1 service conductor enters masthead- no neutral- dangers?

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HomeInspectorKenton

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I am writing home inspection courses for pre-purchase home inspectors in Mexico, and this is not a home I inspected but a condition I photographed from the street, I have no access to the service panel. I've never seen only one conductor entering a masthead before. I assume it's a hot leg (127 volts here). Without a grounded conductor with which to complete a circuit and return current to the pole, I didn't even know a home electrical system would work. Apparently it does. Is it possible that the home is a two-wire system and that the neutral terminates at a grounding electrode?

How dangerous is this? What exactly is the danger? I don't even know what to tell pre-purchase home inspectors to say in their reports, other than have it corrected by a qualified electrical contractor. Should the system be shut down immediately?
 

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It looks like it might possibly be a two (or more) conductor cable.
 
My guess is that there is a concentric shield/support which is joined under the electrical tape where the cables cross.
Possibly not very well joined, since it is not very bulky.
If the yellow wire is copper, rather than plated steel, it will not provide adequate physical support for the aerial run.
If the neutral connection is unreliable or absent, I would call it critical. If not, then I would check to see whether it is local "good practice" before suggesting remediation. Inspection by a qualified local electrician would be a good idea in any case.
The mechanical problems bother me more than the purely electrical.

Tapatalk!
 
fmtjfw said:
AFAIK Mexico uses 2008 NEC

I suspect that twisted wire is not a listed type of cable strain termination
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What could possibly lead you to that conclusion :D
I agree with you and Golddigger, the mechanical concerns outweigh the electrical.
 
augie47 said:
It looks like it might possibly be a two (or more) conductor cable.
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The Mexican electrical standards are based on the NEC. With that it mihnd, this could be a multiple conductor cable, but that means service conductors here would probably be less than the 8 AWG copper, or 6AWG aluminum minimum.
So I guess the recommendation would be to check in the service panel to see how many conductors are supplied, their configuration, and make recommendations based on the results.
 
I think that there is a concentric neutral in the cable and the connection is under the electrical tape where the wires cross, as I mentioned in an earlier post.
The center conductors , with insulation, are brought beyond that point to be spliced.
I am not confident of the integrity of the neutral bond given how small it seems, but would need to look under the tape.

Tapatalk!
 
HomeInspectorKenton said:
I am writing home inspection courses for pre-purchase home inspectors in Mexico, and this is not a home I inspected but a condition I photographed from the street, I have no access to the service panel. I've never seen only one conductor entering a masthead before. I assume it's a hot leg (127 volts here). Without a grounded conductor with which to complete a circuit and return current to the pole, I didn't even know a home electrical system would work. Apparently it does. Is it possible that the home is a two-wire system and that the neutral terminates at a grounding electrode?

How dangerous is this? What exactly is the danger? I don't even know what to tell pre-purchase home inspectors to say in their reports, other than have it corrected by a qualified electrical contractor. Should the system be shut down immediately?
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Simple! Just state that you have never seen anything like this before and a LIC. or qualified Electrician should examine.
 
HomeInspectorKenton said:
I am writing home inspection courses for pre-purchase home inspectors in Mexico, and this is not a home I inspected but a condition I photographed from the street, I have no access to the service panel. I've never seen only one conductor entering a masthead before. I assume it's a hot leg (127 volts here).

How dangerous is this? What exactly is the danger? I don't even know what to tell pre-purchase home inspectors to say in their reports, other than have it corrected by a qualified electrical contractor. Should the system be shut down immediately?
Click to expand...


It's hard to tell anything for sure from just one picture. It doesn't look very good. I would think it's some sort to temp wiring.

If you could see the connection at the transformer that would tell a little more and the connection at the meter would tell a little more and the main panel connection would tell a little more.

This wire could be connected to a 100 amp main breaker and that wouldn't be safe at all.

At the very least you could say you are concerned about the connection at the weatherhead. That twisted wire and tape just doesn't cut it.

To perform a proper inspection of a property you must have access. Things may get better as you inspect the rest of the electrical system and they may get worse.
 
cowboyjwc said:
Could be 110v to the house, power company supplies the hot and the ground is being used for the neutral.
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GoldDigger said:
No way in the world a ground electrode would make a low enough impedance path for even a 10A load at 120 or 240 volts.

Tapatalk!
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Could be using the water pipes which would be dangerous on many levels. Even the NESC and other standards across the world don't allow it.
 
GoldDigger said:
I think that there is a concentric neutral in the cable and the connection is under the electrical tape where the wires cross, as I mentioned in an earlier post.
The center conductors , with insulation, are brought beyond that point to be spliced.
I am not confident of the integrity of the neutral bond given how small it seems, but would need to look under the tape.

Tapatalk!
Click to expand...
So you're saying that one wire is spliced and the other wire keeps going into the panel? Sure is a lot of slack there on that one wire. If there was that much slack on the one wire, you would think there would be a loop at least that long sticking out.
 
Panel? I don't see a panel. Are we looking at the same picture?
My guess:
Under the black jacket is a concentric neutral.
Under the neutral is the yellow/red insulation.
Under that is the hot.
The neutral strands were cut short and taped or wound together and taped to each other. No reason to make a long loop of the uninsulated strands.
The black cable with both hot and neutral goes into the weather head and down to the inaccessible (for now) panel where hot and neutral (grounded conductor) are terminated. No speculation about what is used for grounding, if anything.
Since I have no idea what type of conductors/cable is commonly used for service drops in Mexico, this is all speculation.

Tapatalk!
 
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GoldDigger said:
Panel? I don't see a panel. Are we looking at the same picture?
My guess:
Under the black jacket is a concentric neutral.
Under the neutral is the yellow/red insulation.
Under that is the hot.
The neutral strands were cut short and taped or wound together and taped to each other. No reason to make a long loop of the uninsulated strands.
The black cable with both hot and neutral goes into the weather head and down to the inaccessible (for now) panel where hot and neutral (grounded conductor) are terminated. No speculation about what is used for grounding, if anything.
Since I have no idea what type of conductors/cable is commonly used for service drops in Mexico, this is all speculation.

Tapatalk!
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Well I speculated that the service mast went into a panel, but I still don't see where you're getting all those other wires from. That one looks like a #4 or #2 and just below the splice it just looks like the insulation is pulled back. To me anyway. What it really looks like to me, after I looked closer, is that those are two bare solid wires, and they are twisted and taped at the end.
 
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