Electrical Question

[FarmTracRay]

Have been in the shadows here for some time, my first post/question. Lot of knowledge here. I "should" have a pole barn put up this week, had to move a building built on skids to make room for it. Had power to shed (direct buried 12/3, 100' for 110 volt) for lights. End of wire about 10 feet from new building. Can I safely splice on to it? Power will be for lights, battery charger, maybe/rarely a very small tankless compressor. I know the wire is a little lite but I swear it will be mostly for lighting. New pole barn (24X32X8) will just be to store the toys in. Have a garage for maint, etc.

P.S. We live on an acre, year ago, elderly neighbor lady stopped by and said she was selling and moving to town. Told her we would like to buy 2 acres here beside the house, she said fine but we better be doing it. I sent a letter with proposal (6K for little holler and a hillside that slopes towards our house, we would pay more), she said her son would deal with us (I bought a tractor FarmTrac300, planned on buying mower and tiller later. I called her son who said he would get with us. Not a word since and I am not bothering him again. Now I got a tractor and the most I have done with it is spread and level the 44 tons of road pack for the floor in new building. BUT that was a lot of fun... So anyway I put the cart before the horse buying the tractor, but I'm keeping it and tired of it setting in yard... Thats how I come about the tractor and the small pole barn.

 

[midlf]

Splice kits are available for 12GA UG cable. These kits will give you all the material and instructions for safely making the splice. Kits should be available at a large hardware store. I have seen them at Menard's, but I never looked so I don't know if the orange box has them. I agree with you that #12 is light for 100' but for lights and a battery charger you will be OK. Compressor may be a bit too much but it should work. Use compact fluorescent bulbs to reduce the current draw.

 

[randy41]

if you are going to splice and leave the splice underground be sure to note exactly where the splice is for future reference.

 

[Inspector507]

At 100' what's another 10'? There are several splice kits for 12 gauge UF. One type for sure is available at big box stores. Gardner-Bender makes one with everything you need to do it. Another alternative is a 3M Splice Kit, which are a PITA and messy.

 

[LarryD]

If you're doing a concrete floor, put in an extra large (1.5") conduit with a sweep so you can up the service later should you decide. Building uses have a way of changing as time passes.

 

[Timber]

You should really bring it up into a sub panel so you can have a breaker or 2 inside the building. Better to split your lights from your outlets and put your compressor in 1 breaker all its own. That way when you trip something out it trips at the sub panel and not at the source. That stuff is cheep and all at Home Depot. You can even sit at a table and look over the wiring layout in 1 of there how to books

 

[EddieWalker]

You didn't say how you ran the wire. Is it in a trench and is the trench still open? I'm also wondering why you ran 12/3? Why not 12/2?

If so, it won't cost you very much to buy a 250 foll of 10/2 and then use the 12/3 in the barn for you lights and outlets.

You also didn't say what size breaker your pulling the power off of, but I'm guessing it's in the 20 amp range. Anything less would be pretty useless.

You can put a small breakerbox in the shed and split your lines into a 15 for outlets and a ten for the lights. A few lights will only pull a couple of amps, so it's no something you need to worry about having two breakers that total more than your supply line.

If you have more power coming in, than that changes everything.

We really need more details.

If your determined to splice it, than there's plenty of kits that you can use, but for what you'll pay for the kit, and possible future issues, it really would be cheaper to just get the right wire for your needs.

Eddie

 

[Timber]

To be honest Eddy is right, the correct way to do this would be to pull heavier 10/2 wire from your feed to a sub panel. Ground your sub panel and split your feeds. What will work is not always the best way to do something. If you overload the circuit that wire will get pretty warm and it sound like it could get pretty old going back and forth to the source to reset the breaker.
That is a good size building too, your going to regret not giving it a good power feed. If it were I and I don’t know what you have for a service at the source. If you have a 200 amp services run 220 to your sub panel and split into 2 110 legs and then you will have power to run just about anything you want. Even a welder. Power tools at start up put a good draw on a circuit but that is me.

 

[hilld]

If you want to run 220V, you will need to pull a 10/3 line, not a 10/2 as you will need 2 hots, 1 neutral + 1 ground. If all you want to run is 120V, the 10/2 will be sufficient.

Remember the load on a 10/x wire is only 30A, if the distances get longer, that drops to 20A, you will have to check the length restrictions depending on your length requirements.

If you need more than 30A, a bigger wire is required. Only you know what you will need now or in the future. Considering the work involved in putting the wire in the ground, the cost of the wire is minimal compared to the labor to redo the job later.

Just my 2 cents.

Derek

 

[schmism]

If you want to run 220V, you will need to pull a 10/3 line, not a 10/2 as you will need 2 hots, 1 neutral + 1 ground.

Derek

not entirely true. on a 220v system there is no "neutral" addtionaly neutral IS ground. (ie if you look in the pannel it SHOULD have the neutral tied to the ground side)

so you can set a new sub pannel, set a new ground rod for the pannel (per code) and your good to go.