Running 500 feet of underground wire.

[check]

Never thought about mobile home feeder... Just checked Menards at $1.99 per foot in thousand foot rolls. http://www.menards.com/main/electrical/electrical-wire-cable/2-2-2-4-aluminum-mobile-home-feeder-per-foot/p-1469808.htm Home Depot has 500' rolls Southwire 500 ft. 2-2-2-4 AL USE MHF Service Entry Electrical Cable-28712801 - The Home Depot My question is what is the optimal breaker for a 500' run of Mobile Home Feeder?

Thanks, ultrarunner. I checked the Home Depot site, because 500 feet is exactly what I need. Unfortunately however, it is not jacketed, meaning that I would need conduit, and it's not rated for wet locations. Too bad, as this would seem to be great stuff!

 

[gsganzer]

Thanks, ultrarunner. I checked the Home Depot site, because 500 feet is exactly what I need. Unfortunately however, it is not jacketed, meaning that I would need conduit, and it's not rated for wet locations. Too bad, as this would seem to be great stuff!

Whatever wire you choose, I'd put it in conduit regardless. The conduit is the cheap part anyway. Especially if you have rocky soil and you're not putting it below the frostline.

 

[buickanddeere]

I would go with 6/3 from cottage to lake and mount a 30amp service in a 8x12 storage shed . The shed will be handy for multiple uses. Obtain a pair of 120V high volume, low pressure sump pumps with about 5 of discharge pipe . Operate one pump on line 1 and the other pump on line 2, which will eliminate losses on the 500ft of neutral back to the cottage .
I would drive a ground rod into a muck at lake side and a #6 copper back to the ground bar in the 8x12 shed's panel. The neutral bar must float isolated from the ground system.
Use a 24/7 timer to operate the pumps 7:00PM to 7:00AM Monday to Thursday and 7:00PM Friday until 7:00AM Monday.
We usually do Muskoka around Three mile Lake, Windermier or around Bala.
Next thing you know you will have a 12x24" park model RV down at the lake for a guest house . Nothing like keeping company out of the cottage.

 

[check]

Love to have it, buckandeere, but I am afraid the cost would be prohibitive. And I did LOL about the RV!

Here is the VRBO listing for the property, and we still have one Summer week available for anyone who is interested - 20% discount for TBNers!

Go to

vrbo.com and ask for listing No. 679155

James

 

[buickanddeere]

Respectable looking place.

 

[boggen]

Thanks again, Ryan. You are certainly a WEALTH of information, and there is some good stuff to follow up on. Keeping in mind that I don't want the lower levels of the lake to be warmed up by too much movement up to the surface, I will have to survey the lake (perhaps this weekend), at first by just snorkeling around. Maybe I will even see some of my Trout! (Unfortunately, after putting some 300, 5-inch Rainbow Trout into the lake this Spring, The Mergansers descended upon the lake and murdered who knows how many of the little guys.)

I should also try and get a thermometer down deep to see just how cold it is near the bottom, because of the possibility that wind currents have already circulated a lot of the water from top to bottom. It is a pretty good-sized body of water, with about a 6.4 acre surface area and an average depth more than 25 feet (perhaps even a lot more). Will keep everyone posted and thanks for all the interest and great input!

James

i would not worry about temperature. that is a HUGE massive body of water, plus the entire bottom of the pond acts as a heat sink pulling the heat out of the water. deeper you go colder it gets both soil and water. temperature of the lake will not suddenly go from 50F to 80F. it will take weeks to months, to just get first couple feet of water up a couple degrees. go for a quick swim, and dive off a raft. and 3 feet down to 6 feet can be an easy 20 degrees difference if not more.

the fish will find there cold spots and warm spots (fish are cold blooded) they are smart enough to figure things out. fish live in a 3D environment, with swim bladders, to go up, down, left, right, forward, and even backwards.

the thermocline or rather various layers of water that can form in a pond/lake. will work themselves out.

 

[boggen]

I would go with 6/3 from cottage to lake and mount a 30amp service in a 8x12 storage shed . The shed will be handy for multiple uses. Obtain a pair of 120V high volume, low pressure sump pumps with about 5 of discharge pipe . Operate one pump on line 1 and the other pump on line 2, which will eliminate losses on the 500ft of neutral back to the cottage .
I would drive a ground rod into a muck at lake side and a #6 copper back to the ground bar in the 8x12 shed's panel. The neutral bar must float isolated from the ground system.
Use a 24/7 timer to operate the pumps 7:00PM to 7:00AM Monday to Thursday and 7:00PM Friday until 7:00AM Monday.
We usually do Muskoka around Three mile Lake, Windermier or around Bala.
Next thing you know you will have a 12x24" park model RV down at the lake for a guest house . Nothing like keeping company out of the cottage.

sump pumps overall = bad idea. sump pumps = high pressure, low GPH type of pump. the are used to pump water from basements and like up high and into a sewer or some other spot. sump pumps are generally rated for "general duty" not continuous 24/7 running. a cheap sump pump will more likely die within its warranty or a couple days after it. they are made for on/off cycling. (run for some time, turn off and cool off, turn back on run for a little bit, turn off and cool off) while a sump pump may run a few days in a year nearly continuously. long term, they are just not built for continuous running.

 

[buickanddeere]

sump pumps overall = bad idea. sump pumps = high pressure, low GPH type of pump. the are used to pump water from basements and like up high and into a sewer or some other spot. sump pumps are generally rated for "general duty" not continuous 24/7 running. a cheap sump pump will more likely die within its warranty or a couple days after it. they are made for on/off cycling. (run for some time, turn off and cool off, turn back on run for a little bit, turn off and cool off) while a sump pump may run a few days in a year nearly continuously. long term, they are just not built for continuous running.

Use a fountain pump then.

 

[check]

Use a fountain pump then.

Actually, I am liking the idea of running a 500 foot air hose more and more. Will have to check out the electricity costs of running an air pump that can send a good amount of air that far.

A big advantage of the air hose, is that I don't have to worry about burying it in the forest. It can just run right along the ground, and then I only have to bury a small section that runs across the Hydro right-of-way.

The hose would go uphill and then downhill to the little Lake,, so I would just need some sort of check valve to prevent any kind of siphoning affect.

 

[Mendonsy]

It seems like you should be able to get away with a water line anti-siphon valve located near the high point of the air line for that.