Pole building electrical question

[KWentling]

I used EMT in my shop but it is weather tight and I don't have insect problems, so it looks and works good. My walls are finished and the conduit run on the surface. Something I haven't seen mentioned is using GFI outlets or breakers. It's required here. You can just use a GFI outlet at the begining of each run so all the others on that line are protected.

Kim

 

[smfcpacfp]

In any event I talked to the electrical inspector today (yes, I did get an electrical permit). Without the inspector's OK, the power company won't hook up your power. Here is what I learned, for our county with respect to pole buildings:

- The top of the purlins on the side walls makes an excellent place to put romex (or conduit if you are so inclined). Metal conduit to some looks nicer, but it take a lot more time and every box has to be grounded. Anyway it isn't required in a garage, here. Personally I like the look of well laid out wire. That is what I have in my garage (romex), and there has never been a problem. For those of you who said put the wire on the bottom of the purlins - do you shimmy down the wall on your back and nail staples overhead? That seems awfully awkward. I am lazy and will put the wire on the top of the purlin that is at waist level so I don't have to stoop too much.

- Wire can be run up the side of the posts and on the front of the posts when out of reach.

I also had some questions about the meter box and its connection to service panel which he answered.

 

[smfcpacfp]

Something I haven't seen mentioned is using GFI outlets or breakers. It's required here. You can just use a GFI outlet at the begining of each run so all the others on that line are protected.

Kim

That is the case here and I have my GFI outlets.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Electricity conducts best near absolute zero, so in the winter here, all electric appliances run better, the lights are brighter, etc. .

Yeah, I can hardly keep light bulbs around in winter. My voltage is on the high side of acceptable anyway, but when it gets cold my lights get bright enough that the life span of a bulb is rediculously low. I'm wondering if there's some kind of voltage regulator I can put on my whole house.

Motors last forever at my house, though.

 

[eepete]

@Iplayfarmer:

The 3" PVC drain pipe is cheaper than 3" gray electrical conduit, perhaps because of the foam core? I used white PVC drain pipe as a catch-all that I can put in the ground in case (more like when) I do something else. The 3" is big enough for a water line and low voltage. As for the black PE pipe, if it's a run that fits in one roll of pipe, it can be a lot easier to pull wire through it because there are no joints. It's also a lot easier to install, since you just unroll it into the trench. All the low voltage in the ground (house to driveway lights posts for video cameras, LV for generator and tank, LV for driveway sensors) is in 1" 100 PSI black PE. If I were doing it again, I'd use 3/4 or 1" 160 PSI black PE because the 100 PSI stuff kinks too easily. BTW, the light posts have a 3/4 gray conduit for the light, and another for an outlet.

I bought the 1" 100 PSI black PE in 300' lengths. Bought it at a plumbing supply house since box stores didn't have long enough runs. For the 800' trench to the road, I had 3 runs- one for telco, one for low voltage, one spare in case cable or something else had to be run. It still had 2 splices, but was an easy pull, which means it could be pulled without equipment. Buried it 4' to 5' down to avoid groundhog signal fade. Water line is above it. Other PE runs are burried at 3' deep.

Hope that explains why I like them, you certainly could use gray conduit too, this was just a tad cheaper and quicker (for the PE). A win of gray conduit is you can run more electrical stuff as opposed to just low voltage. Where my outbuilding is going, I had a spare run of 3" gray conduit out of the house because I knew I wanted power out there someday. Also ran a total of 4 3" white PVC pipes. Two got used when I re-did the geothermal field, one is for the tractor outbuild and that leaves me with 1 spare.

Pete

 

[Pops15]

Yeah, I can hardly keep light bulbs around in winter.

What brand of bulbs are you using? Sylvania bulbs have a ridiculously short life span.

 

[JB4310]

The top of the purlins on the side walls makes an excellent place to put romex (or conduit if you are so inclined). Metal conduit to some looks nicer, but it take a lot more time and every box has to be grounded. Anyway it isn't required in a garage, here. Personally I like the look of well laid out wire. That is what I have in my garage (romex), and there has never been a problem. For those of you who said put the wire on the bottom of the purlins - do you shimmy down the wall on your back and nail staples overhead? That seems awfully awkward. I am lazy and will put the wire on the top of the purlin that is at waist level so I don't have to stoop too much.

Any metal box would have to be grounded regardless of the use of conduit or not I would think.

As far as the top or the bottom of the purlins, the bottom was recommended for the protection of the wire not for looks, it would be a little harder to fasten maybe. But with the wire on top of the purlins, after a few years you wont even know the wire is there as it will be covered in dirt and dust and someone may not appreciate that there's a wire under there or something could fall on it and do damage.

I personally don't like the idea of running the wire horizontally right up against that metal siding, top or bottom.

Good luck, and nice building.

 

[hr3]

Glad you heard from the inspecter and he gave his blessings on what you want to do,,,I'm sure it will work good for you and would love to see pictures as you go,,, Nice looking building..

 

[dcyrilc]

We ran ours with thhn in conduit as we had planned to insulate and finish the walls. 24 years later, I'm glad we did as I wanted to make some wiring changes and it's simple to do with conduit. We ran 3/4" EMT for future capacity. Of course, I allways add extra conduits underground too. Never know what I might want to add later and it beats digging it back up again.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

What brand of bulbs are you using? Sylvania bulbs have a ridiculously short life span.

I finally checked. I am using Sylvania, but I have also used GE and Walmart special with the same results. I'll have to change brands for a while and see if anything improves.