My New House & Workshop

[franklin2]

Can’t you put in a double slot breaker like you would use for air conditioning or an oven and feed the panel through that breaker from the side? It looks like another breaker in the panel, but it’s actually the disconnect for the panel. Yes/no?

Yes you can. And floating around in the box is a little sticker that says "MAIN". You do what you said and put that little sticker next to it. Works fine, it just takes up some of your breaker space.

 

[Jim Oaks]

Digging my trench I ran into the old gas line, the old 3/8" copper water line going to the shop, some buried coax cable, and a huge chunk of concrete with a pipe sticking out of it that was some type of post at some point. Yay.

It's been cleared out besides the gas line. I dug out from under it so I can run the conduit under. I ran into this when I did the water line.

 

[Jim Oaks]

My biggest concern right now is getting the 1 AWG aluminum cable into the building.

I'm using 2-inch conduit, but I have a very real fear the cable won't be able to make this 90 degree bend. I'm trying to search for more info and options.

 

[Jim Oaks]

Looks like it should work. Might be a little tight.

​

 

[rumblecloud]

When I was doing a trench from my house to the barn I used a metal detector to help make sure there was nothing that would surprise.me along the way. Of course I was using a trencher so I really did not want any surprises. No

 

[Rick W]

My biggest concern right now is getting the 1 AWG aluminum cable into the building.

I'm using 2-inch conduit, but I have a very real fear the cable won't be able to make this 90 degree bend. I'm trying to search for more info and options.

View attachment 135685​

Take the cover off, and feed it from the inside. When it comes out where the cover is, loop it up and over the top and then down the vertical conduit. Makes it easy to pull it in the horizontal conduit and feed it down the vertical conduit.

When you have the ends kind of where you want them, you can twist that loop as you push it down the vertices and it should roll over and bend downwards. You can push it in place with a hammer handle so you can close the box. Works best with two people.

 

[Jim Oaks]

I just ordered 150-Feet Direct Burial Cat 6 Ethernet Cable. I'm going to run it through 1-inch PVC conduit. I've read that you should keep it 8-inches from the underground electrical. I also read that you should bury it 8-10 inches. My plan is to dig my trench 20-inches, put in the 2-inch conduit with the electrical service, fill in about 10-inches, run the 1-inch conduit with the Cat6 cable above that, and then fill the rest of it in.

 

[franklin2]

My biggest concern right now is getting the 1 AWG aluminum cable into the building.

I'm using 2-inch conduit, but I have a very real fear the cable won't be able to make this 90 degree bend. I'm trying to search for more info and options.

View attachment 135685​

Don't worry about getting the wires into the bend at first. The first thing you need to do is get a proper length with a little extra for mistakes, and then pre-cut all your wires, ground included. If you forget to mark the neutral, you can do that later with a ohmmeter.

You need to get a pull rope into the conduit first, a fish tape works well for this. Some people use a string with a rag on it, and a vacuum cleaner to suck the rag through the conduit, I have never tried this.

Then carefully tape the wires to the pull string or rope. You could use the fish tape too. I usually make the ground extra long, make that one wire into a hook, and tie it to the string and tape it, and then tape all the other wires to the ground wire. Tape them so they are tapered so it's smooth and won't catch in the conduit.

Then with a helper, someone pushing, someone pulling the string, pull the wires through. Don't worry about that bend (it's called a "LB") just pull the string and the wire on the outside of the building. Once you get the end there, keep pulling, estimate how much wire you need in the building, and pull that all out on the outside of the building. Then if the panel is just on the other side of the wall, take all the tape and the string off, and you can then push each wire individually into the panel through the LB.

 

[Rick W]

Don't worry about getting the wires into the bend at first. The first thing you need to do is get a proper length with a little extra for mistakes, and then pre-cut all your wires, ground included. If you forget to mark the neutral, you can do that later with a ohmmeter.

You need to get a pull rope into the conduit first, a fish tape works well for this. Some people use a string with a rag on it, and a vacuum cleaner to suck the rag through the conduit, I have never tried this.

Then carefully tape the wires to the pull string or rope. You could use the fish tape too. I usually make the ground extra long, make that one wire into a hook, and tie it to the string and tape it, and then tape all the other wires to the ground wire. Tape them so they are tapered so it's smooth and won't catch in the conduit.

Then with a helper, someone pushing, someone pulling the string, pull the wires through. Don't worry about that bend (it's called a "LB") just pull the string and the wire on the outside of the building. Once you get the end there, keep pulling, estimate how much wire you need in the building, and pull that all out on the outside of the building. Then if the panel is just on the other side of the wall, take all the tape and the string off, and you can then push each wire individually into the panel through the LB.

I totally concur, but let me emphasize how you tape the ends and create a hook to pull it through. The first few feet pull fairly easily, then it’s like trying to pull a Sherman tank out of the mud when you get 2/3 of the way down trying to get to the end. I’ve never done wire that heavy, but I learned the hard way half a dozen times that when the friction builds up, you pull the pull string off of the wiring, instead of pulling the wire through the conduit.

