Power to Barn

[flusher]

Here's a down 'n dirty quick question...
I'm extending power from my house down to my barn which is about 170 feet from the house. I'm going to trench and can either lay direct bury wire or gray plastic conduit and regular wire. What would y'all suggest? Maybe direct buried in conduit? The soil around here is pretty much silt with no rock.
I'll be installing two 10/2 cables.

Thanks in advance!

That's a lot of work for two dinky 10/2 cables. If I were doing this, I'd install a 220V/100 amp subpanel in the barn and run #2 AWG copper wires in conduit. That's how I did the 200-ft run from the main breaker panel to my shop to handle the welder and air compressor.

 

[GE222]

When installing power to a remote shed about 120 feet from the house, I buried four PVC pipe runs.

The first 1-1/2" was for the main power to the building.
The second 3/4" was for 120v wiring for lighting between the house and shed.
The third 3/4" was for low voltage communication.
The fourth 3/4" was a future spare.

PVC pipe, especially 3/4" and less is really pretty inexpensive.

The trench was dug, and sand was placed around the pipes. Expansion couplings were also used.

Sand was used as it is the easiest to move with a hand shovel in the trench.

The wiring was all THHN.

Talcum power was used as a dry pulling lubricant.

The 100A feeders, 2 hots, a neutral, and a ground were pulled with a small hand operated pulling winch using mule tape. The pipe was oversized up from 1-1/4" for ease of pulling. The cost difference was very almost nothing.

3 of the 4 pipes have been filled.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

I have worked for the power company for over 22 years,we used to always direct bury everything,I cant tell you how many I have gone back to over the years to dig up and fix burnouts which requires specialized equipment, do yourself and your kids a favor put it in pipe and no one will ever have to dig up the yard again for that reason. believe what you will that conductor will fail one day and if it is in conduit it is a quick fix.

 

[tommu56]

The trench was dug, and sand was placed around the pipes. Expansion couplings were also used.

.

I'm at a loss why you used expansion couplings its one more place for the conduit to leak not to mention the cost?
The tempature swing if any burried under gorund isn't enough to make condit expand
The only place I've seen or used them is on a roof were the sun gets to the pipe and then it will grow.

tom

 

[Inspector507]

I'm at a loss why you used expansion couplings its one more place for the conduit to leak not to mention the cost?
The tempature swing if any burried under gorund isn't enough to make condit expand
The only place I've seen or used them is on a roof were the sun gets to the pipe and then it will grow.

tom

tom,
The issue is not expansion underground. It is to compensate for ground movement due to settling and a freeze/thaw condition. They go in the vertical portion when you emerge from the ground. And if you install them upside down in a vertical position, they will leak. Around here, we require them unless the horizontal run is below the frost line.

 

[tommu56]

tom,
The issue is not expansion underground. It is to compensate for ground movement due to settling and a freeze/thaw condition. They go in the vertical portion when you emerge from the ground. And if you install them upside down in a vertical position, they will leak. Around here, we require them unless the horizontal run is below the frost line.

Inspector507
Now that make seance.

Most of the ones I put in are below the frost line or have good drainage so they haven't heaved.

The old guy I (well now that I am his age I guess he wasn't that old) worked with when I was a teenager would always put the bells down on the risers to keep the water out and on the direct burial he would put a 12" side ways "S" in the vertical so the wires wouldn't pull out of meter terminals.

tom

 

[Only 3 Acres]

Here's a down 'n dirty quick question...
I'm extending power from my house down to my barn which is about 170 feet from the house. I'm going to trench and can either lay direct bury wire or gray plastic conduit and regular wire. What would y'all suggest? Maybe direct buried in conduit? The soil around here is pretty much silt with no rock.
I'll be installing two 10/2 cables.

Thanks in advance!

Thanks everyone for your replies. I would have chimed in sooner, but changed my email addy in my profile and never got a confirmation email, so couldn't post. I registered again and here I am.

To clear things up:
I planned on adding two breakers to one of my house panels (plenty of horsepower available in both). From these breakers I was going to pull two cables, a 10/2 off a 20 amp breaker to handle a couple livestock fans rated at 3.5 amps each and a 12/2 off a 15 amp breaker to handle a few outlets and a half-dozen or so 50watt light sockets.

Total distance from house box to barn would be about 240 feet. I went to this website HERE to size my wire.

I've got a shop in our 3rd car garage, so don't need juice in the barn for a welder, compressor and all that.

Does my plan make sense? Just trying to keep the cost as low as possible.

 

[BungeeII]

I don't believe that calculator is factoring in the cable being buried.

At 240' I'd by a spool of whatever the proper size is and put a 40 to 60 amp panel out there.

 

[tommu56]

After a couple trips to rest the breakers you will wish you had a sub panel out there to reset.

tom

 

[rutwad]

I understand trying to save money, but spending a little extra now will save you big in the future. I vote for the sub-panel which will give you room to grow.