Temporary electric hookup from Con Ed?

(sorry for the duplicate – I accidentally posted this in “roofers” initially) Early last week, our house and a couple of others on the block had a sudden electric service disruption, probably due to the manhole/salt issue. To their credit, and despite awful communication, Con Ed came pretty quickly and worked all day to try to fix the problem. In the end, they did not fix the main source of the problem, but they did fix up our buildings with a “temporary” hook-up until they can come back to fix the problem. Two manholes on our block remain gated off for when they come back. My question to you all is whether you think the temporary hook-up is as stable as a regular one: one of my neighbors mentioned that it might not be and that we shouldn’t use high-power appliances until we get our regular electric back. I therefore advised our tenants that they cannot use the washing machine until we have a permanent fix. Given that it’s been almost two weeks at this point and Con Ed doesn’t seem to be coming back anytime soon, I was wondering if you guys think that my neighbor was being overly cautious and if we can assume that the temporary hook-up can sustain all our usual appliances. Anyone with thoughts, knowledge, or experience in this? Thanks!

NewOwner

in Electricians 10 years and 2 months ago

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Arkady | 10 years and 1 month ago

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cmu – I ran my house for about 3 months w/ a jump & no 220\. My problem started the day before the tornado so I wasn’t a priority given the struggles others had.

williamsburgguys | 10 years and 1 month ago

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They just finished pulling new cables from the street into our basement service yesterday (Friday). Ours had gone out a couple days before Christmas. We have a 220 volt dryer and the night it happened they ran one phase and jumped the box and told me of course to take it easy on the load, but after I called them to ask when the permanent line would be run and they told me several weeks, I told them I needed 220 for the dryer and they came out that same afternoon and ran a new temporary service from a different streetlight that gave me 220\. I had zero problems using the temporary service for almost 3 months. The house next door to ours lost their service last week (the workers said there is all sorts of old cloth covered wiring in the manhole out there), so they have left the holes in the street open to run their new service once they get the order. They packed both ends of the conduit with a thick orange putty followed by what looked to be 2-3 inches of a cement looking substance they heated with a torch. They said it shouldn’t leak so I have my fingers crossed since the hole is open in the street and the snow is melting.

anotherposter | 10 years and 2 months ago

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Happened to us twice last winter. The second time it was just our house and they put us on a “temporary” jump where none of our appliances (220) worked except the heat. They fixed it and took us off jump over 3 months later. It sucked. Getting the appointment for them to fix it was incredibly hard and not automatic once they sent someone to put us on jump. I’m currently out of town and just found out from our house sitter that it has happened again, just at our house so we will be returning to no heat. Wish they would spend time doing some actual fixes instead of patching old broken wiring.

NewOwner | 10 years and 2 months ago

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Thanks everyone, for your input. Very helpful. And ugh, Slimc – that’s awful. I have so much anger toward Con Ed stretching back several years!

cmu | 10 years and 2 months ago

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If ConEd connected only 1 phase, only half the circuits will be active, the others dead (and, of course 220v appliances will just not turn on.) arkady, very unlikely because if you jump 2 phases into one, 3-wire 2-phase circuits (quite common) can overload on the neutral wire, a real fire hazard (look it up.) ConEd won’t want the liability for either case. OP, if you have gas stove, water heater and dryer, there are no ‘hi-power’ appliances to worry about.

slimc | 10 years and 2 months ago

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if con ed decides to install new permanent cables underground into your basement….heed my words: make sure they do not leave any conduit pipe unpacked. Some time ago, con ed pulled out my old cables and left the conduit pipe leading from the street into my basement unpacked for a few days until they could come back and finish the job. Well…it rained that night for 12 straight hours. Water poured into my basement for 12 straight hours, (without a sump pump) I had to lug buckets of water up the cellar steps for 12 straight hours to avoid a flood in my basement. I made calls for emergency help all night. Just as the rain stopped, a con ed worker came by to fill the pipe with oakum until the new cables could be pulled through a week later.

Arkady | 10 years and 2 months ago

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They probably only connected one leg – but, Dave, they’d’ve jumped it so there’s service to all in the house, just not 220\. There shouldn’t be any danger in running whatever will operate – if you have any 220 appliances, they simply won’t work.

daveinbedstuy | 10 years and 2 months ago

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They may not have run two + mains and if they did not, you don’t have 220/240 volts to run anything off of that. A regular washing machine is only 110 v and wouldn’t be an issue. 220v would be necessary for central air, an electric washer/dryer combination or an electric dryer and an electric oven. That said, if they didn’t, you would also likely not have some of your circuits working. In fact, a toaster is about as high power as you get!