It’s an excellent idea to leave the ground a little bit longer and bend it over. But I would actually bend it over and twist it, and then tape it smooth. Run your tape from the backside by the wire up to the hook so if the tape catches on anything, it will just slide over, not ball up the tape.

Also, if you stagger the wire ends just about an inch or two, nothing that will affect how much wire are you use, the whole end of the bunch ends up being tapered down to the ground hook that’s on the pull string. It’s not a bad idea to chamfer the ends too. A little tiny 1/8 inch lip can catch on a joint in the conduit, and make it impossible. Don’t spare on the tape so it will feed easily.

A crusty old electrician I did some work for when I was a pup in college also used to put olive oil down in the conduit on the feed end and on the beginning of the wires to be pulled. The concept was not petroleum so it would not decay the wires. I did that once and it was a big help, but maybe somebody here knows better about how it might affect the wires in the long run. The olive oil will biodegrade.

And the comment I’ve made before about the second conduit with your Internet. 90% of this job is your labor. I would use one and a half inch conduit, or I would put in a whole extra 1-1/2 to 2” conduit empty except for a pull string for what you might want to do down the road

My two cents, hope it helps

 

[pjtoledo]

bio degradable dish soap. bonus is clean hands.

 

[Curious Hound]

My biggest concern right now is getting the 1 AWG aluminum cable into the building.

I'm using 2-inch conduit, but I have a very real fear the cable won't be able to make this 90 degree bend. I'm trying to search for more info and options.

View attachment 135685​

Jim, I'm not going to read thrpugh RickW's book. But, you're doing fine. That wire will go in fine. Do that part through the wall last. You can bend that wire sharper than what is shown in your photos. You are using oversized conduit. So, it should pull pretty easy. As someone mentioned, smear some dish soap heavily on the first 2 or 3 feet. That will help it through your bends. Don't overthink it. Go slow, check both ends oeriodically to make sure you're not snagging something or scraping insulation off the wire.

 

[Jim Oaks]

Well, I have my trench all dug, but at the moment I'm kind of screwed.

The NEC says you can't have more than 360 degrees in bend for conduit.

The cable has to go from the subpanel straight to the wall, 90 degree down into the ground and turns 90 degrees away from the building for a way and the bends 45 degrees left and the 45 degrees right to go around the corner of concrete pad, and then makes a 90 degree right turn at the other corner of the pad.

That's 360 degrees.

From there it continues and makes a 45 degree left, several more feet it makes another 45 degrees left (now it's at the corner of my concrete pad next to the house that I park on) and is heading for the house.

That's 450 degrees.

When it gets to the house it has to turn up 90 degrees along the house and then make a 90 degree left turn and head for the main breaker panel.

That's a total of 630 degrees.

I'm thinking I need to put a pull box in the ground where the 5th bend would be (the 3rd 90 degree bend). From here I'd have a total of 270 degrees of bends left.

The pull box is something I just became aware of. Now I have to figure out what to get, where to get it, and how to install it.

 

[Curious Hound]

Well, I have my trench all dug, but at the moment I'm kind of screwed.

The NEC says you can't have more than 360 degrees in bend for conduit.

The cable has to go from the subpanel straight to the wall, 90 degree down into the ground and turns 90 degrees away from the building for a way and the bends 45 degrees left and the 45 degrees right to go around the corner of concrete pad, and then makes a 90 degree right turn at the other corner of the pad.

That's 360 degrees.

From there it continues and makes a 45 degree left, several more feet it makes another 45 degrees left (now it's at the corner of my concrete pad next to the house that I park on) and is heading for the house.

That's 450 degrees.

When it gets to the house it has to turn up 90 degrees along the house and then make a 90 degree left turn and head for the main breaker panel.

That's a total of 630 degrees.

I'm thinking I need to put a pull box in the ground where the 5th bend would be (the 3rd 90 degree bend). From here I'd have a total of 270 degrees of bends left.

The pull box is something I just became aware of. Now I have to figure out what to get, where to get it, and how to install it.

Yes. Find a logical point that splits up your bends and install a pull box. It can function as one of your bends or you can put it in a straight portion of conduit.

A simple PVC box with gasketed cover is all you need, plus the fittings (male threaded adapters with locknuts) to attach it to the conduit. I would recommend no smaller than 8”square. 12”square would make it easier yo work in. Gluing the fittings to the box in addition to the locknuts will help seal water out and gasket sealer in addition to the rubber gasket will help seal the lid better. LB’s can be used as pull boxes also. So, if you are using an LB as any of those bends you mentioned, that resets the angle count. That’s important. I probably should have said that first.

 

[Curious Hound]

By the way, if you haven’t found out yet, some of us often use the term LB as a general term for several different styles of fittings. These fittings come in styles with the cover, entrance and exit in different configurations. LL, LR, LB, Tee, straight through. Choose what works best in each case.