Hi there.
I am going to have a garage that is 250 feet away from my house receive power via underground wiring. My electician wants to run galvanized piping from the house to the garage.
Yet, I read on-line that "gray conduit piping" is the way to go.
He will use a trenching machine to run the piping and wire down about 1 foot.
Can I please get a professional opinion on this. Does his plan sound okay? Is it according to code? Is it better to do it with the gray pvc instead?
Are you getting this inspected? 250' is a long way. What type of power are you needing out there? I would not use galvanized, but that is his choice. You do want to seperate the phone from the power wiring. What size is wanting to use? What size wire is he putting in.
IMO he is out of his mind for even considering rigid steel for 250'!
The only answer could be that he cannot get the required 18" depth. Even so, the steel will break the bank.
Find a way to dig deeper.
I am not sure how well he knows his job - that is why I am here. I appreciate the feedback from you guys.
Back to the project:
I will have two 10 amp freezers, 5 interior lights, one electric garage door, 3 exterior lights, and six plugs. As for the wire I believe he said 60 amps.
How deep should he go with the pipe(18" like you said)?
I take it that you both believe gray PVC is the way to go?
Why should the electric and phone be seperate? Do you mean they should be in seperate piping/tubing? Please explain.
Also, what would you charge for a job like this - I will rent the machine and do the trenching before hand.
As for the inspection - I am not planning on it unless I have to but more than anything I want to make sure it is okay if needed. Although I do want to hear what you are thinking.
I come up with #2 THWN, 1 1/4" PVC. Just a quick guess is about$2500, if you dig the ditch. That is a long way to have to go get your steaks. Because of the distance, the wire size needs to be increased. I hope this guy has included that in his quote.
The reason to seperate phone from power is interferance on the phone lines.
Is it okay to run the phone and the cable wire together in another PVC or do they too have to be separate? Therefore 3 pvc pipes piled ontop of each other for 250 feet. ************. lol
Also, what do you think if I ran the wires myself and then have him do just the hookups.
Hiya sparkys , I gotta question related to one of the OP's questions. Is it just a "good idea" to seperate the phone and power (for interference reasons), or is it a code requirement?
Hiya sparkys , I gotta question related to one of the OP's questions. Is it just a "good idea" to seperate the phone and power (for interference reasons), or is it a code requirement?
I know the why..or at least I know why I wouldn't do it. I just wasn't sure if it was actually code or just a REALLLLLY good idea.
To try and summarize the "why", suppose one of the 120V conductors has a bare spot (for whatever reason), and suppose the phone line does too in the same spot (I know, alot of supposing, but theoretically it COULD happen). Then the phone line is charged with 120V which is, not only bad for the phone system, but really bad for the next poor guy that gets into the phone box, and who knows how far the 120V could go back up the line...CI at your house, the next house...the pole down the street..farther???
I know the why..or at least I know why I wouldn't do it. I just wasn't sure if it was actually code or just a REALLLLLY good idea.
To try and summarize the "why", suppose one of the 120V conductors has a bare spot (for whatever reason), and suppose the phone line does too in the same spot (I know, alot of supposing, but theoretically it COULD happen). Then the phone line is charged with 120V which is, not only bad for the phone system, but really bad for the next poor guy that gets into the phone box, and who knows how far the 120V could go back up the line...CI at your house, the next house...the pole down the street..farther???
Also has to do with the heat rating of the wires.Wire used for line voltage has a much higher heat rating than low voltage wire,so theoreticly the heat generated by the line voltage under a heavy load could melt the low voltage wire.Plus as stated earlier the EMI coming from a load on the line voltage can cause problems with phone lines/speaker wire.Phone wire can shock you,especialy when its ringing.Tip is about 24-30volts and ring is about 70volts.Her is a fun trick!Remove a phone jack and place a finger from one hand on the green and a finger from the other hand on the red.Now have a friend call your house number!It's just a slight tickle.
HELLO!!!! Michael, what are you doing?! Why are you hiring someone in which you haven't full confidence of his abilities / skills? Please don't tell me it's because of a low price. If so, he probably stole the galvanized conduit somewhere.
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