USE-2 cable buyers for burial and solar reels
USE-2 is the cable that gets bought for a trench and for a solar array, and in both cases the buyer cares less about the copper than about whether the jacket survived the year it spent on a pallet.
- 600 V direct-burial cable
- XLPE, sunlight-resistant
- Copper or aluminium
Underground service entrance cable, Type USE-2, is a 600 V single-conductor cable built for direct burial: XLPE insulation, sunlight-resistant, rated 90°C in wet or dry locations, in copper or aluminium from 14 AWG up to the large sizes. It is the cable that goes in the ground without a raceway, which is why its condition review is stricter than its electrical description suggests and why the ends matter so much.
USE-2 is also the cable most often substituted into solar work, and that is where the material gets interesting. USE-2 is permitted in many photovoltaic installations, but PV Wire listed to UL 4703 is the product made for the application, with a thicker and tougher insulation system for exposed array wiring. A reel of USE-2 sold as solar cable is a claim worth checking against the print before anybody loads it.
Much of what reaches a buying desk is dual-rated: RHW-2/USE-2, sometimes RHH/RHW-2/USE-2, which widens the applications and the buyer pool. That marking is the first thing to read, because a single-rated reel is a narrower product than a triple-rated one, and the difference shows up in what can be done with the cable once it leaves the yard and reaches a trench with a crew waiting and a tag nobody kept.
What we buy in this family
Condition and documentation decide the basis, not the family alone. These are the forms this material usually arrives in.
- Single conductor reels from 6 AWG up
- RHW-2 and USE-2 dual-rated cable
- Copper and aluminium USE-2
- Solar project remainders with tags
- Service and feeder burial cable
Reading the print on a USE-2 reel
A USE-2 print gives the size, the metal, the temperature rating and the other types the cable is listed as. That list matters. RHW-2/USE-2 will serve in raceway and in direct burial; USE-2 alone is a burial and outdoor product. Solar installers look for the dual rating because it lets them use one reel in more places, and they ask before they look at footage.
Conductor metal is the second line. Aluminium USE-2 is common in service sizes and copper dominates the smaller sizes and the solar work. They are priced on their own metal and reviewed as separate items. Where a reel is marked with a compact aluminium conductor, say so, because compact stranding is a different diameter from the same size in compressed or ordinary Class B.
What a year outdoors does to direct-burial cable
USE-2 is made to be buried, not to be stored in the open, and there is a difference. Sunlight resistance slows UV damage rather than preventing it, and a reel that has been on a pallet since delivery will show a chalky surface and, in bad cases, fine crazing when the outer layer is bent. The outer few feet may have to come off.
Ends are the other indicator. Sealed ends mean the conductor has not drawn moisture. Open ends on a reel that sat through a winter will show corrosion on aluminium strands within a few inches, and the moisture can track further than the visible corrosion suggests. Cutting back a foot and looking is cheap and reliable.
Solar remainders and why they are their own category
Utility-scale solar construction buys cable in bulk, installs it fast and demobilises. What is left at the end of a project is often full or near-full reels of one size, tagged and stored under cover, which is the best form of surplus to review. The complication is documentation, because a project demobilisation is exactly when the paperwork goes missing.
The distinction that matters is between USE-2 and PV Wire. They look similar on a reel and they are not the same product or the same listing. A reel described as PV cable without a print to support it will be reviewed as USE-2, because that is what the marking says until somebody proves otherwise.
Where this cable turns up in the two states
Solar development across the coastal plain and the eastern counties of North Carolina has put a lot of USE-2 through this market, and project demobilisations leave reels behind at laydown yards from Robeson County east toward the coast. The same is true of the smaller commercial arrays on warehouses and cold storage around Florence and Fayetteville, where cable is bought in modest quantities and rarely used to the foot.
Service work supplies the rest. Rural services, well houses, outbuildings and agricultural pumps across the eastern part of both states are wired in USE-2 or a dual-rated equivalent, because there is no reason to put a conduit in a field. The remainders from that work are short, often aluminium, and usually stored in a barn rather than a warehouse, which is where the weather finds them.
Coverage
North and South Carolina
Every city page carries the local industrial base and access notes. Start from a state hub if you are not sure which one applies.
If the material is in one of these states
USE-2 cable questions
Is USE-2 the same as solar PV wire?
No. USE-2 is an underground service-entrance cable rated 600 V, 90°C wet, sunlight-resistant, and it is permitted in some photovoltaic installations. PV Wire is a separate product listed to UL 4703 with a heavier insulation system for exposed array wiring. They can look alike, so the print decides. A reel without a legible print is not PV wire.
Does USE-2 have to be in conduit?
One of its purposes is to be installed without a raceway, direct buried at the depth the code requires for the application, with protection where it emerges from the ground. Dual-rated RHW-2/USE-2 can also be installed in raceway. The installation rules sit with the electrician and the authority having jurisdiction, but the marking determines which rules apply.
Can a weathered reel still be sold as USE-2?
Yes, if the print is legible and the insulation is sound after the outer wraps are removed. Sun exposure dulls the surface and hardens it, and the honest description says so. What cannot be sold as USE-2 is a reel where the insulation has crazed deeply or where water has reached the strands.
How do you price a single-conductor reel?
By size, metal, documented footage and condition, in that order. A 500 kcmil aluminium reel with a tag and sealed ends is a straightforward review. The same reel with no tag is reviewed on an estimated footage from weight, and the estimate is written into the terms. Nobody should quote a number on cable they cannot measure.
Send use-2 cable details
Construction, footage, condition and pickup city. Photographs can follow once a buyer has replied.
Or email saleselectricalbuyers@gmail.com
- No fee and no obligation to sell.
- Written lot terms before anything moves.
- Pickup scheduled around your access rules.