Running Conduit for Future Electrical

[LukeDuke30]

We just finished our pole barn, and am in the middle of gravel prep for concrete. When our house was built, we had a 200 amp breaker installed for service to the barn. We have to move this panel to the back side of the garage or else I have to go over/under the main electrical, geo lines, water lines, gas lines etc.

In any case, my thoughts it right now while the back yard hasn't been seeded as of yet, I would dig the trench and put in 2.5'' conduit for now, and run the electrical lines later when I am ready.

Thoughts on this?

 

[mike48130]

Very difficult to pull that size wire. Just go buy URD wire. Direct burial. You need 2 hots and a N and ground since it is a sub panel. I just ran 4/0 4/0 4/0 2/0 URD for 150A service. You need to look at the length of run and the voltage loss calculations. I upped the wire size to not get too much V drop. And was very difficult to deal with in the short sections of conduit. Then you don't need conduit. The commercial guys have all sorts of equipment to pull those wires. I think you would need 3 conduit.

The cost of the conduit will be the same cost as the URD cable..

 

[CobyRupert]

What panel do you have to move to backside of garage? This sounds strange.
Isn't the 200A panel (feeder breaker) in your main house panel?
Is it a separate breaker fed from ahead of your main panel disconnect (from just downstream of your meter)? If so, you may not be able to relocate any great distance.
You still have to get power to (run a cable to) the backside of garage from the source. So what do you gain by relocation?

Back to your question: How long would the conduit run be? How many bends or 90 degree turns in the run? Will you run copper or aluminum cable?
The reason I ask is 200 amps needs at least 3/0 Awg (copper) or 250 kcmil (Alum), maybe bigger if length causes voltage drop.

Basically: Can you pull the size cable you need the distance required without a intermediate pull box, or some serious equipment?

 

[EddieWalker]

I have some 3 inch PVC buried under my driveway for future use that I may or may not ever use. I capped the ends to keep they clean and dry, and placed a piece of scarp metal over each end so I can find it with my metal detector if I forget where I buried them. They are 2 feet down with the piece of scrap being closer to six inches or so down. I did this about a dozen years ago and have not had a need yet to find them. I also don't know exactly where they are, but have a good idea where to start looking.

Since then, I have dug up my driveway 3 times to run power and water across my road where I did not bury any conduit. No matter what you plan for, there will always be surprises that you never imagined.

 

[mike48130]

So to add on to this, I also ran gas, water and conduit for low voltage stuff. You might want to think about your big picture and plan it all out.

 

[LukeDuke30]

What panel do you have to move to backside of garage? This sounds strange.
Isn't the 200A panel (feeder breaker) in your main house panel?
Is it a separate breaker fed from ahead of your main panel disconnect (from just downstream of your meter)? If so, you may not be able to relocate any great distance.
You still have to get power to (run a cable to) the backside of garage from the source. So what do you gain by relocation?

Back to your question: How long would the conduit run be? How many bends or 90 degree turns in the run? Will you run copper or aluminum cable?
The reason I ask is 200 amps needs at least 3/0 Awg (copper) or 250 kcmil (Alum), maybe bigger if length causes voltage drop.

Basically: Can you pull the size cable you need the distance required without a intermediate pull box, or some serious equipment?

It is in the main house panel, in the garage complete with a conduit drop on the outside. Problem is, for me to bury it would require crossing over/under every major connection into the house unless I move the power supply to the back of the garage which allows me to avoid all of the obstacles. I only have about 100ft to the location I want it in the barn from the back side of the garage.

 

[Ford850]

Why not run it from the current panel location to the back of the garage, in a conduit? Then out the back of the garage and down underground to the location 100' away. 100', and using sweeps instead of 90's, should be no issue pulling in conduit.

 

[RNeumann]

The only way to know the conduit size would be to know the amps going to the pole barn and the type of wire you want to use- copper or aluminum. Their are code requirements to size the conduit.

The pole barn will need 4 wires going to it and a ground rod at the pole barn.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Absolutely!

Lines to my Drive shed.

3" Superduct: Communications, Low Voltage, 110/220V, 600V 3 Phase
6", for pulled in 200 PSI 1" Air Line.

 

[CobyRupert]

It is in the main house panel, in the garage complete with a conduit drop on the outside. Problem is, for me to bury it would require crossing over/under every major connection into the house unless I move the power supply to the back of the garage which allows me to avoid all of the obstacles. I only have about 100ft to the location I want it in the barn from the back side of the garage.

Perhaps my confusion is one of terminology. I understand "it" (a 200A breaker) is in the main house panel? I would regard this panel to be "the power supply". What exactly would you move?

I don't think you would move your main panel.
"Moving" the breaker from the panel to the back of the garage does nothing. You would still need a (the) 200A breaker in the panel to feed this redundant and unnecessary breaker at the back of the garage.

As others have noted, you can have the conduit go underground at any location, it doesn't have to be at the main panel / breaker/ power supply.
Pulling through 90 degree sweeps will add a bit of friction in addition to the friction between a large cable and 100' of conduit.