I have a detached garage, about 80 feet away with a roughly 1" conduit, maybe 2", would have to measure, with an LB on the garage and house straight from ground. Knowing where this is going?
Was wired pre-2008, so the wire now its 2-2-4 URD. It comes straight into the basement and runs along various beams and into the panel. Subsequently in the garage it runs the 3 feet up the wall into the panel. The PVC pipe also shares a fiber optic cable, so running it straight into the panel is not going to do it.
So I been told and confirmed that running URD cable inside is a no-no since it is not rated for that. However, keep getting different reactions as to what I do. URD is supposed to be terminated completely outside in a large junction box, well I don't have one of those today. SER cable is not rated for underground even in conduit.
So what can I really do? I am replacing the main panel, which is already over budget and unplanned for it. So really buying about 100 feet of cable, even aluminum is a sucker punch too.
Best Answer
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Get a restraining order against the "scope creep".
Who may just be your electrician "padding the bill".
The Grandfathering rule is very simple: if it was legal on the date it was installed, it's legal now.
So the 3-wire subpanel feeder is legal now.
AFCI/GFCI requirements apply to circuits not to breaker panels. Since you are not changing the rest of the circuit, the new breakers are not required.
And that makes a lot of sense when you think about it. If someone finds an FPE panel, we want them to replace it, not encounter an ever-increasing scope of work bringing more and more stuff up to 2017 Code to the point where they say "frack it, I can't afford to replace the FPE!" That would be a bad outcome, which is WHY you don't have to replace every darn thing when you replace a panel from rust.
Replacing a panel is JUST replacing a panel.
The URD
It is correct URD isn't allowed outdoors in conduit (which is presumed to be 100% full of water 100% of the time).
However read ALL the cable types marked on the cable - often cables are a list of several types all at once, and if ONE of them is allowed in your usage, you're all set.
In fact, there's about a foot of writing on the side of the URD wires. We need to see what those markings are, exactly, letter for letter, all of them, every one. And then we can tell you if this cable is URD and something else that is legal. Which is what I suspect.
Lastly, you have a compressor and a car lift. So you're handy. What would it take for YOU to run a conduit from the panel to within 1’ of where the existing conduit comes into the house now? Properly with sweeps, LBs fully accessible, whole nine yards. And with forward thinking so that on changeover day, you can just install the last 1’ of conduit and have a complete run. My proposal is:
If you can get a viable conduit route built, the actual wire swap is easy work for an electrician. As long as you stay smart with using aluminum wire, honestly, the wire will be cheaper than the Polaris connectors you'd need for a splice. We're talking under $100 of wire for #2.
The fiber can stay in the conduit but will need to come out a "tee" conduit body, so may need to be pulled out and pulled back in with the feeder.