My Barn..... Finally !!!

[EddieWalker]

Good to see some more pics of the place and hear that you're back at it!!!

Eddie

 

[jimmyj]

Wow, that's not a barn, that's a palace. I think you should move it to my place right away!!!!:thumbsup:

 

[crazyal]

Check with some of the local electrical supply stores for prices. I was able to get one size larger main wire for less than what Lowes and HD wanted.

 

[scott_vt]

Good Evenin Guys,
Eddie, Jimmy and Al thanks for your input !

In my previous post I meant to say Im using 14/2 for my lighting, sorry...

Any electrical guys out there ?

What I have been told so far is that #2 URD would be sufficient for the 150 ft run from where the power comes into the house, meter etc, to run to the barn.

I will only be using one or two machines at a time, plus lighting so Im thinking this would be sufficient... any thoughts on this ?

Im thinking the biggest power draw would be my 220 v 3 hp Unisaw and my 8" joiner running at the same time, plus lighting, oh and maybe a small beer refrigerator !

Your thoughts welcome !

 

[crazyal]

I used 1/0 wire and used conduit where it's buried in the ground even though it's direct bury wire. I put a 100 amp breaker in my main panel that feeds a sub panel in my garage. If I remember correctly 2 awg wire was large enough but I got the 1/0 for $1.09 a ft last summer (think HD and lowes were $1.19 a ft for 2 awg). If I remember correctly it was only $.10 cheaper a ft for 2 awg at the electrical store (I bought 120 ft) so it cost only $12 more.

A rule of thumb for wire is 14 awg is for a 15 amp circuit and 12 awg is for a 20 amp circuit. If you are going to have a 100 amp circuit you really need to have the correct size wire so if something happens and you draw the full amount of power the wire will handle the power.

 

[dcyrilc]

Good Evenin Guys,
Eddie, Jimmy and Al thanks for your input !

In my previous post I meant to say Im using 14/2 for my lighting, sorry...

Any electrical guys out there ?

What I have been told so far is that #2 URD would be sufficient for the 150 ft run from where the power comes into the house, meter etc, to run to the barn.

I will only be using one or two machines at a time, plus lighting so Im thinking this would be sufficient... any thoughts on this ?

Im thinking the biggest power draw would be my 220 v 3 hp Unisaw and my 8" joiner running at the same time, plus lighting, oh and maybe a small beer refrigerator !

Your thoughts welcome !

I used 1/0 wire and used conduit where it's buried in the ground even though it's direct bury wire. I put a 100 amp breaker in my main panel that feeds a sub panel in my garage. If I remember correctly 2 awg wire was large enough but I got the 1/0 for $1.09 a ft last summer (think HD and lowes were $1.19 a ft for 2 awg). If I remember correctly it was only $.10 cheaper a ft for 2 awg at the electrical store (I bought 120 ft) so it cost only $12 more.

A rule of thumb for wire is 14 awg is for a 15 amp circuit and 12 awg is for a 20 amp circuit. If you are going to have a 100 amp circuit you really need to have the correct size wire so if something happens and you draw the full amount of power the wire will handle the power.

#2 copper is reated at 125 amps when used for service entry. #4 copper is rated at 85 amps. For a 150 foot run, you should be fine with the #2 copper.

Can't say about aluminum as I never use it and I don't have a code book handy.

 

[scott_vt]

If I remember correctly 2 awg wire was large enough but I got the 1/0 for $1.09 a ft last summer (think HD and lowes were $1.19 a ft for 2 awg). If I remember correctly it was only $.10 cheaper a ft for 2 awg at the electrical store (I bought 120 ft) so it cost only $12 more.

.

#2 copper is reated at 125 amps when used for service entry. #4 copper is rated at 85 amps. For a 150 foot run, you should be fine with the #2 copper.

Can't say about aluminum as I never use it and I don't have a code book handy.

Good Evenin Al and Cyril,
I appreciate your input, and the more I think of it, plastic conduit sounds like a good idea, even though its direct burial !

Hopefully by later june I can get the trench dug ansd install that feeder cable ! Im going on vacation next tuesday and will be gone 11 days so everything will be on hold for awhile !

