Hello! My name is George Crump. I'm the Electrical Technology instructor here at Kansas City Kansas Community College in the Technical Education Center. Today, I'm going to talk to you about service entrance as it relates to all the customers in the Wyandotte County area being supplied power by the Board of Public Utilities. What I have beside me here is an example of all the code requirements that the Board of Public Utility requires when you are installing electrical service to a home. And we will start at the very top and I'll go through the various components in terms of the parts. Starting with the weather head, which is located up here at the very top. And then from the weather head down the two-inch conduit that you see right here is called the mast. Anytime the two-inch conduit comes from the roof line up is considered to be the mast. M-A-S-T. Then you got to support that two-inch conduit by way of this guy wire. G-U-Y wire. It's 3/8 of an inch in diameter. And support it with the roof. Eye bolt here on the top of the roof. And, in addition to that, you will have flashing - this area right here around the roof with the two-inch conduit. It goes through the roof. You must have flashing there in order to prevent water from transferring down into the electrical system. Down below here you have another continuation of that two-inch conduit at this point. And you must have a clamp that clamps and secures the conduit within six inches of the box. That is the code requirement. And then, from that point downward you have a hub. And that hub is a connection at the top of the meter can to screw in the rigid metal conduit that carries the conductors from the meter back up to the weather head. Below that, that hub that's here over the top of the meter can, that's secured to the meter can, you have the meter can. This is the meter can, located right here. And then this meter can is supplied to you once you get the proper approvals from the Board of Public Utilities to install the service for the home. You have to have that approval before any work will begin. Then below that you have this meter can. This is an older style of meter which has the dials on it. Most of your homes today that have new service has the digital meters that replaced this old style of metering. And to the side here, I have several displays that I want to briefly talk about. For example, over here, is a picture showing all of the code requirements by the National Electric Code that provides you with the distances, that different things have to be located when it comes to installing service entrance for the home. And then below it you have the Board of Public Utilities requirements. The Board of Public Utilities would be considered the authority having jurisdiction because you are putting electrical service into their service territory. Therefore, they have their own specifications and requirements that you must adhere to. And then, over on this page of this display, you have two different sets - two types of displays. The one at the top is showing you the mast going up through the roof. And it's also giving you a clearance from the ground, which is the grade level up to the drip loop which is the conductors coming out of the weather head. And from the ground to the drip loop, there is a 12-foot clearance that has to be adhered to in order to get the proper approvals for the installation to be done correctly. Below here, you have a different setup where you have a clearance on the meter can. up to the weather head that's on the side of the home, underneath the eaves. When it's underneath the eaves, you still have to have that clearance from the grade level up that the BPU, Board of Public Utilities, requires in order for it to be able to pass inspection. Because all of this will be inspected by the city inspector. And, below that - beyond that, I rather say, you must have the meter can exactly five feet six inches (5'6") to the center of the meter base. in order for the Board of Public Utilities to approve your work as falling into the category of what they consider to be proper and fitting for the home. That is the primary parts, and also the information that I wanted to share with you today in terms of whenever you're gonna do service installation you must have all of these specifications as it relates to the Board of Public Utility and the National Electric Code. If you run into any problems, I will suggest you call a certified or qualified electrician in order to help you. These are not for everyday home owners to attempt. You must have an electrical background, and you must be familiar with the authority who has jurisdiction, as well as the National Electric Code. What you see before you are two distinct drawings which show the service entrance requirements One is the service entrance requirements by the National Electric Code. and the service entrance requirements for the Board of Public Utilities. And since we're in Wyandotte County, the National Electric Code requirements for service entrance will be superseded by the Board of Public Utilities requirement. Over here on the National Electric Code, you have a 12-foot requirement from the ground, which is called the grade up to the service entrance drop which is the actual conductors coming from the utility. That has to be at that height in order for it to be the proper clearance. The next requirement over here on the National Electric Code if by chance you have a front porch and you got an overhead line going down to the house that goes over that front porch, from the very base of the front porch up to the service drop there must be a clearance of 10 feet. And then, if by chance you have a two-story home you must have a three-foot (3 ft) clearance from the roof line of the first story up to the service entrance drop. And then if there's a window close by, there has to be at least a three-foot (3 ft) clearance between the service drop and the window. And then going further back on the home at the roof - if your service is coming in on the back of the home on the second story, there has to be at least an 18-inch clearance from the bottom of the roof line up to the top of the service entrance cable. And if there's a balcony on the back of the home you have to have a three-foot (3 ft) clearance from the balcony. And from that 3-foot (3 ft) clearance, You need to go up 10 feet for the service entrance that goes over to the home. That clearance must be adhered to as it relates to the National Electric Code. The next portion of this National Electric Code that it's showing you is service entrance conductors going to the home that goes over a roadway in which you have this access for a tractor trailer. Any type of roadway that the service entrance goes over you must have an 18-foot clearance from the grade, which is called the ground all the way up to the lowest point on the overhead feeder. And the if you have a service coming into a garage and the garage has a flat roof on it There must be at least an eight-foot (8 ft) clearance to the bottom of the service coming into the garage. Now those are all the basic requirements for overhead conductor clearances as it relates to the home and the garage. There is the BPU requirements. We spoke about the 12-foot clearance form the bottom of the drip loop. That same 12-foot clearance over here on the National Electric Code is also what the Board of Public Utilities require except it goes from the grade at this point, which is the ground, up to the bottom of the drip loop on the conductors that the utility will hook their lines into to provide service for the home. There's a five foot six-inch (5' 6") clearance from the ground up to the middle of the meter which is installed by the Board of Public Utilities The customer, which is your electrician, also must install behind that meter can a 3/4 inch plywood on the home to mount the meter can on so in the event there's rain or whatever that goes down the side of the house it will not flow into the meter can by putting that 3/4 inch plywood that keeps the meter base away from the home. The next thing I'm going to speak on is gonna be the two-inch (2 in) conduit that you see here in the drawing that's going up. And that two-inch (2 in) conduit has to be secured six inches before or six inches beyond the meter can. And then it travels all the way up to this top portion of the roof line. And right here on this roof line there is flashing. And that is an aluminum construction that fits around very snugly around the two-inch conduit to prevent any water from seeping down into the electrical system. And then above it you have a service hook that is supplied by your journeyman or electrician. And this service hook allows the BPU when they come and hook up the drip loop, which is made like a goose neck, when they come and hook their service up to that drip loop they also have that service hook to support the drip loop. And then in addition to that, if the rise which is called the mast this is the portion that comes form the roof line up to the top of the weather head. If that mast is above 22 inches, you have to put a 3/8 inch inch guy wire rope that is attached to the roof to secure and make sure that that mast has support in the event of high winds or any type of severe weather that we may have. If you have other questions about the specifications on installing service entrance by all means go to the website bpu.com or call your Board of Public Utilities customer service to find out what are the requirements that you need to have if you don't have access to a computer.
