Residential Electrical Service Drops: What You Need to Know

Lee has over two decades of hands-on experience remodeling, fixing, and improving homes, and has been providing home improvement advice for years.

Larry Campbell is an electrical contractor with 36 years of experience in residential and light commercial electrical wiring. He worked as an electronic technician and later as an engineer for the IBM Corp. He is also a member of The Spruce Home Improvement Review Board.

Elizabeth MacLennan is a fact checker and editor with a background in earth sciences and sustainability. Elizabeth holds an M.S. from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Residential electrical service drops are attached to the side of your house and are seen all the time, yet you may never think about them. Unless you have buried power lines, your house will have no electricity without the service drop. The service drop is the key element that funnels all of the electricity into your home. While a service drop is not something you should ever touch, it is something you should know about in case there is a problem with it.

What a Residential Electrical Service Drop Is

An electric service drop is the bundle of electrical cables (or three individual wires, in older installations) that run from the electric utility company's power pole to the connection at your house.

Because the power company lines are higher than your home, the cables that go to your home literally drop, descending from a higher spot to a lower spot. If your home does not have a service drop, it is supplied by similar cables running underground.

What an Electrical Service Drop Does

All electricity to your home comes through the service drop. If the service drop goes down, all power in your home will shut off. Catastrophic events, such as downed trees, large fallen limbs, or heavy ice buildup, can take down a service drop. Fallen service drops are extremely dangerous since they carry enough electricity to power an entire house. Do not approach a fallen service drop.

A standard service drop includes three cables, or conductors. Two are insulated hot cables, each carrying 120 volts of electricity (240 volts across the two wires). A third cable, usually bare (uninsulated) aluminum wire with a steel core, serves as the neutral conductor and provides structural support for the entire service drop.

Service Point

An additional set of service cables starts at the service panel (and the electric meter) and runs up through and out of the service head. These cables connect to the service drop cables near the outside of the mast.

This connection is called the service point, and it represents the dividing line between the utility company's property and the homeowner's property (although the meter may be owned by the utility even though it is on the homeowner's side).

Drip Loop

Near the service point, the service cables make a downward loop, known as the drip loop. This is a simple system that uses gravity to prevent water from running down the cables and into the service head. Beads of water traveling down the outside of the cables collect at the bottom of the loop, where they eventually drop off of the cable.

Service Drop Height Requirements

• 12 feet above grade in most areas
• 10 feet high in areas accessible only to pedestrians
• 18 feet above public roads
• 22-1/2 feet above swimming pools

A residential electrical service drop must be at least 12 feet above the ground (grade) as well as sidewalks and residential driveways.

The minimum height above areas accessible only to pedestrians, such as porches or decks, is 10 feet. The minimum distance above a swimming pool is 22-1/2 feet. When service drops are suspended above public roads, the lines must be at least 18 feet high.

Minimum height requirements for service drop cables are determined by the local building or electrical codes, but most follow the recommendations of the National Electrical Code (NEC).

Residential Electrical Service Drop Repairs

While homeowners in many municipalities are allowed to do their own electrical work, this applies to household projects like replacing outlets and lights, running electrical cables, and maybe even installing new circuits.

However, homeowners are not allowed to work on any part of the utility's service drop. For one thing, the service drop belongs to the utility company, not to the homeowner. For another, power in the service drop cables can be shut off only by the utility company.

Homeowners also should not attempt any work on the cables between the service drop and the home's electrical service panel. As with the service drop, power in these cables is live at all times unless the power company shuts it off. If you have a problem with the service drop supplying your home, call the utility company. If you have a problem with the service head or the cables between the service point and your home's service panel, call a licensed electrician.

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1. Working Safely Around Downed Electrical Wires. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
2. From Overhead to Underground: It Pays to Bury Power Lines. FEMA