120V house service drop question.

[acer66]

Hey there,

Someone on another forum brought up in a discussion about EV’s that there are older houses with a 120v service drop but did not provide any data.

I did a search and came up empty handed.

So the question is does anyone have some data about how many houses there are in the US that have a 120v service drop?

Thank you.

 

[Norcal]

There are fewer and fewer 120V services (30A, 120V) around, I have not seen any in a long time, and would suspect since the rollout of Smart Meters, the owners of buildings with 120 volt services would be forced to upgrade. With the electrical use of today, being limited to 30A would be almost intolerable.

 

[acer66]

Thank you Norcal.

 

[jeepxj]

i'm sure that discussion is got a lot of reason with it. "but grand ma's house only has 120 service. she'll never be able to blah blah blah"

 

[acer66]

i'm sure that discussion is got a lot of reason with it. "but grand ma's house only has 120 service. she'll never be able to blah blah blah"

How did you know?

 

[jeepxj]

How did you know?

Its a hobby for me at this point to counter EV fud. Its the same tired talking points over and over.

"but it takes so long to charge you cant go anywhere". do you not sleep?

"but I need to sometimes drive 5,000 miles without stopping." Do you not poop?

"but lithium mines are so bad for the environment" are we just gona ignore what oil does to the environment?

"its still powered by coal". great still cleaner per mile driven even on just coal power.

"but greenies are stupid". yea this is just better overall.


no **** talker has survived a test drive in my EV. "this isn't a prius holy ****"

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Hey there,

Someone on another forum brought up in a discussion about EV’s that there are older houses with a 120v service drop but did not provide any data.

I did a search and came up empty handed.

So the question is does anyone have some data about how many houses there are in the US that have a 120v service drop?

Thank you.

I highly doubt youll find that data but there are houses out there that still have 120v service.

There are fewer and fewer 120V services (30A, 120V) around, I have not seen any in a long time, and would suspect since the rollout of Smart Meters, the owners of buildings with 120 volt services would be forced to upgrade. With the electrical use of today, being limited to 30A would be almost intolerable.

back when i still did lots of service calls for home warranty companies, i saw a number of older houses with 120v services and smart meters...

 

[jeepxj]

I highly doubt youll find that data but there are houses out there that still have 120v service.


back when i still did lots of service calls for home warranty companies, i saw a number of older houses with 120v services and smart meters...

would they replace it out with 240 for free just to bring them into the 21st century? to the meter

 

[Bert_]

I've know a couple 120v services still kicking around. They had new meter boxes put in on the outside of the house 30 years ago. So there is 240 to the meter but it just ties back into the old service entrance.

 

[nadogail]

Those houses are getting fewer and further apart; partly because of upgrades to minimum code standards.

 

[rburke65]

And, by now, the 1920 insulation on those #10 wires ate just about dust.....not good!

 

[mcbane]

There are fewer and fewer 120V services (30A, 120V) around, I have not seen any in a long time, and would suspect since the rollout of Smart Meters, the owners of buildings with 120 volt services would be forced to upgrade. With the electrical use of today, being limited to 30A would be almost intolerable.

Intolerable is right. I had a house in the 1990s with a 15A 120 volt service. The service entrance conductors were cloth insulated 14 gauge. The house was built in 1868 and must have been wired in the very early days of electricity when the only demand would have been a handful of lights.

It is hard to run an entire house on 15A so somebody had "upgraded" the service by bypassing the main fuse, leaving around 50A worth of branch circuit fuses connected to the 14 gauge service. I replaced the service right away. The 14 gauge wires were in a 1/2" steel conduit but their insulation was more or less charcoal by the time I removed them. Bend the wire and bits of charcoal fall off.

 

[Syberia]

Wife's grandpa actually lived in a 100+ year old house with 120v service. Whole house was falling apart and was torn down when he died.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

would they replace it out with 240 for free just to bring them into the 21st century? to the meter

the 3 PoCos in my area wont do anything for free...

 

[Bert_]

More common, around here anyway, is seeing the old 30A service still in place but either fed from the meter with a 60-100A panel in the basement or fed from the panel in the basement.

My house still has the fuse blocks from the old 30A service. It's not used anymore though. It had a 150 panel put in during the 70's. Quite a bit of the lighting is still on the original knob and tube though.

 

[mcbane]

would they replace it out with 240 for free just to bring them into the 21st century? to the meter

I just got a 21st century upgrade from PG&E. Only $5k for engineering fees and pulling the wire. Not exactly free.

 

[quickfarms]

The tax assessor found my house in 1890 and the county surveyor shows it on a 1878 survey.

Knob and tube is fine as long as it hasn’t been molested

I have lots of it in my attic but it is all inactive and i just leave it for inspectors to find. They make a big deal about it but don’t realize that it was taken out of service in 1938.

there is another section of knob and tube that still is in service but it only feeds one light

most of the lights in the house and some plugs are on the 1938 wiring

this past weekend I changed the face plates on the outlets in two bedrooms and did not see any issue with the insulation on the 1938 vintage wiring

 

[rburke65]

When I first started in residential retiring, I was told by the older electricians, that knob n tube wiring was one of the safest wiring designs because the only place the hot n the neutral even came close to each other was at a receptacle, switch or a light.