Sorry about the double post. Just thought of something.
Get pictures of the service drop to your house. Just in case you have any appliances or electronic items damaged. Make sure you get your house in the picture too.
The power company never claims responsibility.

zanny

 

The pictures is a good idea zanny.

 

They fixed it Saturday about 6 pm by splicing the existing service drop. They said the line is in good shape and I am better off with this one spliced than a new line because the new one is aluminum; whereas mine is copper. They said it looked like it was severed by a bullet and they see this every now and then. Not sure how they could tell, but for a good line in good condition to break like that, what else could explain it. So if the bullet theory is right, then likely it has been severed since New Years (or July 4). I know it was OK in the fall of 2001 when I had a new meter installed. Anyway, this emphasizes the importance of having a good ground. Mine is water pipe, but that I did add a rod off the garage which however is only connected to the house by a 14 ga ground wire. But the cable to the water pipe is the stranded line, I think it is 6 gauge--pretty heavy line.

Thanks all. BTW, these two line workers were really good. Not only did they appear to be competent (I say "appear" because I am not qualified to judge the competence of line workers on one visit), but also, after they left my house they stopped and used their bucket to get some balloons out of a tree for the little girl across the street--right out of storybook land, aye?

 

Glad to hear it got fixed before anything or anyone got fried. Now you can sleep a little better at night without worrying about something going zaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap! in the night.

 

It sounds like they fixed it right.
Please replace that ground rod wire with a minimum of # 6.
#14 scares me.
I am also glad to hear that no one received electric shock therapy.


zanny

 

Thanks,

Well actually, now that I think about it, I did use some #6 there. I ran #6 from the ground rod through the garage wall to where the #14 comes into the garage from the house. At that point the #14's ground connects with the #6 and then goes on to the garage lights and outlets.