Best way to go from #2 SER inside to underground conduit outside

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iwirehouses

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I am just wondering what some ideas would be to exit a house with #2 AL feeders. Basically you'de have #2 ser AL running from a main panel, nailed to the floor joists in a basement. It then exits the house into conduit so it has to be spliced to #2 quad that is rated for burial in conduit (2 inch). There dosn't seem to be many practical ways to do this. I believe if you use a juncton box with split bolt connectors, but it would have to be 6 or 8x the largest conduit. A huge junction box dosn't seem very practical to me. The only decent way of doing it that I know of is using a disconnect rated for the correct load. You can come into it with SER and out of it with conduit. The problem here is disconnects get expensive and they arn't even required in this case. What do you guys typically do when you run into this situation? Is there any codes keeping me from making this splice in a 2" LB with split bolt connectors? Any discussions would be great.
 
Need to make sure you can float the neutral in the disconnect. I think Larry's idea is a good one.
 
Yea I usually put the disconnect in the basement before exiting. You would use a junction box? 12" or something like that? Is it illegal to do this splice in the LB?
 
iwirehouses said:
Yea I usually put the disconnect in the basement before exiting. You would use a junction box? 12" or something like that? Is it illegal to do this splice in the LB?
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If there is room you can splice in the LB but you would need a large LB.

BTW, is this quad wire that goes outside direct burial or is it standard wire rated wet location?
 
iwirehouses said:
I am just wondering what some ideas would be to exit a house with #2 AL feeders. Basically you'de have #2 ser AL running from a main panel, nailed to the floor joists in a basement.
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If it going to be stapled to the bottom of the joist it may be easier just to run conduit on to the panel. it really depends on distance and what obstacles are in the way.
If you are not running direct burial cable then you may wish to pull it the whole distance with no splices.
 
growler said:
If it going to be stapled to the bottom of the joist it may be easier just to run conduit on to the panel. it really depends on distance and what obstacles are in the way.
If you are not running direct burial cable then you may wish to pull it the whole distance with no splices.
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Just don't make the mistake of using URD. Just had a case like this today where they ran URD inside and about 60' to the disconnect with no overcurrent protection to boot.:roll:
 
Where is the meter base, why would under ground feeder be coming from meter on the house. Is the meter on a pole or something. Or pedestal meter disconnect ?
 
jetlag said:
Where is the meter base, why would under ground feeder be coming from meter on the house. Is the meter on a pole or something. Or pedestal meter disconnect ?
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It wouldn't be coming from the meter as it is an ser cable (4 wire). It sounds like a feeder to a remote structure.

To the OP. The JB wouldn't have to be that large and that's what I would use. I would probably install the jb outside if it is db cable not suitable for inside otherwise I would install the jb under the house.
 
Dennis Alwon said:
It wouldn't be coming from the meter as it is an ser cable (4 wire). It sounds like a feeder to a remote structure.

To the OP. The JB wouldn't have to be that large and that's what I would use. I would probably install the jb outside if it is db cable not suitable for inside otherwise I would install the jb under the house.
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I think I got this all wrong I thought he was coming into house with a new 100 service from under ground feeder . O K if he is feeding out I would put the use2 in conduit all the way to panel and not splice. But he might get flaged since passing thru basement because I think the use has to terminate within 6 ft of entering the house. The other option set the j box within 6 ft entering the basement and be done with it.
 
Dennis Alwon said:
It wouldn't be coming from the meter as it is an ser cable (4 wire). It sounds like a feeder to a remote structure.

To the OP. The JB wouldn't have to be that large and that's what I would use. I would probably install the jb outside if it is db cable not suitable for inside otherwise I would install the jb under the house.
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Hmmmm....What size junction box would be adequate then? I thought the code was 6 times the largest conduit, isn't it?

I really think splicing in the LB on the outside of the house is a very practical way of doing this. A 2inch LB is pretty large. # 2 AL isn't very big. As far as I know, you can splice in anything that states the cubic inch volume. Not sure why its not practiced more.
 
I would say to base the box on 1.25" conduit that would be the approx. size needed for 4 #2 alum. xxhw-- I didn't know what size the ground was so I used #2 so it could be 1". 6*1.25= 7.5. You could use an 8x8x4.
 
Is there anyway to figure out what the cu in box fill would be for #2 conductors? As far as I know, the code book only goes down to #6. I think this would tell me if I can splice in the LB or not....as the LB will already be there and the junction box would be unnecessary
 
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