 

[dcyrilc]

Good Evenin Al and Cyril,
I appreciate your input, and the more I think of it, plastic conduit sounds like a good idea, even though its direct burial !

Hopefully by later june I can get the trench dug ansd install that feeder cable ! Im going on vacation next tuesday and will be gone 11 days so everything will be on hold for awhile !

Have fun on vacation.:thumbsup:

 

[scott_vt]

Have fun on vacation.:thumbsup:

Good Mornin Cyril,
Thanks ! Five days in Anguilla, most beautiful beaches I have ever seen, and then the rest in St. Martin, should not be too hard to take !

 

[crazyal]

Good Mornin Cyril,
Thanks ! Five days in Anguilla, most beautiful beaches I have ever seen, and then the rest in St. Martin, should not be too hard to take !

Take a picture of your tractor piling up that snow with you, trust me it'll make those beaches feel that much nicer.

Copper is nice but it's just too expensive for me. Things you need to remember are:
Copper conducts electricity better so you must use a larger size Al wire. I think for 100 amp service #2 Aluminum is fine yet distance does play a factor.
When using Al wire you should use an anti oxidant coating (it's cheap) on the bare wire.
When using Al wire you need to make sure that the connections on the sub panel and breaker in your main panel are approved for Al (I don't think you could find a new one sold today that's not but if you're one of these people who pull stuff out of the barn that hasn't seen the light of day in 50 years you could run into a dissimilar metal problem).

One of the reasons why I went with one size larger wire is that when figuring out the correct wire size you must include distance from the transformer. For me I had to use 350 MCM wire for 200 amp service because the transformer mounted on top of the electrical vault is quite a ways from the house. Normally 4/0 would be used.

I'm not an electrician but from my understanding is you want no more than a 3% voltage drop for service wire coming into a main breaker panel and a total of 5% for a sub panel for the maximum current rating. If in doubt you can hire an electrician to size it correctly or if you are pretty sure that you have the right size then do like I did, step up a size and know for sure (like I said it was an extra $12).

 

[Ductape]

Good Evenin Al and Cyril,
I appreciate your input, and the more I think of it, plastic conduit sounds like a good idea, even though its direct burial !

Oversized conduit , with a couple nylon ropes run through along with your wire. Should you ever want to run something else out to the shop in the future..... the ropes are there to pull it through. Just food for thought.

 

[scott_vt]

Oversized conduit , with a couple nylon ropes run through along with your wire. Should you ever want to run something else out to the shop in the future..... the ropes are there to pull it through. Just food for thought.

Good Mornin Scott,
Good idea thanks ! Are you thinkin 3" conduit ? That seems like it would be sufficient.....

BTW, last official act before vacation, put the front lights up, made up some filler boards with the cutouts for the junction boxes, just in case we ever side the building...

 

[dcyrilc]

Good Evenin Al and Cyril,
I appreciate your input, and the more I think of it, plastic conduit sounds like a good idea, even though its direct burial !

Hopefully by later june I can get the trench dug ansd install that feeder cable ! Im going on vacation next tuesday and will be gone 11 days so everything will be on hold for awhile !

Something I have always done and recommend to others is to put an underground pull box at each end of your run. This allows you to begin a new run later from the pull box without having to create a new building entry if you want to run another circuit to another location. I'll see if I can remember to get you some pix later to show what I'm refering to if you're interested.

 

[scott_vt]

Something I have always done and recommend to others is to put an underground pull box at each end of your run. This allows you to begin a new run later from the pull box without having to create a new building entry if you want to run another circuit to another location. I'll see if I can remember to get you some pix later to show what I'm refering to if you're interested.

Thanks Cyril,
No rush its gonna be a few weeks before I get that trench dug and run conduit, but if you come across them please post, for my benefit along with others that may be contemplating the same thing !

 

[crazyal]

Good Mornin Scott,
Good idea thanks ! Are you thinkin 3" conduit ? That seems like it would be sufficient.....

BTW, last official act before vacation, put the front lights up, made up some filler boards with the cutouts for the junction boxes, just in case we ever side the building...

