electrical wiring

RBM

what size wire do i use to run an outside line to my shed 75 feet away with a 20 amp breaker

jbfan

#12 UF cable.

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seansy59

Use #12 gauge UF.

Bury 18" deep if non-gfci protected.
If you put it on a GFCI-Breaker, you can bury it a minimum of 12".

Put a main disconnect in the shed. This can be a 20 amp commercial grade toggle switch labled "Main-Disconnect".

edge130

For that distance I would use 10 gauge wire

Speedy Petey

Do you honestly think 75 feet is far enough to warrant over-sizing the wire??

rjniles

Direct burial wire, non- GFCI protected needs to be 24" deep.

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edge130

I ran 10 gauge wire out to my shed, which was about 100' away.
I look at it at the degree of difficulty of digging a trench, laying the UF cable and backfilling. But I had 2 circuits out to the shed and one was for a pool filter. Also I never had to worry about a voltage drop for the other circuit.
To me the extra cost of the #10 wire was worth it.
On a labor intensive job, a lot of times it's not worth doing it over again.

Speedy Petey

Better yet use conduit.

A pool pump is a different story. That is a known heavy load and a continuous load.

gregzoll

I used #10 for mine, which is the same length, due to at the time I did not know if I was going with a 30 amp, or sticking with a 20 amp. For the price, it was cheaper to go with #10/3 UF.

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jimmy21

I agree with you, but for the wrong reason. Your not going to have voltage drop at that distance, but if i was going through the trouble of digging a trench and screwing up my lawn. I sure as hell wouldn't bury a 12/2 uf cable in there.

Carlos2sun

12#