outside to inside conduit run without being capped?

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rjgoebel

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I have a feeling this is not kosher, being that the service lines immediately downstream of the meter were pretty much exposed to the environment as they entered the house, but am I right on this? What is the NEC article that deals with this?

thanks,

Jim Goebel
 

rjgoebel

Member
Service lines are the aluminum lines that come directly from the meter to the panel, on a house. I don't know what thickness they are but they (obviously) carry a lot of current, being the main supply lines into the house. So, the 2 legs and the neutral conductors , as they pass through a piece of conduit, are insulated, but the conduit was not capped. Not only is it bad for insulation purposes but I imagine it's not good to leave those conductors exposed to the environment like that? Hopefully this helps ?
 

jeff43222

Senior Member
I'm not sure what you mean by "capped." It sounds to me like there is perhaps conduit going through the wall/foundation, with some kind of conductors passing through it, but those conductors don't have any conduit around them where they are entering the meter socket or the panel. Is this what you mean?

It may still be code-compliant, depending on the wiring method.
 

rjgoebel

Member
My apologies for not explaining well enough. Picture would be great, but I dont have the facilities to post one right now.

Basically, there is a piece of conduit (or maybe raceway) that runs parallel to the ground, nearly immediately below the meter. It runs through the wall, and inside this conduit were the 3 conductors that I speak of. When I say it wasn't capped, what I mean is that you could look through from the inside of the house, or from the outside, and see the other side. The conduit I believe was 2 inches in diameter but I am not sure of that. It was only about 1 foot long, maybe slightly shorter, and the only purpose of it was to run the service into the house and into the bottom of the main panel.

Does that help at all? I wish I could post a picture.
 

rjgoebel

Member
My apologies for not explaining well enough. Picture would be great, but I dont have the facilities to post one right now.

Basically, there is a piece of conduit (or maybe raceway) that runs parallel to the ground, nearly immediately below the meter. It runs through the wall, and inside this conduit were the 3 conductors that I speak of. When I say it wasn't capped, what I mean is that you could look through from the inside of the house, or from the outside, and see the other side. The conduit I believe was 2 inches in diameter but I am not sure of that. It was only about 1 foot long, maybe slightly shorter, and the only purpose of it was to run the service into the house and into the bottom of the main panel.

Does that help at all? I wish I could post a picture.
 

jeff43222

Senior Member
So there are three separate conductors exiting the bottom of the meter socket, those conductors enter the conduit outside the house, exit the conduit inside the house, and then are unprotected until they enter the bottom of the panelboard?

If that is the case, it's definitely a violation of 230.50 (2005 NEC).

I don't know if it's kosher, as I'm not Jewish, nor am I an expert on Jewish dietary rules. A lawyer friend of mine is Jewish; perhaps he would know and could give us an informed opinion. :D
 

Cavie

Senior Member
Location
SW Florida
I believe rjgoebel is referring to the 10" x 2" nipple run between the meter and the panel??? I think he is seeing it on the rough-in stage. If so, this would not be exposed to the weather once the Meter is installed and the panel cover is on.
 

dlhoule

Senior Member
Location
Michigan
Or is it just a sleeve for SEU?

If it was SEU, I would hope it would be referred to as such and not 3 conductors.

By the sound of things, I agree with Jeff. If Aftershock is correct and we have conduit or fittings running from meter socket to panel, I don't see a problem.
 

jeff43222

Senior Member
dlhoule said:
A lawyer friend

Jeff,

Isn't that almost as bad as being a friend of a politician? :p

Almost, but not quite. A politician friend is going to hit you up for contributions, door knocking, etc. What do you get in return? Not much, unless you're a very generous friend. I don't have the means to be that generous.

My lawyer friends generally only hit me up for electrical work (usually minor stuff), and in return they feed me quite well and provide me with useful legal advice.

I haven't charged any of my lawyer friends for the electrical work I've done, but when I did work for a senator last year, he got to pay me.
 

dlhoule

Senior Member
Location
Michigan
Well Jeff, the only lawyer friend I had up and died on me. When we became friends I didn't know he was an attorney. He hired me to do repairs on a fire job. He got a quote from me and 3 others. Mine was slightly higher than 2 of the others. Making things short, he was in a hurry and thought I would be the fastest to complete job. He accepted my bid and the next morning showed up and wanted to help. I let him do most of the grunt work. Very good worker, it was too bad he was an attorney, I would have liked to have hired him to train as an electrician. He was in a hurry because he owned building and felt an obligation and compassion for his tenants.

Great person he was and a damn good lawyer. :)
 
What it sounds like is the conductors come from the bottom of the meterpan to a sleeve in the wall and enter the building, without ductseal or the like to block up the hole.

If it is open conductors or SE cable is hard to tell from the original OP.

300.7(A) is the reference.
 
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