Amazon Truck Drops the Service Drop - 12/17/23 09:37 PM
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.
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.