OT-Underground electric

For a grain setup do you need 200 or 400 amps? Going to be a thick wire, don't skimp. An electrician should set this all up for you, sometimes you can find one that allows you to do some grunt work & then he does the finish of it. A lot of details on grounding & depth and bonding aluminumn to copper, etc., you need to please your electrical inspector, the electrician will avoid mistakes & might save you money.....

Triple aluminumn direct burrial wire is likely the way to go. It will be very thick - but far cheaper than copper. 4" trencher, go 2 feet deep (or whatever local needs) and should be good to go.

--->Paul

And remember to keep that wire out of sight or some scum driving past may decide he has found more to sell as scrap.

If conduit ever gets water in it, it will never dry out, but we had one place with direct buried that had had the line chewed up by gophers...

On our new lines, we've been putting it in conduit, but cutting small drain holes on the bottom of the lowest lying pipe and trying to put it on a sandy or coarse gravel bed for drainage...

Also, with conduit (at least on shorter runs), you can pull the cable out and replace it a lot easier...

Howard

I put a bit of underground in for my shop, the smallest MCM size I think, anyways, what a pain, the electrician was pickier than the inspector. It was direct burial rated armoured / tech cable since the gray PVC conduit had gone up 6 fold in price from my first estimate. He wanted 5 feet deep, foot of graded sand in all directions around it, warning tape 2 feet above that.

Originally he wanted concrete poured around it!!!!! !!! I asked why and he said well in case a backhoe was digging there. I said I'd be pissed if a backhoe was digging my yard up for no reason.

I put in an underground 220 VAC 100 amp service to connect my solar electric to my house six months ago. Using aluminum URD cable was almost half the price of using copper even though the aluminum needs to be larger gauge. The PVC conduit wasn't an issue at all, it was cheap.

Buried cable can't carry the same amps as free air, but most services up to 200 amps are not a big problem. In my area now, almost all household services are underground now.
I've seen many that run over 1000 feet, but those are high-voltage with a step-down transformer.

But if it is spread out a little you may want to go ungerground for say the dryer or bins to the contol panel.

The main service line would most likly be best coming in underground.

Are you doing it yourself? If not your electrician will do it the best way.

Gary

I'd look into an electrician, just from what you said here..... Bet he ends up saving you money, aside from getting it safer.

Be careful.

--->Paul

Brett

Gary

I've investigated and testified on numerous auger to power line contacts, mostly for widows. 7200 kills rapidly, sometimes explosivly.

Gerald J.