|> | It's WAY cheaper than the 7200 volt or higher rated wire used to run to | the |> | transformer.. lots of utilities charge LOTS of $$$ to run to the |> | transformer They want $4500 to run to the transformer for my house | from |> | the poll ( about 350 feet) |>
|> I'd just run 480 or 600 volts for that distance. Of course you might have |> to do some talking to get the utility to hand off at that voltage. And | then |> there is still a transformer needed. | | | Not a cost effective idea either, as I found out the "hard way". For | instance if he wants to have a 200 amp service to the cabin he needs to run | a 75kva transformer. At those voltages I don't think that they will sell | you only 2 lines, so he would need a 3 phase transformer just like I'm | running now. So here are the problems, first the cost of the transformer | is on the user ( bad enough) but the little part they don't tell you is that | the transformer eats 600-800w just to turn it on! That's every second of | every day you run it! I wanted to run 300 amps so I got a 112.5 kva to run | at my house that little pig burns 1200w can you say ChaChing! That's why | I'm going to let them charge me the $$$$ to run the high voltage to THEIR | 75kva transformer and then THEY can pay the $$$ to keep it warm ( not a big | deal to them as they pay like 1-2 cents per kw unlike the 8-11 cents I pay.
Utilities typically undersize transformers. For 200 amp service, you might get a 37.5 kVA transformer (at least if it's a pole mount). They figure you will not be pulling the 200 amps for such a long period of time that you would blow the transformer (there's a lot of margin to overload it for a few hours). Of course in Texas, there might not be as much margin given the ambient temperatures.