We buy surplus SER and SEU cable

Service work is repetitive by design. A panel upgrade needs a run from the meter to the panel, and the same few configurations cover almost every house in the region. That is why surplus SER and SEU tends to arrive in familiar shapes rather than in odd lengths nobody recognizes.

The split between aluminum and copper is the first thing to establish. Aluminum SER is the standard for residential service here, and it is reviewed on a different basis from copper. A coil list that mixes the two without saying which is which gets reviewed at the lower level across the whole lot.

Round SER, flat SEU and the configurations that move

SER is the round multi-conductor cable, usually three or four conductors with a bare ground in the bundle. SEU is the flat construction, two or three conductors with a bare neutral wrapped around them, used for the drop from the meter to the panel in older arrangements.

The configurations worth naming are aluminum two-two-two-four and one aught by three with a two ground, then copper two aught and four aught. Those four cover most of what a residential crew buys, and listing a coil by its configuration is clearer than any description of its size.

Why aluminum SER is reviewed on a different basis

Aluminum carries the same current in a larger size, and it is far lighter over the same length, which is why it dominates residential service work. That also means a coil of aluminum SER holds less metal than a copper coil of similar dimensions, and the review reflects it.

So keep the metals apart on the list and in the yard. Alloy conductor also needs care at terminations, which is a fact about installation rather than about the reel, but it explains why buyers ask which alloy the cable carries and whether the print is legible.

Service upgrades, meter loops and volume home leftovers

Meter loop changes and panel upgrades happen constantly across the region as services are rebuilt and load grows. Each job leaves a coil or two, usually the tail of a run that was cut for a specific meter position. Those tails are short and they are still worth listing.

Volume home building is the larger source. A builder working through a subdivision buys SER by the pallet, and at the end of a phase there are leftover coils in every model's garage. Gathering them from four or five addresses into one lot is the whole job, and it makes a clean list.

The growth corridors run north through Georgetown and Leander and south through Kyle and Buda, with new home building on both sides of the I-35 spine. Service cable is bought in volume there and leftover coils accumulate at each phase close.

Infill and redevelopment inside the city produce the same material in smaller quantities, usually one coil at a time from a service upgrade on an older house. A builder or an electrical contractor with several of those can combine them into a single lot without much effort.