115-foot electric run

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

I'm thinking of doing away with my extension cord set-up to run lighting out to my wood cutting area. I have one of those 1,000 watt halogen lampstands which works excellent for lighting my work area in the winter evenings. However I have it plugged into 125 feet of extension cord (a 100-footer + a 25 footer). I would like to bury some Romex out to the site and have an outlet box stick up. Would 12-2 wire work?

 

[vvvv]

yes, ithink

 

[seige101]

How far away is the panel from the point of the building you will exit with the wire to go to the shed? If it were me i would bury a 1/2 or 3/4" pvc conduit and pull some # 10 THHN wire to compensate for voltage drop. The conduit ensures an easy replacement should the wire be damaged and offers a little more protection in the ground. At the very least i would go with a 10-2 UF romex cable, this is rated for direct burial. Either option will allow you to use the full circuits capacity with minimal to almost non existent voltage drop.

 

[woodsman23]

It will work fine...

 

[billb3]

If you have to do the whole permit and electrical codes there,
We just had conduit run to the new garage ( about 150 feet) and when the inspector came three weeks ago apparently they changed what kind of wire is allowed in a conduit. Apparently a jacketed cable is a no-no now. Had to pull it out and run single strand.
85 bucks for a re-inspection.
Don't know if that's a national code requirement or just our town being picky.

 

[Highbeam]

You can run romex in the conduit but must respect the maximum fill requirements. Also, romex isn't rated for wet environments which a buried conduit is. Once you go underground you have to go stranded because each conductor is stamped with the wet area rating.

You can certainly bury UF 12-2 to feed a 1000 watt light. If you want to use a 20 amp circuit, the max on 12 gauge, then you would need to worry about length of run. You could run a 15 amp breaker to eliminate the problem. 1000 watts is only 10 amps. So you would be fine with 12-2 at that length. Use a GFCI on the circuit.

 

[btuser]

It might not be that much more expensive to run conduit than to run UF. If you do run conduit use expansion joints.

 

[Highbeam]

Why? I've never seen expansion joints on conduit. Conduit is only there to prevent damage to the wire from rocks and shovels.

 

[Former Farmer]

No matter what you bury, it needs to be buried at least 18" in the ground and 24" if going across a driveway. Most DIY's never come close to that depth.

 

['bert]

I would not bother to run conduit for a light. Put some direct burial cable in (12/2) and be done with it. IF YOU ARE SURE YOU WILL NOT WANT SOMETHING MORE OUT THERE! If you think that you may want an electric splitter or some other electric thing in the future, put in conduit.

 

[begreen]

If you think that you may want an electric splitter or some other electric thing in the future, put in conduit.

If that is a possibility, just run some 10/2 UF instead.

 

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Good point. Right now I only envision maybe a radio. I use an 8-lb maul for splitting - but I'm not getting any younger. Electric splitters seem to be much more affordable, but are also so much weaker. I dunno. I look into which is the wise choice on splitters before I launch into this. If it's a gas powered splitter then no - there would be nothing more than a few lights.

 

[pen]

I always look at it as though it will never be cheaper to do a job today than tomorrow. 10-2 and you'll be done for most anything reasonable you'd ever want to do out there (how about he possibility of a party needing power for food warmers / crock pots / lights / etc) 12-2 will certainly do the job now, but why not leave room for expansion? The cost of these materials will only ever go up and if you have to add another line, because the 12-2 isn't enough, well you didn't save anything for certain.

That's my thought, but of course you know your situation best.

pen

 

[seige101]

The reason i say conduit is because it's cheap! under a buck for a 10' chunk of 1/2" about 1.25 for 3/4". Cost for running in 1/2 conduit would be $20 for conduit and related fittings. Approx $50 bucks for #12 THHN. A coil of # 12-2 UF is $120! I have repaired a lot of installations of direct burial UF type cable, more so because of improper trench back filling or not buried to the proper depth.

Highbeam the theory behind expansion fittings is the vertical movement when conduit is attached to a solid building ie house it will move up and down slightly with frost heaves and settling, not necessary for horizontal runs. You are also supposed to leave a little slack in the wire where it enters the termination point. I like to leave a little curly q.

Also you are not allowed to run romex in a conduit any more, that was done away with in the latest code cycle. Not to say it still isn't done in short lengths. Best case example in a basement for washer plugs or switches and furnaces. Inspectors will usually let those cases slide, but running over any distance they will require individual conductors as bill has mentioned.

Farmer great advice on the burial depths. 18" for conduit not ran under driveways etc. 24" for direct burial cable. There is a tone more specifics but that is a pretty good rule of thumb

 

[EJL923]

Ill put out the code card.
Always use wire rated for underground environments.
Direct burial requires 24"
PVC Conduit requires 18"
Metal conduit 6 "
Those are all from memory, but i think its accurate.

I think it is easier to bury PVC conduit at 18" than to run direct burial at 24", saves a lot of digging. PVC is cheap and once dug to the correct depth assembles in a snap. Im not an electrician, but i am pretty anal about being up to code, always referencing the NEC. I bought a house in rough shape with the idea to fix it up amd someday sell it. I want everything wired to code so if i ever sell, its correct and wont need to be redone.

The fact that you will have to mount some conduit on a post to bring it up from the ground to the surface shows that half the job has to be done anyway, even if its direct burial.

 

[Highbeam]

Trouble with 30 amp circuits, as would be the benefit of 10/2 is that everything has to be rated for 30 amps. You can't put a standard 20 amp outlet on a 30 amp circuit, right? Try plugging a crock pot into a 30 amp outlet. That's an RV plug.

 

[EJL923]

you can put a 20 amp outlet on if you use a 20amp breaker

 

[flyingcow]

Good point. Right now I only envision maybe a radio. I use an 8-lb maul for splitting - but I'm not getting any younger. Electric splitters seem to be much more affordable, but are also so much weaker. I dunno. I look into which is the wise choice on splitters before I launch into this. If it's a gas powered splitter then no - there would be nothing more than a few lights.

You never know, might want a frig out there.

 

[kenny chaos]

This certainly isn't the right way but fifteen years ago I scratched down about four inches over rocks and roots and buried
150' of 12-2UF out to the small barn. It runs lights, drill press, and heavy bench grinder (not all at once).
UF is tough stuff and easier than messing with pvc.