Underground feed

Six character · Feb 25, 2020

We are building a small house at a lake that has a 200 amp feed through panel at the meter pole at the street. We would like to install an underground feed to a 150 amp indoor panel at the house. Electricians want to run an SE 2/0 wire. I would prefer to run a 2/0SER RHH,RHW-2.
I believe that would give us a fire rated cable where it enters the house. I believe SE is not rated for burial. Any thoughts or recommendations?
Also, if the 150 amp panel is considered a sub panel, would I need a four conductor wire? A separate ground should be installed at the house.

Megawatt · Feb 27, 2020

Six character said:
We are building a small house at a lake that has a 200 amp feed through panel at the meter pole at the street. We would like to install an underground feed to a 150 amp indoor panel at the house. Electricians want to run an SE 2/0 wire. I would prefer to run a 2/0SER RHH,RHW-2.
I believe that would give us a fire rated cable where it enters the house. I believe SE is not rated for burial. Any thoughts or recommendations?
Also, if the 150 amp panel is considered a sub panel, would I need a four conductor wire? A separate ground should be installed at the house.

Hi and welcome to the forum and I looked up SE cable is not approved for underground with or without a raceway. If you want a subpanel yes you would have to use 4 wire cable or singles. It sounds like it will be installed underground but in your best interest your electricians need to install 2 inch PVC conduit with THHN insulation. They will need to pull two 2/0 for power and 1/0 for the neutral plus one # 6 ground wire. Any sub-fed panel has to keep the neutral wires and the ground wires separate which means they will have to have a ground bar in the panel and one bar for the neutral. Do not install a ground rod, at your main panel that the power company supplies. All the bonding takes place at the first panel using 2 ground rods I don’t recommend using RHH or RHW 2 use THHN Home Depot and Lowe’s sells THHN and not RHH or RHW 2. Good luck my friend

Six character · Feb 28, 2020

Thanks for input. Since there is a panel at the street and the panel in the house is a subpanel, wouldn’t We just pull three conductors and drive a separate ground rod at the house? Also leave the green screw off in the subpanel?

Megawatt · Feb 28, 2020

Six character said:
Thanks for input. Since there is a panel at the street and the panel in the house is a subpanel, wouldn’t We just pull three conductors and drive a separate ground rod at the house? Also leave the green screw off in the subpanel?

Yes don’t add the green screw. Your telling that the main panel is on a pole and how far is that from your home. Also walk out to the panel on the pole and see if there’s one or possibly 2 ground rods If so the new panel will be the sub- fed panel and you have to pull 4 wires as per the NEC and do not add it a rod it is a code violation. You will also as I stated before keep neutrals and grounds separate