Our $14k Underground Electric Service - The FINAL Connection
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- čas přidán 28. 06. 2024
- The path to running underground electric to our house site has been a long and expensive one, but we are finally there. This video walks you through every step of it! We never did figure out why the electric company's prints were wrong for the final wire length..
00:00 Intro
00:44 The months work leading to install day
03:03 Pulling Main Electric Service Cable
04:53 Installing Underground Electric Transformer
05:34 The Final Connection
If you’re new here, WELCOME 👋 We have a series of playlists on our house project thus far so you can easily binge watch those and catch up to where we are now!
* LINK TO ENTIRE HOUSE BUILD PLAYLIST: • Self-Building Our Home...
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ABOUT US: We are Alex and Elaina, a couple in our 20s who are currently living on the 3-acre farm in southern Pennsylvania where Alex grew up. We have a garden, backyard chickens, and build or fix anything that we need to. We still work corporate day jobs, but are working to eventually leave the 9-5 lifestyle in favor of a self-built, debt-free, homestead on 6 acres nearby.
We upload a CZcams video every Saturday night at 7️⃣pm EST, and post daily on Instagram!
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Instagram: / masondixonacres
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#selfbuild #homebuilding #building
I love when someone's goals are achieved. MERRY CHRISTMAS to you both.
Thanks so much! Merry Christmas to you as well 🎄😊
Super awesome they just gave you that wire! Wow
Definitely a right place right time kinda thing 😅
Dude!! I'm completely excited for you guys! Completely proud as well.
Thanks so much!! We are pretty stoked as well 😁
0:50 Exactly! $14K is not justification to go off grid solar, you would pay more than that in batteries alone and then need to replace them in ten years. Now that you are grid tied, you can take your time enjoy limitless power, and still choose to invest in a more reliable and affordable grid tied solar solution.
Batteries at a low c rate last 30 years before *starting* to degrade below 80% capacity… Even the cheapest batteries have a 7 year warranty. 14k gets you 55kwh of quality batteries, idk wtf you’d need 55kwh for especially when he has zip sheathing.
Obviously he should tie into the grid but idk what ur on abt
@@benchoflemons398 30 years? I read a $10K 13.5KWH tesla powerwall is warranted and good for 10 about years. A 2 Ton heat pump will use 1 KWH. Ford makes an EV which will power your home, that might make some sense as a backup solution, a generator tied to a battery runs more efficiently than just powering your house. The ROI for solar alone is 5-10 years and that's probably grid tied, at this time I am good with my electric bill and investing my money elsewhere.
Merry Christmas to you both🤶🎄🎅
Thank you! Merry Christmas to you as well 🥰
Great determination in getting that house built but I laughed when you said you've got some big rocks, the rocks we have in my area are bigger than that mini excavator you used to dig your trench.
Oh man, those must be huge!! Hopefully you can use some of them for some landscaping 😅
Merry Christmas
Thank you! Merry Christmas to you too!
I'm about the same age as you guys and I'm looking to build in North Eastern PA. You guys use PPL for power or West Penn. I'm curious how much cable they provided on their expense. I've heard they pay for 300 ft of cable to the meter or transformer.
Met Ed (First Energy) is the service provider, for long underground services like ours they didn't pay for anything, just a $600 discount for a new service
I know this is an older video but I'm curious as to why it cost 14k to run a line to your house. Especially with you doing the trench work. Do you have a rough breakdown of costs?
I think we talk about it a bit in the “considering off grid” video but we are putting together detailed cost spreadsheets that will (eventually) be available on our website
@@MasonDixonAcres Just watched that video. In short, the electric company bent you over. Really sucks when you have two choices and they are both expensive
0:50 I used to watch another youtube channel who I won't name and did the opposite of you and went "off grid"... it was almost comical listening to them justify not paying $10K to tie into the grid instead they paid $45K for $15KW off grid solar power house doing all the labor themself and that was pre-covid prices... since then they installed a whole home generator, upgraded their batteries added more solar panels. Along the way their justification changed too, the grid tie in increased to $20K and their utility bill went up to $250 a month. During a recent storm they were bragging about being the only ones in their town with power because running a generator during the winter months when solar output low even in WV somehow does not count as much as the one time a year I run my generator when the power goes out. Ironically they had to recently replace a solar array themselves when one of their goats chewed threw one of its wires, so they are no more reliable than the grid, except if you are on grid someone else fixes it and the power is back up in a couple of hours.
While I think your $14K investment was the right choice for the average consumer it may not have been the best choice for an up and coming youtube provider like you guys! LOL, if you factor in the "power of youtube" that other channel has grown to over a million subscribers by claiming they live "off grid" and providing lots of great content on off grid solar. I mean given their success on youtube clearly off grid solar was the best choice for them plus they probably have lots of solar companies lining up give them free solar for promotional spots!
Not to ramble on, I though you would find that interesting... growing your channel with off grid solar might even be more rewarding... When the time is right, I would definitely shop around for some solar companies looking to help you out in exchange for a few promotional plugs! Best of luck and Merry Christmas to you and your families!
