ground. Now look at your land. Even the flattest land has a foot or so of difference across any distance. Make that a long service drop and you can easily have those wires dip below 15-1/2 feet.
Let's say you want to use strut, conduit, or lumber to 'make the pole 'taller.' How would you attach the wires (assume triplex) to the pole extension? Chinese handcuffs?

Finally, folks are so accustomed to living in a home for only a few years that some basic matters are completely ignored. Trimming trees near the power lines is first on that list. Many places hold the homeowner responsible for clearances near the power drop.

I'll carry this point over to other service drop requirements. A story:
The night before I arrived in Arkansas the area was hit with a major snowstorm, accompanied by extensive power line icing, high winds, and the following outages. After two months in a hotel, I was able to rent a small cottage. The service drop was almost exactly 100-ft. from the pole (the length of pre-cut wire carried by the PoCo trucks. The (dated) 1-1/2" rigid mast had a definite kink starting where it pierced the roofline. All that ice and wind had come SO close to dropping the line.

Even with the 2.5" mast, it is not unusual to see additional support in Florida.
The drop I had in Maryland was laying in the driveway after the first little ice storm. It was screwed into the fascia with a single lag screw that pulled out. This was a 2 story so the height wasn't an issue.

That’s a very good point.
PoCo specs typically call for the mast to be anchored directly to the framing. With the framing buried under sheathing, that can be difficult.
Personally, I use strut. I make every effort to find the studs. I’ve yet to see anyone else do that. It’s just screws into the siding, with the real support coning from the fascia where the mast penetrates the roof.
I’ve had my share of service calls where the mast was attached to the trim on the edge of the roof, and it ver time the trim has pulled loose from the building.

Additional mast support is typically required when the mast extends 30” above the roof. Alas, most supply houses will meet your request for a mast kit with a blank state.
Then wait to see their look when you ask for the triplex attachment bracket . . .

The main bearing point is really just the penetration of the roof sheathing. That is the fulcrum of the lever and the bottom end is the hub into the meter can. That will be TapConned into a block wall here and pretty stable. It is still common to see a couple of straps from the top down to the roof but they are just screwed into 1/2" plywood. Roofers hate them and I have seen more than a few taken out on a re-roof job. They tell the customer they can't guarantee the roof won't leak with them there.

That item I thought was supplied by the PoCo.

In FPL land the service point is the splices at the mast head and the customer owns the meter can and mast along with the SE conductors. The only thing FPL owns on the load side of the mast head splice is the meter itself and the seal.