Temporary Electric To Shed Questions

GregJ · Dec 2, 2003

I guess they wanted to make sure that when you dug up the electrical conduit that you knew that it really was electrical conduit..... That's helpful... /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Greg

Inspector507 · Dec 2, 2003

Just to clarify..........marker tape or ribbon is not mandated by the NEC®. It definately is a very good suggestion, but not required. You may find in the NEC® Art. 300.5(D)(3) that it's only required for service conductors and not branch circuits or feeders. These citcuits have short-circuit and overload protection. Therefor, the breaker will trip if it's ever dug up. I still say it's a good idea to have it, don't get me wrong.

Junkman · Dec 2, 2003

( Just make sure that you bury the tape about a foot closer to the surface than the conduit/wires/etc. As you are digging, you want to hit the tape BEFORE you hit the wire! Digging a foundation for my neighbor's garage I hit the conduit that carried the wires for his guest house. The folks that installed this originally had used the warning tape, but wrapped it around the conduit! It looked very nice hanging from the piece of conduit that I pulled up. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif )

There is no accounting for other peoples stupidity... G_d must have loved stupid people because he made so many of them!

rdam · Dec 2, 2003

Is there specific pipe for conduit. Or can you use any type of PVC.

rdam · Dec 2, 2003

( Heck you could even run your ext cord through it for now.

)
That's what I was thinking of doing. It solves some inspection issues for the short term. I get to power up the barn and camper, and I'm good to go when I want the permanent line installed.

BIGUN · Dec 2, 2003

Yeah, we got the "Dig Safe" deal here too. I should know. Since moving to this house the electric company, the phone company, and the gas company have all been out and put their little flags and painted stripes all over the neighbor’s yards and mine. I called and asked what’s up; they said the cable company was going to do some digging. Have yet to see any work done. I think there is a two-week limit to dig after the marking and it has been way longer than that so I have pulled up all the flags so I could mow.

With miles of the fiber cable buried alongside the highways, sooner or later someone is not going to know about the program, not see a sign and start digging. The alarm wire is a “last line of defense” type of thing I suppose. I would not want to be the uninformed Mr. Backhoe that receives the bill for such a transgression. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

BIGUN · Dec 2, 2003

They wanted to identify it as electrical as opposed to a water line, so you wouldn't try tapping it for water. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Junkman · Dec 2, 2003

( Is there specific pipe for conduit. Or can you use any type of PVC. )

Electrical PVC pipe is grey and has a bell shape at one end. This end is referred to as the female end. The male end is inserted into the female end after both the female and male ends have been cleaned with PVC pipe cleaner and the male end has been lubricated with PVC pipe cement. Then you hold the two ends together for about 30 seconds. If you don't hold them together, the male end has a tendency to be pushed out of the female end and you no longer have a tight connection. Some people will rotate the male end as it is being inserted into the female end to spread the PVC cement more evenly. I use a lot of PVC cement on the male end and have not found this to be necessary. Where the PVC pipe comes out of the ground, you will use a "sweep". Sweeps come in 90 / 45 / 22 1/2 degree angles. I usually put the entire length of pipe together and then drop it into the trench. I have found that it is easier to get a long length of poly rope and tie a small box wrench to one end and then keep dropping the box wrench with the poly rope attached into each section of pipe as I assemble it. The PVC glue doesn't effect the poly rope. If you have to cut the pipe, then there are PVC couplings available. These are available with stops built into the inner circumference and with out stops, depending on new work or repair work.....

rdam · Dec 2, 2003

A commercial:

Normally you'd pay 40, 50, even 60 dollars to get all this information in print.

But if you join TBN, you'll receive it for FREE. That's right, FREE.

Hurry while supplies last !!!!!

Thanks a bunch.

28RedHorses · Dec 6, 2003

I would definitely bury the cable in a conduit.

If you take the time to bury the cable (I think it looks a whole lot better) then also use PVC conduit. It's cheap and I used a two inch PVC conduit (I had some laying around). I looked up the proper size for what I wanted to power and then added some because I always think of something AFTER I install something /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

I also ran phone cable down the conduit because at some point I might want a phone in the shed.

Just something to think about.

28 Red