Conduit in a pole barn - corners?

[lhfarm]

I've deceided to use plastic conduit for wiring the rest of my pole barn. I'm trying to figure out how to neatly get around the 4x4 in the corners. I'm running the conduit up from the panel and along the top of the wall and on top of the posts There is just room for 1" conduit up there. I'm going to use a "T" every few feet to drop down an outlet. But how do I take the conduit around the 4x4 in the corner. Putting a 90 in moves the conduit out several inches from the wall. I'm sure there is a part/piece are something I need to do. Suggests? Thanks.

 

[JB4310]

Heat up a section and custom bend it.

You say the 90 will bring it out to far, you mean the sweep 90? They do have what's called LB (line bend, I think) 90's that are short and have a screw on cover to help with pulling wire. Might take 3 of them with short stubs between them.

Maybe a couple of sweep 90's cut short as possible and a LB between them?

Another way would be a 45 on each side wall and go across the corner at 45*, that would not be as tight but might not be bad.

JB

 

[bake321]

Get Mom's hair dryer and do the 45s.

Cary

 

[SARG]

I'm going to use a "T" every few feet to drop down an outlet.

I imagine you'll end up using a box at each drop versus a "T".

 

[lhfarm]

I imagine you'll end up using a box at each drop versus a "T".

I'm still trying to figure out the "best" way to do this. My original idea was to run the conduit along the top, then use a "T" (with a screw cover) drop down along the wall to a box at each post. That may be overkill. I may just use the conduit at the top to get the wire to the other 3 sides and drop down at one point and just run along the wall from box to box.

I've got lots of breakers (the panel came with a bunch of 20 amp breakers) so I can run lots of branches. I'm also in no hurry and am just working on this when it is too muddy to be outside. I would like to end up with a neat looking installlation and good protection for the wiring.

I'd appreciate any advice or suggestions.

 

[JB4310]

If you want it neat then do what you said originally, either the box or the tee with cover, and drop down to each outlet box as opposed going across the wall.

That will use a little more wire maybe, especially if your using 1 GFI to protect other outlets, but will look neater.

To save space in the pipe you know you can share 1 neutral/white with 2 hots to have 2 separate circuits as long as they are on opposing legs or phases, or what ever it's called in the breaker box.

Electrical Wiring in the Home: Shared Neutrals, hot legs, neutral wire

One idea, since your gonna have more than 1 outlet circuit is make ever other box on opposite legs, so on one wall you might have a box every 6- 8 ft but the box on each side would be on a different circuit, so if you had to plug a couple things in on one wall they wouldn't be all on the same circuit. I did that in my shop but along the work bench walls I put 2 duplex outlets in each box and had them on separate circuits. all 20 Amp for me and I'd recommend the same for you.

JB.

 

[radioman]

I second the 45 degree connections. you can always take out a tiny notch in corner of 4x4 for the conduit when doing a 45 to tuck it in further and neater so you can put things in the corner and not touch the pipe.
I also like the idea of running a main line in ceiling and drop down to where you need the power. Not a overkill at all. looks neater to me that way and it would be easier to fix/upgrade in future that way.

 

[Ford850]

I think you need to visit your local box store and look through the available conduit fittings. You have several options. The type T fittings you are describing could work for the drops, or you can use boxes that will give you more room for connections and will probably be less expensive. For the bumped out 4x4, you can use 3 Access Pull Elbows, a Flex Elbow, or a length of Flexible conduit to get you around the corner. I'd bet the access pull elbows will be the best fit.

 

[eepete]

I'm a little late to the game on this thread, but I just got some pertinent work done. So here are four pix of how I did some conduit work. I've left these as BIG images so they can be zoomed in on.

The almost done tractor garage is 65 feet from the house. It is 30' x 40', with a 10x10 door and a 12x8.5 door and a people door. I have a 100 amp sub panel in it that is fed before the transfer switch for the whole house generator. I also ran a 15 amp circuit for the lights that is on the generator side, and a 20 amp circuit so that I have one outlet when the power is out. That outlet also powers the outlets for the garage doors.
Currently I have three 20 amp circuits on the panel for a total of 4 20 amp 120V outlets in the garage.
There is also conduit for an air compressor that runs to a small adjacent structure (so I don't have to listen to it). So eventually there will be air, water, phone, security, and video surveillance. I've got lots of pix and will make a small web site when this is all done.

But for now, here are 4 big pix that show some conduit being run in a pole barn. The main idea is to keep all horizontal runs at about 12' in the air and drop down vertically to switches and outlets. After insulation is done, I can put up 4x8 plywood to the 10' level to protect all wiring and insulation (both from physical damage and UV exposure). 1st two pix looked OK on my machine, not sure why they are rotated here.

You can also see where I ran some runs behind the poles, and the last picture shows a transition from inside to outside of the poles.

Hope this helps and gives some people ideas.

Pete

 

[eepete]

Lets see if those 1st two pix are oriented correctly now...
OK, guess the site didn't like the 1.2 mbyte size, and when it squished them it lost the rotate. I cut the size back and it kept the rotate OK If I'm missing something on being able to edit, delte, or modify thumbnails attached to post let me know.