120 volts at the well house

[giles]

How hard is it to just run another wire from the panel? Seems like this is getting overthought. Safest way and then it has its own dedicated circuit. Could be handy to have an extra plug out in the yard also. Use it for the light on the flagpole you didn't know you were putting up. Lol

 

[Clay Showalter]

So how are you establishing a neutral?

The ground rod, but keeping it separate from the ground coming from the panel.

 

[Wildlife]

It's no wonder that any of us old timers made it up to this point in life because back in the day, there wasn't three wires pulled to every outlet, or device and/or unit within a home, garage, barn, so on and so forth.

Yes, just like everything else in life, things do change, and usually for the better for a wide variety of reasons.

Look, our totally enclosed wellhouse was built in the late 1960's below ground level and later electrically wired for a well water pump, cabin and outhouse.
When I first moved here in the autumn of 2015, top on my list of things to do was to get rid of all the old electrical double pull lever, screw in mogul base 30amp fused disconnects inside the wellhouse, plus nothing had any kind of a ground wire connected to them.
Afterwards, I installed a 100amp electric subpanel that I already had within my inventory and grounded everything to the main water line, not to an outside ground rod.
Then I installed a brand new 240v 40gal electric hot water tank inside the wellhouse. That subpanel continues to feed the cabin and the outhouse as well still.
I shared some photography of the work completed in a previously unrelated TOO thread. Hyperlink below if at all interested in checking it out.

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Now, the current service wire for all of that stuff is a 10/2UF cable. The ground wire within that cable is connected to the main neutral bus at the main panel, and then to the new subpanel neutral bus within the wellhouse.
Not exactly what I actually need, but manageable for the time being because a complete replacement would call for a new 130' ditch to be dug to the main panel.
When I go to build our new home, that's when the entire place will get rewired up to today's standards. Each of the five out buildings will also have there own subpanel. Until then, what you see below is how I have it wired today within our wellhouse, and yes, it's much safer and functional than ever before.

Am I afraid of a fire or any kind or an electrical shock? Hell fucking no! Water makes a much better path to earth than I, always.

Hope you get it your electric issue all straighten out, Clay.

Good luck!

 

[Isaacorps]

The ground rod, but keeping it separate from the ground coming from the panel.

So still no neutral. Copy. You do you

 

[Jackalope]

Gonna piggyback on this thread @Isaacorps @giles

I need to run a circuit out to a pool. About 120 foot. Just a 120v 8.5a pump. Per code I think it has to be a single plug GFCI with a switch. I'm also going to branch off to a convenience outlet that's 20 feet from the pool. All enclosed boxes with required conduit at the ends 18 inches down.

The ground is sand with no rocks. The question is do I go sched 40 and pull three single strand 12 gauge. Or just do direct bury UFB?

Thanks.

 

[giles]

With pipe, it makes it easy to replace if ever needed. It also makes it so you hit it, and not the wire when digging. I would weigh the difference in prices and realistic future plans for the yard. Personally, I don't think I would ever direct bury electrical wires. That's a personal choice though.

 

[Jackalope]

With pipe, it makes it easy to replace if ever needed. It also makes it so you hit it, and not the wire when digging. I would weigh the difference in prices and realistic future plans for the yard. Personally, I don't think I would ever direct bury electrical wires. That's a personal choice though.

Yeah that makes sense. Since I have to hand dig this how about this. Apparently you can go 12 inches with UFB if it's GFCI at the feed. Since I have to gfci anyway, how about UFB in sched 40 at 12 inches. Kind of best of all worlds there I think.

 

[giles]

Yeah that makes sense. Since I have to hand dig this how about this. Apparently you can go 12 inches with UFB if it's GFCI at the feed. Since I have to gfci anyway, how about UFB in sched 40 at 12 inches. Kind of best of all worlds there I think.

A little extra on pipe size or another set of wires wouldn't hurt either. That way if you ever want to add a bug/kid zapper you can. Or watch some football while floating around. Place to charge a Bluetooth speaker. Place to plug in a saw while you build the deck. You get the idea. Like building a barn, do what you can afford, it'll get used.

 

[Jackalope]

A little extra on pipe size or another set of wires wouldn't hurt either. That way if you ever want to add a bug/kid zapper you can. Or watch some football while floating around. Place to charge a Bluetooth speaker. Place to plug in a saw while you build the deck. You get the idea. Like building a barn, do what you can afford, it'll get used.

Makes sense. I plan to branch a convenience outlet off the pump plug to another post 20 foot from the pool. The pump plug has to be a single switched outlet. The pump motor says 8.1amps. So a 15amp 14 gauge would work, but I'm going to go with a 20 amp run to allow for the convenience outlet. I'll plug the kid zapper into that plug for the top of the fence.

 

[Isaacorps]

I agree with Dave, it would be a rare occasion that I used direct burial. I’ve seen it go bad way too much. Also a downside to running UF in the conduit is that it’s much harder to pull in additional wire down the road if you want/need to. Go with single conductors and suck in an additional pull string and you’re good to go. As far as depth, I’d go 12” in conduit GFI protected at the source and call it a day.