Went on my roof to clean gutters. Discovered my power lines are just electrical taped together.
Hopefully the copper of the cables is tightly crimped together in a ferrule underneath and not twisted together but yeah, it looks very amateur, hardly fills one with confidence. Don't touch.
National electric code mandates that you twist wires together in a tight coil and then finish with a wirenut. It might look “amateur” but unless you’re well-versed on the NEC, you’re literally the amateur here.
Well wirenuts might still be found on old houses but they were outlawed here a few decades ago. Yes I'm an amateur but neither of us know which nation's electrical code applies to the OP so let's call it quits.
Actual electrician here. Wirenuts and twisted wires have replaced sautering and tape. This is NATIONAL Electric code. I used wirenuts yesterday to install outlets in a residence.
Different Nation mate, we don't use them any more.
Gross, I didn’t realize I was talking to an unciv
Might be wanting the power company come on over and fix that mess.
Depending on where you live the power company may not touch this. Where I live, the power company's responsibility ends at pulling the wire from the pole to the house, and the home owner is responsible for hiring an electrician to wire that to the meter. I just went through this when the power line got ripped off my house during a storm.
What state? Because it's always been the power company's responsibility up until it hits the meter. The meter itself is the last part they're responsible for, anything after it is your property, anything before it including it is theirs
I’m in MA. The first thing Eversource told me when I called them was to make sure I had an electrician scheduled to hook it back up when they got the new wire pulled. My friend is an electrician and he told me that’s how it’s been out here for as long as he’s been an electrician. The meter box got damaged, too, so I had to replace that. I think the electric co is responsible for the actual meter, though.
Damn I’m a lineman here in TX and we take care of it all until it’s in the meter box then it becomes the electricians.
I wonder if it’s only a thing in MA?
I couldn’t tell you to be honest
I haven't heard of it tbh. I'm a solar designer for a major company and I work on MA jobs all the time. Whenever we have different tie ins or perceived code violations we can only take care of the issues after the meter. Evening before is the responsibility of the utility.
Interesting. Maybe it’s just a thing with Eversource?
User deleted comment
10mo
I think it's just the way they are crimped , the connection between the weather head and lines is the utilities responsibility , only they can touch that , it's a simple job for them to recrimp those .
Same thing in NJ
At least in WA everything from where it physically touches the house is the homeowners responsibility, including the feed to the meter. When storms bring down the trees the price gougers come out wanting 10k to straighten the pipe and get you reconnected.
My power company replaced connections at the. house and pole if they looked crummy or there was flicker.
That’s shocking.
Absolutely horrifying
Looks like it did have a cap on it at some point those wire coils look like the coils inside of a cap. Looks like the plastic rotted off.
User deleted comment
10mo
Wasn’t arguing that at all
It's the connection between the utility and weather head ,their responsibility , it's a simple job for them to recrimp it, almost everyone uses hydraulically applied crimps now
Or melted. I’d definitely be having it looked at
If it melted off due to overheating of the Wires, there would be many more indications. Like, melted, electrical, tape or spots on the roof for the plastic melted and dropped off. That plastic does it need to be exposed to the sun. They rot very easily.
Looks like it's been hot from poor connection. I can't beleive they used that on this application.
There are likely connectors under the tape.
Looks like an electrician dropped the service himself instead of calling the power company, because normally the service is held on by these black squeeze on connectors. He probably broke them and wrapped them up in electric tape instead of letting the power company know
This is usually done be an electrician while replacing the breaker box. The power company company will come out and inspect then put the straight connectors on and put a green tag on the box.
The box was replaced about 18 months ago. Fully licensed master electrician and passed city inspection. Guess they didn't look up when walking into the garage!
You can follow up with the power provider to get them to put the straight connectors on.
Welp beter call the electric company
This is normal. The tape is more for water proofing and preventing accidentally arcs.
Ya, but there's no nuts or anything on them. What happens if I wasn't paying attention and tapped my head on that exposed end?
Moderator removed comment
10mo
There is a less than 0% chance that I'm going to grab that and just spin some electrical tape around it.
Power company is coming out today to look at it.
I challenge you to touch a house feed to your head. I will pay money to see it.
Is it raining and is he barefoot? /s
If those cables are live, Jesus Christ. Looks a bit like a cowboy job.
Some things are worth paying for hire a good electrician to unfuck that , Do NOT try and diy it
just get a lego brick and attach it to your house
I’m shocked your house isn’t live.
Un tape them give them the ole spit shine and tape back up when your done.
Put a layer of duct tape over it and everything will be fine.
No. Do not do that.
Is that actually power? Power comes through a “stovepipe” usually mounted higher up.
This looks like CoAxial cable for cable or internet.
Competing companies will most always cut each others cables when you switch service to them to make it harder to switch back to the old service.
Did you peel off the electrical tape on one to confirm it's just being held together by the tape?
It may have a wire nut underneath it
There is definitely a connector on the lines, it's just messy. Definitely have it looked at. Makes you wonder what the inside of the meter looks like...
What a shocker
Glad you had reason to get up there and see it before something happened. Call some experts and get it squared away while the weather’s good.
Nothing is more permanent than temporary.
Do you live in a lego house???
Here in rural Georgia anything north of the meter is the power company. I am not allowed to touch it. I asked an engineer for the EMC about it. He told me there have been some clever and devious taps before the meter where folks stole the juice. They do not allow anyone to touch their side of the meter, that includes cutting the seal and pulling the meter.
Seriously...wtf?
Oooh boy, better call the power company or an actual licensed electrician
As long as its black electrical tape it should be good the sun will melt the glue and fuse it all together nicely.
Similar thing with my MIL’s power where one day the power just started dropping to almost nothing and coming back and then fluctuating so everything was running at like half power. Providers came out to look at it and found out the last technician just wrapped the cables together and taped it. The wires had been overheated from improper connections and basically burned away to where we were only connected to the grid by a few strands of the cable. They redid the connection correctly in about an hour.
that is indeed electrical tape isolating electricity
Надо было синей изолентой делать.
Homie there WAS wirenuts on there, they just melted away. You can still see the threading on the foreground wire. Electrician did this right, probably overheating on wires or the sun.
If there's no damage , usually the power company will recrimp and retape them , it only takes a few minutes . They are responsible for the connection to their lines , as only they can touch it
/r/Wellthatsucks is now over on lemmy!
https://lemmy.ml/c/wellthatsucks
![email protected]
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.