[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

No idea. That's why I'm tempted to go through with the $1K deposit to get more info. I kinda follow the logic of why the dude is saying $30-70K in his explanation, but what he's describing doesn't seem like what they'd need to do for my place.

The guy's reasoning on the phone was the initial assessment was that from the information they collected, they needed to dig north, potentially into the driveway then straight across west to cross the road, through some lawn and pathway before finally reaching my house for a distance of 35-50 meters. However, a project manager would go in more detail to figure out the most optimal path. If that's what they actually need to do, which is basically underground for 2-3 properties away plus crossing the road, yeah. I could see that being the quote.

But if I stand at my meter, I can see the transformer and I estimate it's around 50-70 feet away, not 100-150 feet (Transformer around 5 feet from road and assuming road is about 20 feet, driveway is 20 feet and then meter is another 10-15) feet from there. Other than the road and sidewalk, a lot of the trenching would also be in lawn, not driveways and pathways. It is not 100-150 feet away unless C or S shaped paths are being selected.

Quoting myself with additional information in case anyone was curious. I paid the deposit mid April and it took about 2 months for Enmax to get me a breakdown quote. The breakdown quote is less detailed than a detailed quote and is non binding. A detailed quote would have more detailed breakdowns but would require engineer involvement to prepare that. It was mentioned that it could potentially cost more than the $1K deposit to prepare that type of detailed quote.

The scope of this project would have basically involved:
- Pedestal upgrades and installation
- Asphalt cut and remediation
- Trenching, extending and installation of two 22-23 meters of conduits 1.5 meters underground. One for the service upgrade, one for future CC (No idea what this means and why two are required).
- Approx 20m of new 4/0 cable (unsure if it was replacement, or adding of cable, but I seem to recall in one of the phone conversations it was implied it would be adding cable)

Original ball park $30-70K. My estimated quote (directly across road from transformer) ~$48K non-binding.

Speculation and guessing on quote breakdown.

Spoiler!

If I had to guess, I assume it'd be closer to the $15-30K range if it was a neighbor on the same side of the road requiring around 20 meters of work. (no sidewalk and asphalt work).

I'm assuming the asphalt and sidewalk work is half the cost, materials a quarter of the cost (cable and conduit) and the remaining quarter of the cost just minor stuff and the labour on the non asphalt and sidewalk stuff. Directly across a road is around $40-50K. So I assume trenching road and sidewalks costs around $25-35K?

If the first assumption is correct, $15-25K on same side of road, add that again if a few doors down and across the road. I guess that's how the $70K ballpark was established (although I read something on the website that it can potentially go even higher than that range).

Line and cable differentiation and guessing...

Spoiler!

It seems it's possible to have a 100A panel situation with a copper cable. With some "minor" (in comparison) upgrades at the meter and transformer, you are all set to upgrade your 100A panel to a 200A panel. Fuzz's situation sounds a little like he was a lucky one and may have had a copper cable and situations like this might be how someone can do an underground 100A to a 200A upgrade for around $10-15K.

However, this isn't me and like me, the vast majority of older homes are likely aluminum cable, not copper. I also assume this meant that there is no conduit under the road between my house and transformer based on the reference to two full length conduit installations. (I think it was Wormius that mentioned a question about something like that earlier about cables that were just buried underground without a conduit?) This is perhaps why my project would have been more complex and costly as the conduit is required for the upgrade?

So basically, some homes don't need as much work done for a service upgrade if their home is fed with copper cable vs aluminum cable. If I had to guess, maybe that's why some people reported doing it for around $5-15K? Either the transformer was directly on their property and/or they had a copper cable and only needed to do work on the meter and transformer side and whether trenching through a drive way was required?

Now to go back and figure out the details of what is my existing cable size so that the electrician can figure out what options I have to replace and upgrade my existing electrical box.