My Industrial Cabin Build

   / My Industrial Cabin Build #2,171  
I run all outlets with 12 and lights with 14. I hate lights on outlet circuits. I ran 3w to all my ceiling lights, cause they all have fans, a hot and a switched line.
All kitchen GFI, and nothing on those circuits to other rooms. They wouldn’t let me put an outdoor GFI on my kitchen GFIs.
I seem to recall you was running surface conduit?
Several have to be dedicated, dishwasher, disposal, fridge, washing machine come to mind. I have 2 circuits for countertop.
 
   / My Industrial Cabin Build #2,172  
I run all outlets with 12 and lights with 14. I hate lights on outlet circuits. I ran 3w to all my ceiling lights, cause they all have fans, a hot and a switched line.
All kitchen GFI, and nothing on those circuits to other rooms. They wouldn’t let me put an outdoor GFI on my kitchen GFIs.
I seem to recall you was running surface conduit?
Several have to be dedicated, dishwasher, disposal, fridge, washing machine come to mind. I have 2 circuits for countertop.

He said he was using Romex, but Romex is not conduit-friendly, so I hope not. Some parts of code specifically exclude Romex for conduit use, other parts allow it only when protection from physical damage is required over short runs. But it's such a bear to pull Romex through conduit that it's often avoided. I've done it myself on occasion and anything longer than about 4' is a pain in the butt, or requires abnormally large conduit to be practical.

I know there are methods for running Romex with SIPS, so it's possible to do without conduit.

If running metallic conduit, I love using separate stranded conductors, usually THHN/THWN or one of the variants. Easy to pull and easy to work with. When wiring my dad's shop with that many years ago, we pulled really long runs and it was easy peasy.
 
   / My Industrial Cabin Build #2,173  
He said he was using Romex, but Romex is not conduit-friendly, so I hope not. Some parts of code specifically exclude Romex for conduit use, other parts allow it only when protection from physical damage is required over short runs. But it's such a bear to pull Romex through conduit that it's often avoided. I've done it myself on occasion and anything longer than about 4' is a pain in the butt, or requires abnormally large conduit to be practical.

I know there are methods for running Romex with SIPS, so it's possible to do without conduit.

If running metallic conduit, I love using separate stranded conductors, usually THHN/THWN or one of the variants. Easy to pull and easy to work with. When wiring my dad's shop with that many years ago, we pulled really long runs and it was easy peasy.
I agree that Romex in conduit is not fun, but there is absolutely nothing in the NEC code that prevents you from using Romex in conduit anywhere Romex is otherwise allowed provided you don't exceed fill limits.
 
   / My Industrial Cabin Build
  • Thread Starter
#2,174  
This is what I love about TBN. The depth of info you guys possess is always amazing to me.
I am not messing with any of the conduit right now

Yes there are methods for pulling romex thru sips. Every wall panel came with a chase drilled thru it in the walls but we had decided before hand to do conduit surface mount on all the sips walls.
I have conventional framing on both ends of the house for the bedrooms and bathrooms. I need to get those wired up and get water supply lines pulled so that Incan get that inspected and get the drywall done. Once the drywall is done, I come back with the conduit and finish it all. I will be getting different wire for the conduit.
One screw up I made was putting three 2 inch whitepvc pipes under the slab going from one side of house to other to pull my electrical and water lines. The plan was to have a 200 am box on one side then have a 60 or 100 on the other with 4 AWG or appropriate wire running thru the pvc pipe to connect then. I had an inspector tell me I could a couple years ago when I asked. And my most recent inspector who was there first thought I was saying romex wire and said no because it would build up heat. I said “no , not romex. The heavy stuff to connect a second breaker”. The answer I got was maybe I could. But it would depend on the inspector. That makes no sense to me. 4 AWG should be fine in that pipe.

Can you guys weigh in on that? I have three pipes in a row. I was thinking I could do one for water, one for propane and one for the electric.
 
   / My Industrial Cabin Build
  • Thread Starter
#2,175  
The reason for the propane line is to have an on demand water heater on that side of the house. Otherwise, I have to pump hot water thru the pipe under the slab, 60 feet before it comes back into the house and it seemed like that would be inefficient and never get hot water to the laundrey unless you ran a bathroom faucet first. I also considered an electric on demand heater but that seems to require a lot more power than I wanted to put over there.
Maybe I am over complicating things and should just run an insulated pex line across to supply the laundry and bathroom on that side. Total distance from the hot water heater on the master side of house to the shower would be about 100 feet. I was also concerned about condensation buildup in the pipe from the changes in temperature.
 
   / My Industrial Cabin Build #2,176  
I went through this a little in my pole barn garage. Wanted to run conduit on the drops along the walls for switches and outlets, for wiring protection. But there was no reason to run THHN in full conduits all the way from the panel. Was told by a couple electricians and my township electrical inspector that I could only run romex in conduit for short sections, IE just the 8' vertical drops at the wall.

Was wondering why you were running propane all the way under the building. That makes sense to me. Shoot even running hot water 40' under my concrete slab to my kitchen sink is annoying, it takes 20+ seconds to really warm up and then it quickly cools off in a minute or two and you have to wait again. My plumber didn't want to insulate the copper lines.... for some reason. Centrally locating your utilities in a slab building is wise... maybe too late now eh. ;)
 
   / My Industrial Cabin Build #2,177  
The plan was to have a 200 am box on one side then have a 60 or 100 on the other with 4 AWG or appropriate wire running thru the pvc pipe to connect then. I had an inspector tell me I could a couple years ago when I asked. And my most recent inspector who was there first thought I was saying romex wire and said no because it would build up heat. I said “no , not romex. The heavy stuff to connect a second breaker”. The answer I got was maybe I could. But it would depend on the inspector. That makes no sense to me. 4 AWG should be fine in that pipe.

The issue is you used white PVC instead of the grey conduit probably. That is just the inspector following the code exactly as wiring is not allowed in plumbing PVC. Granted, it is the same product, just different colors with different fittings. I'd cut the white pvc pipe off so that it wasn't visible and then extend it above the concrete with conduit.

2" pvc conduit is rated for up 16 4gauge conducters per the 2020 NEC fill tables.
 
   / My Industrial Cabin Build #2,178  
What kinglake said.

I was thinking of this last night, hoping you had buried a conduit to the other end.

No problem having a sub panel, the issue is
what kind of sweeps (90° elbows) are on the white pvc? You need electrical sweeps to pull wire thru, and I’m only aware of white water elbows for what you used. If wrong, might have to bust some concrete to fix, or run a new conduit buried outside to go to other side.

I would use a sub panel. I believe 2” is plenty for 100a wiring.
Where are you putting the panels? Did you put a pipe up thru slab for service entrance cables?
 
   / My Industrial Cabin Build
  • Thread Starter
#2,179  
Kinglake, thank you. I had the same thought but didn’t know why they would object to one pvc and not another.
 
   / My Industrial Cabin Build #2,180  
White PVC is tested and rated for higher pressure while grey PVC conduit is not. But the grey conduit is tested and rated for UV exposure, so I think that drives the code requirement.
 
 
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