under ground electric line

[terry stewart]

I am going to be running electric line over 200 ft under ground what size wire would I need also do I need to put it in conduct thanks terry

[coup]

coduit always,,,,,,,,,,are you running to a chicken house,shop,water pump,house>?? how deep?

[oneokie]

Need to know what amperage load the line will be servicing before recommending a wire size.

[Callieslamb]

Yes, use conduit. The people that wired a barn we used to own, ran the wires bare under the ground. . . . When the well drillers came......I got to redig that ditch, put the wires in the conduit and re-electrify the barn. The wires are much eaiser to find if they are in conduit. I am sure there are other reasons to use it.

[terry stewart]

just for lights and hand tools and 1 line for 220

[fishhead]

There are wire calculators online. This is the one I used on the farm.

http://www.elec-toolbox.com/calculators/voltdrop.htm

I believe you want to keep voltage drop 2% or less.

I didn't put my underground line in pipe and the pocket gophers ruined $500 worth of wire before I even got it hooked up. That was on top of having to rent a trencher for $100 a day TWICE.

[TnAndy]

Originally Posted by terry stewart

just for lights and hand tools and 1 line for 220

Terry, that still isn't enough information.

How many lights and what wattage ?

What kind of hand tools ?

What is the 220v line for ?.....and what amps will it need to draw ?

[rancher1913]

if you go with conduit, use 2 sizes bigger than you think you need--you have to allow room for heat to escape from the wires or they could prematurally fail in a few years. use 1 size bigger wire than the chart calls for, future expansion and voltage drop will overload the system quickly. I've never had any customer ever tell me they wished they had gone with a smaller line. flourecent lights and motors do not handle voltage drop.

[rambler]

You'd need #4 copper wire for a bare minimum 50 amp circut.

A 2/0 aluminum wire would be good for 100 amp.

You really are not telling us what it is you want, so we can't answer. A welder or 5 horse electric motor is gonna pull 35-50 amps, so when you mention you want a 220 out there, you should not be going less than 50 amp. Would be foolish to do less.

These days you need 4 wires, the 2 hots, the neutral for use with 120v, and the ground, which you hope you never use, it's there for safety & needs to be seperate from the neutral wire except wherever the main box for your place is.

Please tell us what it is you want out there, how many amps, or what all you hope to run. A welder, 400 watts of ceiling light, a 500 watt halogen, a grinder idling in the background... It's real easy to get over 50 amps easy. You can list what you are running, but we need to add up the amps you'll be using. We can get that from the watts.

--->Paul

[fordy]

Originally Posted by terry stewart

I am going to be running electric line over 200 ft under ground what size wire would I need also do I need to put it in conduct thanks terry

.................The best way to do that is run the High voltage underground and put the stepdown transformer close too your home ! That way you virtually , have NO voltage drop ! , fordy

[Old Vet]

Use no 1 copper wire for a 100 amp circuit then use a circuit breaker box at the barn to give you the rest. 200 feet x 3 of no 1 copper wire will cost you about $350 and the 1 1/2 inch conduit will be about $30 and the circuit breaker box will cost you about $40 and the circuit breakers will cost you about $10 each. Put in a larger size so that later on you may add some to it. It is no more expensive to add the larger size now than to do it when you run out of amperage and deed to do it later on. I have never saw one that was too big but I have seen a lot of them that were too small.

[Oldcountryboy]

Go with 100 amp URD (underground cable) aluminum triplex cable. Will be much cheaper then copper. 100 amp URD cable was running about $1.13 per foot while #4 copper cable was running around $1.84 per foot.

The URD is rated for direct buriel but if you have the money run it in PVC to last longer. Run from your source of power to a 100 amp panel box in your barn/shed and branch off with individual circuits for your tools and 220v.

[Katey]

Around here buried electrical either has to be two feet down or in rigid conduit.