Running 500 feet of underground wire.

[ultrarunner]

^^^ You are a great resource and I always learn when you post!

I want very much to run power to a barn about 500' from the house at my brother's property... it would be very convenient to have a couple of lights and a place to plug in a battery charger...

Brother agrees... but says it's not worth the $1000 or more it will cost for material...

I imagine 2" conduit for 2/2/2/4 wires for a 20 amp outlet and lights?

 

[newbury]

Hi, guys, I want to run electric power from my cottage building to a small 6 acre private lake, so that I can aereate the water for stocking trout, and to make it nice and clean near a small beach that I have built.

I have been looking at shielded copper cable, and it is not cheap, so maybe I will look at Aluminum. I was thinking that, because of the voltage drop, I should probably use 10 gauge wire, but at Home Depot 10/3 nwmu is almost $800 for 500 feet!

I only need a single circuit, and I'm certainly not going to use more than 15 A, since the power consumption will be quite expensive if I do. Does anyone have any ideas about perhaps going with a smaller cable or an aluminum cable, and thus saving money? I am worried that aluminum has a larger voltage drop then does copper.

Any ideas here would be much appreciated!

Have you looked into solar? It seems $800 could buy a few panels, battery's and pumps.
/edit -
A quick look at Amazon shows a RENOGY® Premium Solar Panel Kit 400W Polycrystalline Off Grid system for about $800.
That or a small generator could be much more cost effective.

 

[BuilderML]

Have you looked into solar? It seems $800 could buy a few panels, battery's and pumps.

I was going to post the same idea. To me it sounds like solar would be perfect for your application.
A small shed to hold everything and your fishing poles. Just an idea.

 

[grsthegreat]

^^^ You are a great resource and I always learn when you post!

I want very much to run power to a barn about 500' from the house at my brother's property... it would be very convenient to have a couple of lights and a place to plug in a battery charger...

Brother agrees... but says it's not worth the $1000 or more it will cost for material...

I imagine 2" conduit for 2/2/2/4 wires for a 20 amp outlet and lights?

this will fit in 1-1/4" pipe....but a bit snug. Feed it as you ley pipe..much easier

 

[ultrarunner]

Thanks... if we were to go with #2 copper xhhw in conduit we would have more options... I see 500' rolls of single wire for as low as $150

So 3 ea 500' of #2 and plus ground.

 

[gsganzer]

Some have mentioned solar. Have you looked at a windmill type aerator?

For what you're looking to spend on electrical and trenching, I think you could do a windmill for less overall money.

 

[MossRoad]

I was going to post the same idea. To me it sounds like solar would be perfect for your application.
A small shed to hold everything and your fishing poles. Just an idea.

The OP's location is on the lower end for solar.
Here's a pretty good map for worldwide solar potentials.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/SolarGIS-Solar-map-World-map-en.png

 

[robstaples]

Check, my 2 cents. A lot depends on air volume you want. Rough calculations on 10 cfm into lake. Run 500 feet on 3/4" poly pipe with 20 psi at cottage, you only have 6.35 psi drop. That will push air out to over 40 ft deep. I'd then belt drive a compressor drirectly to put out the volume you want and skip the losses associated with higher pressure air into the tank, stop/start and pressure reducer. The belt drive is to arrange pully sizes to get volume you want. A couple of check valves for syphon effect. The local compressor is good for reliability ,but maybe bad for sound. If your flow rate is low, a 1/4hp motor might be enough air. Your pump runs cool because it's not compressing much. But no lights on you beach.! 500' of 1"poly pipe is $205 at home depot 100' of 3/4 was$17.

Compressed Air - Pressure Drop in Pipe Lines - Online Pressure Drop Calculator part way down page.

Keep us posted.
Rob

After though

Another feature of air pipe, valve around check valves and irrigate with syphon pressure.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Put the compressor in the cottage, and run the AIR to the lake!! It will be much cheaper!

SR

 

[aczlan]

If your flow rate is low, a 1/4hp motor might be enough air. Your pump runs cool because it's not compressing much. But no lights on you beach.!

For what little bit he would need, I would run 12v LEDs off of a deep cycle battery, then charge with a solar panel.
Could also run a car/boat stereo if you wanted music out there.

Aaron Z