Question about main service line connections

greendog

Hi,

I just discovered what looks to me like a fire hazard in my main service line, but I wanted to make sure before I call an electrician.

Probably 20-30 years ago, one of the previous owners of my house added on to the kitchen by pushing a wall out about 5 feet. From the way things are wired, I'm pretty sure the meter was on the wall that was moved. So the meter was moved about 20 feet along the wall, and wire in flexible conduit was run from the original weatherhead to and from the meter, and then the wires go into the house to the main panel from the original location.

The part I'm worried about is that the splice points around where the wires go into the house are bare, uninsulated wire. Both the splice from the utility's line to the wire going to the meter, and the splice coming from the meter going into the house are like this. It kind of looks like there are remnants of insulation that have fallen off, so maybe they weren't originaly bare, but I can't tell. The two hot wires are separated by a few inches and no insulation. At one point where they are close, there is a black mark on their closest point, presumably where they touched, maybe under heavy wind?

So just to make sure I'm not misunderstanding something, it is a bad idea to have these wires uninsulated, right?

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NJMarine

The only splice that might be bare is the neutral wire. The other splices needs to covered. This is something that should be taken care of ASAP.
The splices at the service haed should be the only splices. From the meter to the panel should not have any splices.

Just Bill

The poco cable should not be laying on the roof. None of that looks good.

greendog

Yeah, I figured both of those things were bad.

Humorously, the only wire that isn't bare is the ground. Probably because when the meter was moved, the ground didn't have to be moved; only the two hots go to/from the meter.

I bet this has been this way for 20 years at least; ignorance was bliss, but I'm going to get an electrician out here ASAP and have this fixed. Thanks for the advice.

HIVOLT

I bet you that this was done without a permit and never was inspected.

nap

let's hope it was never inspected. I would hate to think that it was and passed.

HIVOLT

You would be surprised what I have found doing inspections. The former inspector is no more because he did not inspect.

frenchelectrican

Hard to see if the photo show actually two service entrance cables but if that the case it will get tricky to get it fix right the crictail item is get the POCO service entrance side taken care of it first asap.

The safest way is have a electrician come out.

There are few regulations to deal with service entrance cable comming above the roof and that have to be inspected and I know alot of POCO have guideline and clearance on the roof section you can check with your inspector or talk to the POCO and they will tell you what it need to be done to make sure it is legit.

Merci,,
Marc

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The answer will be based on NEC ( National Electrical code ) or CEC ( Cananda Electrical code ) or ECF ( Electrique Code France )