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Underground Wiring
I have a garage that is 200' from my closest power source (my cabin) I use a 250' piece of 12ga house wire right now with plug ins on the ends when I need power out there. As you probably can imagine that is getting old, rolling it out every time I am there and back up again when I leave not to mention the hassek everytime I want to move equipment from garage to house or for field work.
I am moving in less than 5 years to this place and plan to build a house attatched to the cabin along with anouther garage. When I do move and build I will be using this garage for 110 everyday while building the house. I also have never had electric strung out there in winter (ever) and that makes it a pain when cutting up deer or what ever!
I have been around this block once before so I am not making the same mistakes twice!
Would it be ok to run a uf wire underground from the house to the garage and (temporarily) only put it 12" under the ground? My thinking is to put in a post next to the cabin with an outdoor box on it that I could hook up a short extension cord to to provide power out to the garage. This way here I would only have the cost of the wire and box that I would eat in a few years. Untill then I would only be using the electric for small hand tools maybe a table saw or chop saw sporadically and a few flouresent lights.
I plan on making part of this garage into a workshop and may add on to it so I really dont want to wire it up yet because my plans may change.
How un-safe would it be to run the wire the way I said?
We have NO zoning/inspections where I live so I would like to be half way safe yet dont want to spend too much and eat it later.
Thanks
TOM
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Underground Wiring
You can run UF under ground. Most of my yard lights and the run to my shed is in UF. The shed is 180' from house and is on 12/2 power it is a little iffy for large circular saws.
Very few of my wires like that are more than 6-8 inches down. I did draw out maps for the next residents after I do not need this stuff anymore... 
Nothing pissed me off more than having to make a trip to the shed for some obscure part I packed away because it might come in handy some day and have to search with a flashlight for it...
Good Luck Harvey
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Underground Wiring
200' is really "iffy" on 12/2 your lucky to get 10 amps with out dimming your flouro lights.
run 10/2 and a 20 amp breaker that should run a 3-5hp compressor intermediatly.
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Underground Wiring
I think you are asking for a lot a trouble trying to run any power tool on what is essentially a 200 foot 12-2 extension cord. At 10 amps The one way distance for an acceptable 2% voltage drop is only 70 feet Trying to run 180 feet you will very likely burn a motor up.. Remember a 1hp motor electric motor needs around 2200 hundred watts of surge to get started. You might want to consider running 220 volts to a sub-panel at your garage.
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Underground Wiring
Log houses and other here
This is the kind of info I want. I had used that extension cord while building the garage and it just keeps coming out everytime I need it. So far I only used it for small compressor (nail gun and buzz saw work) I dont plan on using it for the burial since that wire is not uf and also I did not think it was large enough for what I need it for over the next 5 years.
I am looking for the cheapest way to get power out to the garage to run a table saw (sporadically while building my newer house portion) but mostly for lighting in the garage and maybe a buzz saw.? I am NOT planning on keeping this set up. after I build I will run a main line with 220 to a panel. I just dont want to jump the gun and run power to a spot that I may need to move in the future. Also I dont know exactly where other utilitys will be so I may have to dig up the electric source later. That is why I dont want to do it right (the first time) SO
What would you run for a 200 foot run for what I described if you wanted it to be expendable in a few years?
Thanks again
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Underground Wiring
Brokenarrow I sure wish I could recommend a cheap and safe way but....... By your reply I assume you are going to need a minimum of 2400 watts i.e., Table saw, lights... I would recommend running 10-3 with ground from your main breaker box. this will give you 220 volts and a acceptable 2% drop in voltage at 225 feet, this would provide with the power you will need and you could use the wire and sub-panel later on for other projects.... Good luck
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Underground Wiring
Arrow: I agree with Loghouse, please use the (10-3) 220v and mount a small temporary breaker box. My neighbor buried a small (12-2) 110v line and ran it about 250 feet to a shed in the back yard. The fire inspector said the cause was electrical. House was a total loss.
I went with a complete 2nd service to a 200 amp panal in the workshop because my main house 200 amp service was full. Watching the house acrossed the street burn kind of put the fear of God in me.
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Underground Wiring
I have over 100' of 100A flex line to a 100A service panel that's mounted on plywood. Various receptacles are wired to the panel and also mounted on the plywood. I used it in the sound buz when a stage didn't have adequate AC. Bare ends were on the feed end of the flex line and were 'tied' into a service panel rails with clamps. The flex line had to be adequately protected. That's a fairly inexpensive way to get many 110V and 220V circuits temporary locations for weekend festivals and it would good enough to get passed fire marshals. The 110V receptacles used for on-stage circuits were GFI protected.
Since the sound buz days, I replaced the bare ends of the feed with a 30A 220V plug for my generator. The line and panel is overkill but it's something I already had. I'd check local regs but maybe something like 8-gauge flex line from a drier recpetical into a 30A subpanel (with it's own disconnect and the neutral/ground bond removed) would suit your needs. The flex line isn't exactly cheap though but it might remain useful if a remote work site had to be supported from a generator.
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Underground Wiring
Tom, maybe I'm missing something here, maybe I just haven't had enough coffee yet.
If it's only 200', and it's only going to be temporary anyway, why bury it at all?
It seems it would be a lot less work to put 2 poles & makeshift anchors in the ground than to trench 200' and I know the wire will cost a LOT less.
If there is an electrical contractor in the area go and talk to them. You will need some pro help once you start building anyway, most have poles, temporary service panels and rolls of used wire for putting up on job-sites like yours. For a few bucks they will often 'rent' them to you, especially if they get the work to do your new place.
Best of luck.
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Underground Wiring
Murf: Sorry I wasn't more clear. The idea of flex line is not to bury it. Just drag the line to the house and plug it into a drier outlet as needed. Some planking might be needed in traffic areas.
That's the way it's done in the sound buz and without contractors or permits. Technically it does take an electrician to tap into the rails of a service sub-panel though, but in this case an existing receptacle would be used. However, the idea should be checked with officials to see if it'd fly in a particular area. It's basically just a heavy-duty extension cord that might have some on-going use. The panel could be used as a sub-panel in the permanent wiring.
Overhead line might even be cheaper. It may also start looking more like a permanent installation and be more subject to code--don't know about that though. What ever is done should be safe and not run afoul of insurance or regs.
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Gas Generator Weather Protecti
07-05-2004, 16:01 
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