Hey everyone, Willie the Wire Guy here. Lately, I’ve been keeping in touch with a number of our customers who have purchased wire and cable products for a couple of reasons: (1) to make sure they’re satisfied with their wire and cable, and (2) out of curiosity—to see how our products are being used. I’ve received awesome feedback, and I’m glad to see that people find our wire and cable performs at a high level.
It’s also been great to see the kinds of projects people are undertaking that have made them need our products in the first place. I thought it’d be a good idea to share this information for anyone who might be tackling a similar electrical project so that they can learn what type of wire others are using. Today, we’re going to focus on our Aluminum Service Entrance Cable with reinforcement tape (or SER Cable) and how Wire & Cable To Go buyers are putting it to use.
Using SER Cable to Feed Distribution and Sub-Panels
Predominantly, people are using our Aluminum SER Cable as it’s generally intended—to carry power from a service drop to the electronic meter base, and from that meter base to the distribution panel. More specifically, many customers are using our SER as a service entrance feeder cable from utility poles to their sub-panels when distributing power to an area outside the home (like a detached garage). SER is a perfect cable for feeding power to your sub-panel, and, depending on the amount of amps their sub-panels are handling (we’ve seen everywhere from 50 amp to 200 amp sub-panels being serviced), our customers are using all sizes of SER as a sub-panel feeder. What’s important to keep in mind when wiring a sub-panel on a structure separate from the home is that the sub-panel will need to be grounded. For this reason, all of our SER cable comes with ground included.
Many external structures that require significant power to function can utilize SER in their electrical distribution. Just a few that we’ve seen our customers build and service are:
- external garages
- pole barns
- heavy-duty workshops
- pool houses
- green houses
We’ve seen each of these projects employ Aluminum SER cable as a service entrance, but it’s important to understand that SER is only suitable as an above-ground service entrance cable. For direct burial aluminum cable for underground distribution, please take a look at our selection of Aluminum URD Wire, or visit our direct burial cable archive.
While SER is mostly used for much the same purposes across the board—distributing power from the main power supply to a subsidiary structure—it’s been interesting to hear of the unique things people have been powering on their property with our Aluminum Service Entrance cable. We will continue to profile how our customers are using different types of wire and cable in the future, so be sure to look out for our next installment!
If you have an upcoming project and are considering Aluminum SER Cable we do recommend consulting with a local electrician who is up to date on all codes and who can also advise on the correct size.
We offer Aluminum SER Wire in sizes 6 AWG - 4/0 and can cut to any length you need!
Please click here to view our entire Aluminum SER selection>>
Feel free to give us a call at 855-880-8010 if you have any questions!
Thanks for stopping by!
Your pal,
Willie