cost of running electricity to the barns... is it worth it?

After we built our first barn, hubby did all of the electic work and I thought the man was nuts because he put in so many lights, outlets, etc. I used to joke that if I turned all of the nights on at the same time, it would be like a huge spot light. But, I love it. When the time changes and I am outside feeding and milking in the dark, I have plenty of light. If I have to watch a doe who is having a difficult birth, I have plenty of light. I use the heck out of it.

When we had our barn built we didn't have electricity run to it. Well last summer (about 6 years later) we had electricity run to the barn along with water in the same trench.

Dh & I both think it was well worth it. We have different animals & where we live electric water buckets are a must. Lights at nigh for a middle of the night kidding(goats) is great, lights for the chickens or ducks so they lay longer, besides all the power tools we use off & on when building or fixing things & our tractor needs to be plugged in to warm up in the cold months so the electricity is a big plus there.
We are so glad we have electric at our barn & wish we'd have done it sooner.

light is good

I'm glad we had power run to our barn. Makes it handy to use power tools, etc. out there when we need them.

I just wish we'd run power and water out to the garden too!

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http://hickahala.blogspot.com/

I remember what a hassle it was to run hoses and have to use a flashlight out in my garden cabin. DH wired everything and also put in water lines. It has been so convenient! It is getting darker earlier, but I can work in my garden cabin.

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Christie Acres
www.SequimForLife.com
http://www.irealtyvirtualbrokers.com...lori-christie/
http://luxurywaterviewhomes.com/
SequimLiving@gmail.com

I don't think you would regret having electric run to your barn. I ran electric to my storage building, my barn, and well house. Have a couple of outdoor electric plugins on my power pole to plug into if needed, and the one building I didn't run electric to, I wished I had which was my chicken house. If I still lived at the farm, that would have at least one light and water run to it.

You can use the electric for far more than just lights, especially if you have a "workshop" area where you can plug in table saws, compressors, etc. Only you can determine whether it is "worth" it to you, as far as I am concerned, I wouldn't own a barn without electricity in it, I use my barn for more than livestock and need the plug ins and lights.

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Be yourself - no one can tell you that you're doing it wrong!