[baseballbuzz]

I am going to run lights along a 8 ft. wall, about 4 ft intervals and was planning on running 2" pvc 18" below grade and have a pull box near every light for splicing. I am unsure how to bring the wires into a pull box and splicing.
The pull box i was going to use is 10" deep and 6" round sitting level with the ground for access.
1. I guess i bring the 2" conduit up into a pull box and it will be facing up?

2. Is there a depth at which the top of the conduit, which is facing up, has to be away from the top cover?

3. Is it okay to have the conduit facing up with wires spliced properly? Seems like the chance of water getting in is increased. But it is in a pull box with a cover so i am guessing it doesn't matter?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[gregzoll]

Splice in the box for the lights, not some box that can get covered up or allow water to get into it, if it is near the ground. Even with gaskets, those lids will fail if a mower or lawn trimmer cracks the lid or case.

 

[baseballbuzz]

the top of the electrical boxes will be where i have black rock. Rarely even gets walked on unless i am checking something.
I am wondering more if what i am describing is to code. I will be getting it permitted.

 

[baseballbuzz]

I wanted to splice in the lights but since i am running 2" PVC underground i don't want to come up with 2" PVC to the light and back down 2" PVC. Plus i will have multiple circuits ran in the 2" PVC. Hope that makes sense.

 

[gregzoll]

It does not matter what is on top of the boxes, after time they will leak when the gaskets give up. Just pull the line to the first light, using a long sweep from the conduit to the first light box. Then pull the next line over to the next light and so on. Use the Ideal In-Sure Wire Connectors for the lights to attach to the THHN/THWN.

If you want to use a box, just mount it on the wall and run Schedule 80 to where you can just place the first box for the junction to the left and right, and you should be fine as long as you get one deep enough for fill. You are only talking about #14 THHN/THWN.

The less junction points you have, the less chance of a failure. Now if you are going to put an outlet out there, your Ground needs to be big enough for both the #14 for the lights and #12 for the outlet. 3/4" would be find.

I just find that if you bury the box, some time down the road, someone is going to have to move that rock to try and figure out where the cover is for the box that the junction is in, since you cannot bury it. People try and bury the boxes, but by the NEC, it is a no-no. You have to use a box for Water Sprinklers that you can pull the lid off of and then risk the chance that the gasket and couplings do not fail if the box gets flooded.

 

[brric]

Look into quazite products. Below ground installations are done all the time without incident.

http://www.hubbellpowersystems.com/about/quazite/

 

[Jim Port]

The splices can be done is the Han hole boxes linked to. Be sure to use connectors rated for the wet environment.

 

[baseballbuzz]

thanks all. If done right and to code, which i will be doing, i cannot imagine it being a problem.
Brric - The boxes you show are similar to what i will use. Just smaller.

with the conduit coming up into a pull box i was not sure how close to the top of the box the conduit needs to be?

 

[Oso954]

The way you describe the project, I don't understand it or your design choices for it.

But bringing a 2inch conduit up every 4 feet into a Christy type box sounds like a lot of extra work and cost to me.

 

[baseballbuzz]

Oso954,

1. 120 amp subpanel
2. Installing lights along a 100 ft wall. using TTHN 8
3. Installing 4 outlets along the way using TTHN 8.
4. Installing spa panel. using TTHN 6

Lights, outlets and spa panel will come off separate breakers at subpanel.

I was thinking if i ran 2" conduit and put all wires (10 total) in the 2" conduit i would need to branch off every time i came to a light or outlet.

Not sure if they make some kind of Y fitting that i could branch off to a light and then the other wires could continue on. I would prefer to not have boxes at every light/outlet, but running multiple circuits within one conduit is the issue and i don't know the way around it.

I guess i could just run separte conduit lines for the lights-outlets-spa panel. But that also seems like it is too much.

 

[Oso954]

How far from the subpanel to the wall ?
Why the 8awg for the outlets and lights ? I assume one circuit each of 20 amps.

I would most likely run this in 3 seperate conduits in the same trench, bringing the lighting or receptacle conduit/circuit up out of the trench at the approriate locations. It will put 2 conduits on the wall, power in and power out. That way you are keeping all of your splices above ground and having fairly short easy pulls to make. You are also keeping the number of splices in each circuit to a minimum.

If you wanted to limit appearance, you could mount 4x4 box a few inches above ground and then run a single conduit up to the light or receptacle location.

 

[baseballbuzz]

Hey, really appreciate the reply.

1. Sub panel will be mounted on the wall.

2. 8awg because the length of run. actually 230 ft to farthest receptacle. I said a 100ft earlier because i did not have my plans in front of me.

3. I thought of mounting a box just above ground. I was trying to not run two conduits up the wall. Is there a minimum above ground to run a conduit box?

4. I am also thinking of putting lights low/on ground to shine on the wall. Just trying to light up the wall area.

 

[mpoulton]

There's no good reason to do this using one conduit and those wire sizes. This should be multiple runs of smaller conduits and wires. You're making it more difficult and expensive than it needs to be. The #8 wire for the lighting is almost certainly unnecessary. Check your voltage drop calculations again on that. If you're installing hundreds of watts of incandescent lighting, rethink that and consider LED. The #8 for the receptacles is likely also overkill. Either way, multiple conduits makes this all way easier. Run your receptacle and spa panel conductors in their own dedicated conduits, and use 1/2" or 3/4" conduit for the lighting runs, brought up and back down at each fixture.