Service entrance under house

[David Meiland]

This is atypical for these parts, and I'm not sure it's legit. 2" PVC comes through the foundation, runs slightly above grade for several feet, makes a turn, runs through this plywood trough filled with concrete for several more feet, then emerges and rises to the subfloor, then up into a wall to the main panel.

There are two places where anyone crawling around to do work is likely to put their weight on the pipe. Seems unsafe to me.

Most of the time, the pipe comes straight up out of the ground within a few feet of the foundation and goes directly into the wall above.

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[David Meiland]

... then there's the issue of plywood left under the house in contact with concrete and grade...

[Marc]

Supports are too far apart. It should run alongside some structural member. Since it's an SE, I'd write it up for sure. I'd probably check and see of there's too many turns for that size conduit and fill. Pretty much throw the book at it.

Do you know if that conduit is SCH 80?

Marc

[Jim Katen]

How peculiar. It looks like they placed that trough of concrete for the purpose of enclosing the service entrance conduit. I've seen that done on large multifamily projects but never in a home. I don't suppose that the plans are available?

[Jim Port]

The maximum is 360 degrees of bend in the run between access points.

The encased conduit would be considered outside the building if there was a minimum of 2" of concrete over them. This would allow for the unfused conductors to enter a panel not on an outside wall of the house. However, I would not consider what is shown to meet those requirements since not all the conduit is covered.

[John Kogel]

Yes, that is done here as well to allow the service panel to be installed further away from the meter can. Only trouble with this installation is that they ran out of concrete or energy or incentive. [:-slaphap

The concrete should cover all the horizontal portions of the run.

[David Meiland]

There is a fair amount of electrical work in this house that was not carefully inspected, mostly romex run freely across the framing like spaghetti, rather than being drilled through. I know that the current electrical inspectors would not allow the conduit in the photos. It would be OK if it ran under the joists, although I think runs too far under the house to be legal. There is a location directly above where it enters that would have been fine for the panel.

[Gardner]

Is this protected by a main breaker or is this right from the utility?

[David Meiland]

Straight from the meter.