Subsoiler and burying electric wires

HammerFour · Jan 27, 2006

I also would be concerned with electric lines buried that shallow....at least put a gfci breaker on the other end of that line so that if you or someone else hits it with a shovel, tent stake, whatever the gfci breaker will trip in the breaker box and protect you from a shock.

Try and get it as deep as you can for safeties sake, also consider using some gray plastic conduit as well, you aren't going that far with it and it would be cheap insurance against cutting the cable with a metal tool or whatever...

This forum always tends to stray towards the ultra-conservative-safety end of the spectrum, but we mean well.

/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Sully2 · Jan 27, 2006

( I also would be concerned with electric lines buried that shallow....at least put a gfci breaker on the other end of that line so that if you or someone else hits it with a shovel, tent stake, whatever the gfci breaker will trip in the breaker box and protect you from a shock.

Try and get it as deep as you can for safeties sake, also consider using some gray plastic conduit as well, you aren't going that far with it and it would be cheap insurance against cutting the cable with a metal tool or whatever...

This forum always tends to stray towards the ultra-conservative-safety end of the spectrum, but we mean well.

/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif )

GFI will be in the box as it leaves the house. No tools or tent stakes..unless someone is camping in my back yard..and that I wont allow. I want the GFI at the house to not only prevent possible shocks..but also a point that I can "dis-engage" the whole shebang if I need to work on something. Only thing that MIGHT prevent that...is the waterfall/birdbath deal. If it refuses to allow the GFI to work properly..and ive seen them do it...then I'll just mount a "regular" disconnect box at the house. ( You know..the small ones with a handle to shut off the electric)

Ya just cant MIX...GFI and water and electric...the GFI's are normally just too sensitive

Trev · Jan 27, 2006

Just one thought.. I'm sure everyone knows this but just in case..

You want your local utility companies to come out and flag where their own underground equipment is before you do any digging. We had that 3-foot-deep line trench cut out by a guy with a backhoe, and the phone company had NOT flagged anywhere near where he was digging. He took out a major phone trunk, and everybody on our road (except, ironically, for us) lost phone service. The phone guys were there until 3am fixing the mess. Had it been a fiber optic line that got cut, they would have been required to have an ambulance standing by for the entire time. If we had NOT had it flagged by the phone company first, it would have cost us up to $10,000. The backhoe operator was freaked out.. he had never cut a line before.. but even the phone company agreed that they had simply missed this one and it was totally their own fault. If they hadn't been so gracious about it, I had told the backhoe operator that I'd testify in his behalf that there weren't any flags in the area he was digging.

Like I said, I'm sure you guys all know this stuff.. but it can't hurt just in case some poor guy forgets and all kinds of trouble results.

5030tinkerer · Jan 27, 2006

Interesting that your local code called for a 36" bury. I don't have inspectors in my rural county, but have been told that National Electrical Code calls for 24" in the ground for AC runs. Some poor sap likely got zapped by a 24" bury in your neck of the woods. Maybe I'll put mine down 36" for the supply run for the new house.

I like using conduit for even the smaller gauge UG runs. It not only results in additional safety, but also means that I can easily add additional wires in the future (especially if I slightly oversize the conduit for a few extra nickels) and can use stranded THHN wire (much easier to pull through bends). Being the overkill guy that I am, I even put red warning tape in the ground at 8" below grade just to warn whoever might be digging there 50 years from now.

Sully2 · Jan 27, 2006

( Interesting that your local code called for a 36" bury. I don't have inspectors in my rural county, but have been told that National Electrical Code calls for 24" in the ground for AC runs. Some poor sap likely got zapped by a 24" bury in your neck of the woods. Maybe I'll put mine down 36" for the supply run for the new house.

)

I think they get the idea that if 24 is "OK" then 36 inches is better..sort of thing. I aso had my telephone cable buried in th same trench..at the 24 inch depth. My builder..22 years ago was going to cut across whats now my front yard to get to the transformer location...I said NOPE. So we ran it 8 ft off the property line...for 190 feet....then it turns 90 degrees and runs approx 6 feet more right into my own transformer..that I dont share with anyone..*S* Electric company pays for the wire TO the transformer..I pay for it transformer to home... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif.. From transformer to home is inside 2 1/2 conduit...all underneath my driveway.

kennyd · Jan 27, 2006

( Had it been a fiber optic line that got cut, they would have been required to have an ambulance standing by for the entire time. )

Why is this?
I work for Verizon, and have been doing nothing but Fiber Optics and Multiplexer work for 12 years now. I have been on countless cable cuts, to many to remember in fact, and have NEVER had a ambulance on standby. Even when we had 13kv electric live on the ground there is was ambulance there, and that is a hole lot more dangerous than a Fiber Optic cable.

Maybe laws or code a vastly different in your area, but here in the Baltimore Metropolitan area there is no such ordinance requiring this... /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Trev · Jan 27, 2006

( Why is this?
I work for Verizon, and have been doing nothing but Fiber Optics and Multiplexer work for 12 years now. I have been on countless cable cuts, to many to remember in fact, and have NEVER had a ambulance on standby. Even when we had 13kv electric live on the ground there is was ambulance there, and that is a hole lot more dangerous than a Fiber Optic cable.)

I have no idea. I was just standing around and chatting with the phone guys and that's what they told me. I'm in the Rochester, NY area.

I kind of assumed that a broken fiber optic cable must present an opportunity for serious lacerations, and didn't think to ask for their reasoning behind this. In any event, this wasn't fiber optic, so he mentioned it merely in passing. Sound like nonsense to you?

SnoFalls · Jan 27, 2006

I expect the "ambulance" need would be for the case where the break may disable 911 for (countless) neighbors ... haqs nothing todo with the "danger" of the expose conduit (power or phone).

I also expect they use it to "stick it" to people who dig without getting "flags" from the various utilities.

Trev · Jan 27, 2006

( I expect the "ambulance" need would be for the case where the break may disable 911 for (countless) neighbors ... haqs nothing todo with the "danger" of the expose conduit (power or phone).)

This seems reasonable, except that I wonder.. if a guy a mile down the road can't call 911, and in fact can't call anybody, what good does an ambulance sitting at my house do him? How would they ever know he needed help?

( I also expect they use it to "stick it" to people who dig without getting "flags" from the various utilities. )

Again, this seems reasonable, but then I wonder what difference it makes if it's fiber optics as opposed to any other kind of line? The neighbors still can't call 911. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif