Mr Meridian,


It looks like you only have a very naive idea on how electricity passes through a wire. The model of water in a hose is a useful model for basic circuit analysis, something like adding an outlet in your home.

As far a power cable quality, you are imaging a general attribute of quality, the armored cable purchased by the utility, the crappy cable purchased at a local store.

The cable from your utility has a different construction than the one you buy at the store. It has a much bigger casing to protect it, this will allow it to last much longer exposed to the elements. The big difference electrically is it is made with much thicker copper strands. This is for heat, without getting into the messy details, the electrons travel on the surface of the wire, the thicker the wire, the lower the surface ratio, the wire will not melt.

With a household cable, they are for indoor use, no need for protection from the elements, abrasion resistance is important for safety. The cable will have a lot more and thinner strands, this will lower the resistance, but the cable will melt if exposed to very high current for a length of time.

The bottom line is, the wiring in the ground does not need to be very flexible, needs to be very resistant to melting and is made from thick wire, household cables needs to be flexible and not break if you bend it, will melt if not used with a breaker, but electrically it is a wonderful full product.

I would suspect that inside one of the fancy $400 a foot power cables you will actually find thinner and more numerous wire than found in your common cable.