Yep this is true, we actually watched some of their solar videos when making the decision and while it did seem doable, we didn't really want the learning curve and associated headaches when we are already have to learn so much for self building. Thought it would be easier to stay the traditional route when it came to power, and we are still happy with that decision despite the missed opportunity for CZcams algorithm 😁
@@MasonDixonAcres Farmcraft has a grid tied solar, he just installed a whole house generator to replace his battery backup. At the end he explained how the using the backup generator made more sense for the few times a year the grid went down vs buying lead acid batteries every few years. It is working for him... Your property will be more valuable/resale with grid power vs off grid solar, it will be more expandible, and reliable plus it buys you time, you have enough on your plate building your house than figuring out how to power it while it is going up! Solar is an investment, no different than buying stocks, perhaps your ROI may be more predictable, but like any investment there is still risk unless you insure it, your array could get struck by lightning etc.... and then there is the space it takes up and maintenance, some municipalities will even assess/tax you for the improvement to your home.
We are wiring a generator plug outside for the same situation, power doesn’t go out much around us so we will just run a portable generator for those times. Agreed about grid tie solar, we will be able to wire it in fairly easily down the road if the numbers work out and we have a good spot for panels.
You seem very angry about other peoples choices ... I watch most of the home builders. The WV couple with the goats as you said. Their cost for electric was 15k for the first thousand feet, not including pipe/wire/labor for the rest of the distance to house, and gives them easement rights. And their first solar came in around 22k because they did labor themselves. they later doubled the panels and changed batteries for another 15kish (but maybe not even that, im sure sponsor right off for the actual cost). If you think about it, their cost to break through the difference between line and solar comes out to about 7 years to even, and 16ish to beat if energy prices stay same. And when building a house that generates profit off youtube, you can earn back some cash and write some things off :) Its up to every person to decide the direction they want to be. I am glad this channels choices worked for them, and i feel their pain on the septic ours was 35k, after all the regs in our area....
@@msolace580 that whole thing about easement rights to the electric company is nonsense the only person who could use that line would be them unless they gave permission. I got annoyed because as their costs of off-grid solar went up so did their original justification. Go watch their early videos it was $10k their monthly electric bill also went up from $150 to $250 in their second justification video in spite that their off grid home runs gas appliances reduced it's electric footprint from a typical grid tied home. i thought they even said their payoff was 5 years it is hard to remember because it changed so often. They never counted running their generator, upgrades, and maintenance cost all of which are likely over 70k now thank God josh used to be an electrician. Pretty sure they stopped doing estimate videos they don't like the criticism blocking viewers like me. idk What happens when they build their planned shop? You are correct off grid solar is a total money maker for CZcams content providers and I only considered the sponsors paying for their equipment. I never even considered the tax write off, potentially every project they film could be a write off it is really brilliant! For you and me off grid solar is a bad investment unless we start a CZcams channel. Grid tied is a much better investment eliminating expensive batteries and taking advantage of credits to make a smaller array NetZero. I have total respect for those folks living their dream question is at what point do you walk away invest their earnings in more profitable ventures? At that point is a off grid home really more desirable to a buyer?
After watching diesel creek pay $50k to get wired and you pay $14k, I’m wondering where you got your solar quotes from? I understand you’re a mechanical engineer, like me. I’m looking to build a sustainable house in a year or two. I’m looking at sustainably from a systems standpoint. If you had the funds, I wonder how this approach would have worked:
Self install solar panels
Hybrid inverter(s)
Ground source heat pump(s) You could have had boreholes for that put in the same time as water well
No need for the propane tank
No cost of First Energy hookup
No cascade risk of loss of water with power outages.
Same for heat, lights & cooling
You’re doing DIY on so much other. Sorry you couldn’t do that for energy.
It would’ve been cool if you had a DIY powerwall with Jehu Garcia. Or Matt Ferrel & and two-bit-divinci!
I like the idea! The last point hit it on the head though - tackling so much ourselves, the last thing we needed to add was another complexity with nontraditional power. Building takes a lot of power (saws, compressors, tool batteries, etc.) and running a generator is a pain. We will have a generator inlet to backfeed in the case of an outage though. As for the propane, we needed something with enough power density to heat the garage radiant floor, plus we like cooking over gas.
A properly sized solar setup should run an air source heat pump no problem, they are pretty efficient now, and cost less than the ground source counterparts (more common, less complex hardware). We wanted to wait until we see our actual kwh loads before trying to size and install a solar setup, so it will likely be a future project once we get that dialed in. I'd rather backfeed excess to the grid than deal with the battery setup, it just seems like too much hassle if we're within reach of grid tie.
Them must be union workers making a mistake like that on the length of the run. They talk so much shit about how great they are and the work they do is so stellar compared to the nonunion work force and then they go and screw up the days work. smh.
Haha I can't speak for either side as a non-electrician, but I think the root cause was actually the office guy who came out and drafted the plans for them