[TowerTalk] Romex for Rotor cable

[Ro Grrr]

Romex for Rotor cable?


When I was building my new home in the woods, I had to run power, phone, water and some signal lines. I didn't want to do a clear-cut for the power lines so I asked the power company if they could/would run their 7500 Volt primary in an underground trench to the house.
They said they would be willing to do that since it would preclude the high probability of trees being blown down and taking  out the power lines. They told me I needed a 48 inch deep trench for their primary line and I had to dig the trench.
I then asked how far from the primary line will my water line and fone line have to be. They said minimum, 24 inches. I then told them I would dig a 24 inch wide trench and lay their primary line on one side of the trench and all my other stuff on the other side of the trench. I got a HORRIFIED, YOU CAN'T DO THAT !
I asked why not ?
He said he didn't know but I couldn't do it anyway. I told him that I was not about to dig 2 1500 foot trenches when I could logically dig one wide enough and lay all the stuff in it and cover it back up.  I told him to check on it and call me back.
Dunno who he checked with but the next day he told me to do it, which I did. I laid 4 water lines, a pair of #10 copper, an 18 conductor, two 3-pair fone lines in the trench and it's been working well for 15 years. And what I laid was not rated as direct burial.  I really don't understand all this crap about direct v. nondirect burial. It aint exposed to UV and there aren't any critters chewing on it at that depth.
Bottom line - IT WORKS, LASTS A LONG TIME.

In the 15 years I've been living here, I've had trees take down power lines maybe a dozen times, but on other people's property where the primary was above ground. Where the line approached my prop, a tree came down in their clear cut (they hadn't cut that particular DEAD tree) and I called the power outage to them and told them exactly where the problem was. Their business plan for line preservation, while looking good on paper, isn't all that great in practicality.