I ran the wire in 2" pvc conduit, rule of thumb is the wire should make up no more than 40% of the volume in the conduit. I also ran a second 1" so I could run wire for the garage door opener and phone line. 2" and 1" (or even 1 1/2") is cheaper than a single run of 3". Plus it's better to separate the high voltage and low voltage lines out.

 

[dcyrilc]

Thanks Cyril,
No rush its gonna be a few weeks before I get that trench dug and run conduit, but if you come across them please post, for my benefit along with others that may be contemplating the same thing !

I'll try to remember to get you some pix. I picked up this habit from 26 years of building traffic signals. Everything we do is with PVC pipe and junction boxes. Adopting it at the farm has really helped with adding new stuff later. Some of which has been 20 years later.:laughing: Sure beats digging new trenches over an existing run.

 

[scott_vt]

Good Mornin Guys,
We finally got the trench dug and the supply line out to the barn ! I used a local contractor who did a great job and was very reasonable to dig the trench. It was about a 150 ft run, that we dug approx 2 ft deep. We layered the bottom of the trench with sand, ran the 2" conduit and wire, and then another layer of sand on top. All the digging along with two dump truck loads of sand was only $300.

On the down side we did manage to dig up the phone line, which I thought was on the opposite of the driveway, when it was not ! Your best bet is to have a neighbor call the phone company, and just tell them you have lost your dial tone, dont say anything about excavating ! The phone guy that I got was great, and had us back on line in short order !

I had a licensed electrician hook into the power on the house and make the run out to the barn. All the electrical materials were $330 and he charged me a flat fee for the hookup of $200. It was a few bucks but its done...

The phone guy informed me that all of the coaxial phone cable will be replaced with fiber optic within the next 1 to 1 1/2 years, so I did not run phone cable out there at this time. He suggested a good cordless for the time being if I needed a phone out in the barn. Also the phone line comes into the other side of our cabin so its actually closer to that side of the barn.

Hopefully in the next few weeks I will get the rest of my circuits run, along with some lighting.

Here are a couple of shots of our excavation...

 

[JDGreenGrass]

Good Mornin Guys,
We finally got the trench dug and the supply line out to the barn ! I used a local contractor who did a great job and was very reasonable to dig the trench. It was about a 150 ft run, that we dug approx 2 ft deep. We layered the bottom of the trench with sand, ran the 2" conduit and wire, and then another layer of sand on top. All the digging along with two dump truck loads of sand was only $300.

On the down side we did manage to dig up the phone line, which I thought was on the opposite of the driveway, when it was not ! Your best bet is to have a neighbor call the phone company, and just tell them you have lost your dial tone, dont say anything about excavating ! The phone guy that I got was great, and had us back on line in short order !

I had a licensed electrician hook into the power on the house and make the run out to the barn. All the electrical materials were $330 and he charged me a flat fee for the hookup of $200. It was a few bucks but its done...

The phone guy informed me that all of the coaxial phone cable will be replaced with fiber optic within the next 1 to 1 1/2 years, so I did not run phone cable out there at this time. He suggested a good cordless for the time being if I needed a phone out in the barn. Also the phone line comes into the other side of our cabin so its actually closer to that side of the barn.

Hopefully in the next few weeks I will get the rest of my circuits run, along with some lighting.

Here are a couple of shots of our excavation...

Boy, you got the right machine for that job.:thumbsup:

Good looking trench.

 

[bindian]

Scotty,
Just finished reading this thread. Nice view and nice barn. Any updates?
hugs, Brandi

 

[scott_vt]

Good Afternoon Guys,
I finished all the electrical and the insulation, plenty of insulation downstairs and up...

As you can see in the picture Ive got the stove pipe in. As you can see in the picture the uninsulated section of pipe is above the finished ceiling height, which I understand is a no no...

The pipe kit is Selkirk, those pipe sections are screw interlocked. Im figuring that the insulated pipe section needs to be at least a foot below the finished ceiling height ??? Any thoughts on this...

I have alled Selkirk on the phone and never did get an answer, just a run around bouncing from one person to another.

In the installation instructions all they show is acceptable distances from insulated pipe to framing joists...

I have since framed that section around the pipe in, to the instructions, giing at least 2" clearance to the 8" insulated pipe.

Thank for your input !