Electricity 101: Powering your home

July 14, 2025 | Wire Staff | electricity 101, T&D

Welcome back to Electricity 101. In this week’s episode, we complete the journey of delivering electricity to your home.

As we discussed last week, once electricity travels to a final transformer near your home, that transformer decreases its voltage to the level appropriate for your appliances and devices.

In some neighborhoods, that transformer is on a power pole. A service line runs from the transformer to your home. It connects to your meter assembly through the weatherhead mounted on the exterior of your home. The photo below on the left shows this configuration.

You should always treat this service line as if it is energized, even if you’re experiencing an outage or the line has been downed in a storm. Never go near it.

Above left: A service line runs to a home, where it connects to the meter assembly through the weatherhead. Above right: A service line run to a home through an underground conduit. At the house, it connects to a meter on the home’s exterior.

In other neighborhoods, that transformer is in a metal box on the ground. The service line runs from the transformer to your home through an underground conduit. The line feeds electricity to your home and connects to the electrical meter outside of your home. The photo above on the right shows this configuration. 

To learn more about this final step in delivering electricity to your home, including who’s responsible for service line repairs when needed, check out the video below.

And come back next month, when we’ll discuss using electricity in your home, including which appliances and devices typically use the most power, and more.