Water in service conduit

[Mark Thorman]

Ran across this yesterday in Hana. There is no cap or weather head at the top of the entance cable conduit which has allowed water to enter the conduit and which is now leaking out at the other end under the main panel approximately 100 feet away from the pole. Based on the elevations I would estimate at least 30 feet of the wire in the under ground conduit to be completely and continuously submersed in water. Is that wiring still good?

www.MauiHomeInspections.com

[Kevin M. Leonard]

Originally Posted by Mark Thorman

Ran across this yesterday in Hana. There is no cap or weather head at the top of the entance cable conduit which has allowed water to enter the conduit and which is now leaking out at the other end under the main panel approximately 100 feet away from the pole. Based on the elevations I would estimate at least 30 feet of the wire in the under ground conduit to be completely and continuously submersed in water. Is that wiring still good?

www.MauiHomeInspections.com

It is impossible to inspect & report on the condition of the wire considering this is a visual inspection and per the SOP underground systems are beyond the scope of the inspection.

I don't understand what weather-head your referring to if underground utilities are in place.? At the pole as per your first pic?

Is your second pic of the meter panel?

Did you open the panel to see if you can verify that the water is entering through the conduit?

Usually when I see water in the meter panel it is either entering at the overhead service wire at the weather-head or where the service wire enters the panel from the top.

[Mark Thorman]

I understand that I'm not going to report on the condition of the wiring I was just wondering if anybody has seen this before.

The power is supplied to the property overhead and at that pole (at the street) it enters the conduit near the top of the pole and top of conduit appears open, I don't know what the cap would be called.

The second pic is the junction box under the main panel and there is no water source above it.

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[Michael R. Boyett]

Mark, that conduit definitely needs a 'weatherhead' and I suspect you are correct in thinking the underground conduit has filled with rain water over time. I doubt that even USE-2 service entrance wire is rated for continuous underwater use. I'm sure you wrote all that up and for it to be further inspected & repaired or replaced by a licensed electrician.

BTW, I took this photo a while back of a church/cemetary but can't remember eactly where I was. I've always like the 'circle of life' aspect of it and would like to remember where I was. It was probably somewhere near Wailea-Makena and I think that is Kahoolawe in the background but I'm not sure. Does that view look familiar to you? I know, I know..it looks like that everywhere on Maui but I thought I'd ask.

[Mark Thorman]

[quote=mboyett;590751]Does that view look familiar to you? I know, I know..it looks like that everywhere on Maui but I thought I'd ask.


That looks like the Keawala'i Congregational Church in Makena. That is a picture that is lookin up the coast toward the West Maui Mountains in the background. Nice spot (oceanfront) with some great snorkeling.

http://www.keawalai.org/

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[Mark Thorman]

So I know we need a weatherhead and drain the conduit but what are the chances that the wires will need replacing. The screws were heavy rusted so I could not get access. The home was built in 1980.

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[Michael R. Boyett]

Yes, that is the church...Thanks! I went to the website you showed and recognized the grounds. Excellent...I can label those photos now.

Do you know what type of wire was in the conduit? Well, no I suppose you don't if you couldn't get the cover off. I guess with a ladder you could see the wires close up at the top of the conduit. I would think the chances are extremely high that it would need to be replaced.

[Frank P. Newman]

It is hard to say from a distance, of course; so many factors are involved. However, more than 10 years ago, I saw some 3/c 15kV armored cable that had been full of water for an unknown period of years. It was discovered during a re-routing during an outage. With no replacment available at the time, it was reterminated and returned to service where it is still in service today. Basically, wire insulation is pretty impervious to water except at the ends where the insulation has been removed. i would not the condition and recomend further evaluation and correction of the water problem.