SER and SEU cable buyers in Tennessee
For utilities, contractors and plants holding service entrance cable, this page covers the two constructions, where they are used and how a coil is measured.
Send us your reel list
Six details are enough for a first review: what the cable is, the metal, the size, the footage or reel count, the condition and where it sits. Photographs can follow by text or email. There is no fee and no obligation, and nothing moves until written terms are agreed.
Service entrance cable runs from a meter or a service head to the panel that feeds a building. SER carries a full-size insulated neutral plus a bare ground, while SEU uses a concentric neutral wrapped around the insulated conductors. Both are 600 V cable, and both are made in copper and aluminum.
Most of what we are offered comes from service upgrades and meter work, where the old run was replaced and a partial coil was left in the truck. Aluminum is common in the larger sizes. The questions that decide the price are conductor size, conductor count and how much length is actually left.
Lot basics
- Type
- Service entrance cable
- Voltage
- 600 V
- Conductors
- Three and four conductor
- Sizes
- 6 AWG and larger
Two layouts, one jacketed assembly
SER is a flat or round assembly of two, three or four insulated conductors with a bare ground, all under a sunlight-resistant jacket. SEU is the older arrangement, with two insulated conductors and a concentric neutral of fine strands wrapped around them. Both are rated 600 V and both are available from 6 AWG upward.
SER is a flat or round assembly of two, three or four insulated conductors with a bare ground, all under a sunlight-resistant jacket. SEU is the older arrangement, with two insulated conductors and a concentric neutral of fine strands wrapped around them. Both are rated 600 V and both are available from 6 AWG upward, in copper and in aluminum.
- SER: insulated neutral plus bare ground
- SEU: concentric neutral over the conductors
- Sunlight-resistant outer jacket
- Copper or aluminum, 6 AWG and larger
Where a service entrance surplus comes from
A service upgrade is a short job with a long remnant. The crew buys a coil sized to the longest possible run, uses most of it and keeps the rest on the truck, where it rides around until someone clears the shelves. That is the typical SER lot: one part coil, two shorter pieces and a length that was cut and never used.
A service upgrade is a short job with a long remnant. The crew buys a coil sized to the longest possible run, uses most of it and keeps the rest on the truck, where it rides around until someone clears the shelves. That is the typical SER lot: one part coil, two shorter pieces and a length that was cut and never used, none of it labeled with footage.
Establishing length and conductor size
Conductor size is read from the print on the individual conductors, not the outer jacket alone. On aluminum SER the strands are visible at a cut end, and the count and diameter give a second check. Where the print is worn off, measuring a single strand and counting strands is enough to place the size within one step.
Length is harder. A coil of 4/0 SER is heavy and stiff, so it is usually measured by weighing the coil and subtracting the reel, then dividing by the published weight per foot for that construction. We ask for a scale ticket where one is available, and we allow for the jacket and the gaps in the coil.
The last check is the jacket. Sun exposure makes gray PVC chalky and eventually brittle, and a jacket that has cracked at a bend will let water reach the conductors. Any coil stored outdoors for years gets opened at the end before we quote. On SEU the concentric neutral is exposed at every cut, so corrosion there is easy to see and tells us how the reel was stored.
Questions sellers ask
How do you tell SER from SEU?
Look at the conductor arrangement. SER has individually insulated conductors plus a separate bare ground wire, so you can count them. SEU has a concentric neutral made of many fine strands wrapped around the insulated pair, which reads as a single braided layer under the jacket. The print on the jacket usually names the type as well.
Do you buy aluminum SER as readily as copper?
Yes. Aluminum is the common material in the larger service sizes, and we buy it in 2/0, 4/0 and similar. The price differs from copper and depends on the size and the footage, so send the print and the conductor count. Mixed copper and aluminum in one bundle is separated before it is weighed.
How is length established on a part coil?
We weigh the coil, subtract the reel or the spool, and divide by the weight per foot for that construction. A wrap count and the coil diameter give a second estimate. When the two agree within a few percent we price the coil as measured, and when they do not we ask for a tape measure along the outer wrap.
Is SEU with an exposed neutral worth buying?
It is, though the bare concentric neutral oxidizes and the outer jacket on older SEU is often brittle. The copper or aluminum in the conductors is the value, and the neutral adds to it. Coils that have sat outdoors with a broken jacket are reviewed as recovery material rather than as reusable cable.
Send us your reel list
Six details are enough for a first review: what the cable is, the metal, the size, the footage or reel count, the condition and where it sits. Photographs can follow by text or email. There is no fee and no obligation, and nothing moves until written terms are agreed.
Service cable left from a upgrade?
Send the jacket print, the conductor count, the size and a weight or tape measurement for each coil.
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