Anybody run power cable above ground in conduit?

[ProjectKing]

In the old days a few posts about 10 tall would make a fine power line to run your wires on.

Best bet is to bury it. Install a tow line in the pipe as you lay it... then attach cable to line when conduit is complete and drag wire through. Don't bury till cable is pulled.

 

[Deere Dude]

I should mention that another possible option is to run a new meter from the nearby transformer (that I paid about $2-3K to have installed when we built our home). That is about 200' from the barn. There are some trenching challenges there to, but it would be the power company's concern, not mine. I don't know what the cost would be, if any. I imagine for the foreseeable future, I'd be hitting the minimum bill requirement for the barn since I doubt the power usage will be very high just for lighting and occasional tool use (I have a separate shop attached to my house where most work gets done, so the barn won't see much of that).

I have a barn/shop 600' from the house with a transformer and meter socket and control panel hooked to it. It would be great to have them just put a meter in and away I go, but I found it would cost $50 a month and then have commercial rates after that. I just got a generator that works in my case just fine.

If I were you I would direct bury the cable even if it takes a backhoe with a trenching bucket to get through the roots etc, unless you can get the meter hooked up for 10-20 a month.

 

[aczlan]

Install a tow line in the pipe as you lay it... then attach cable to line when conduit is complete and drag wire through. Don't bury till cable is pulled.

I wouldnt. I would suck/blow a pull string through it with a vacuum. It took a whole 3 minutes to suck one through the 1" PVC conduit I installed last week. A 250' conduit wont take much longer and it makes the install much easier. If a shop vac isn't strong enough to suck it through, use a leaf blower to push it through. I did that on a almost 200' 4" PVC conduit and it worked well.

Aaron Z

 

[ProjectKing]

I wouldnt. I would suck/blow a pull string through it with a vacuum. It took a whole 3 minutes to suck one through the 1" PVC conduit I installed last week. A 250' conduit wont take much longer and it makes the install much easier. If a shop vac isn't strong enough to suck it through, use a leaf blower to push it through. I did that on a almost 200' 4" PVC conduit and it worked well.

Aaron Z

Pretty big gamble if it doesn't work! (0:

 

[aczlan]

Pretty big gamble if it doesn't work! (0:

Not a gamble at all, that's how its done for commercial runs of conduit, see Pointers on blowing a pull string through conduit for some good ideas.

Aaron Z

 

[Tractor Seabee]

He won't get 4 wire #6 cable through a 1" conduit for 250' pull. More like ! !/2 or 2". Bigger the pipe, bigger the vacuum needed to move the pig. Its all about CFM.

Ron

 

[RNeumann]

It doesn't take much at all if done correctly. I haven't had an issue with a vacuum- no matter the size or pull. Pull string and a plastic grocery bag is all it takes!

 

[MossRoad]

I've done this many times in our plant. Just put a shop vac on one end and on the other put a cotton ball on a fishing line. Or a small section of plastic grocery bag. Or even just the fishing line itself works a lot of the time. Then use the fishing line to pull in a string and the string to pull in a pull rope. Then a ton of pulling lubricant on the wires and off you go. As long as the conduit is sized for the number and size of the wires, you should be good. I like to go a tad larger on the conduit if its close to the max recommendation.

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

I've done this many times in our plant. Just put a shop vac on one end and on the other put a cotton ball on a fishing line. Or a small section of plastic grocery bag. Or even just the fishing line itself works a lot of the time. Then use the fishing line to pull in a string and the string to pull in a pull rope. Then a ton of pulling lubricant on the wires and off you go. As long as the conduit is sized for the number and size of the wires, you should be good. I like to go a tad larger on the conduit if its close to the max recommendation.

A electrical contractor that works in our building asked me for a plastic sandwich baggy, he was having no luck with the shop vac on a over 200ft pull, he maxed out all the fish tape he had in his truck, I found him a plastic fold over baggy and when I talked to him an hour later he said he got it pulled and it worked like a champ.

He tied the electrical string to a fold over plastic baggy, he said you can't use the ziplock type or anything saran wrap type material or it sticks to the pipe.

 

[dragoneggs]

He won't get 4 wire #6 cable through a 1" conduit for 250' pull. More like ! !/2 or 2". Bigger the pipe, bigger the vacuum needed to move the pig. Its all about CFM.

Ron

To echo what I think Ron's point is... don't skimp on conduit diameter or you will be sorry when it's too hard to pull the wire.