Storage Shed Power Update
The electrical part is not a concern The thing I need to understand, which I have never done before, is putting wires underground I am hoping for a website or some book something that will give me a step by step guide on how to run wires underground to the shed Is there a "For Dummies" book on this?
When I ran power out to my upper end of my yard, I used 3/4" conduit, burried. I ran 12/2/grd and used a GF breaker. Of coarse all of the bends and matching outlet boxes were necassary. The conduit and stuff glues together just like pvc plumbing pipe. It is easy. My conduit run was quite far from the foundation to the outlet; maybe 60 feet. As I glued each section of conduit together, I pushed nylon rope through and out the end of the conduit. Then when it was all put together, I used the rope to pull the 12/2/grd cable through. Since it was in a conduit, I just used standard romex wire. As for burrying the conduit, I did mine at the time my house was being built so I had access to the backhoe and used it do dig a way overkill trench about 3 feet deep. I did use an easy bend and brought the conduit up out of the dirt and ran it through the foundation above ground. That is another thing you will have do do, figure out how to get the wiring outside of your house. I used a 1" diameter masondry bit (because it's what I had) to run a short section in to the basement ceiling. From there I ran the wiring to the primary breaker box without conduit. I made one mistake.... I sealed the inside of the conduit running in to the house with expanding foam insulation to keeps the drafts and meeses out(if they could somehow get in to the pipe). That was cool until the ground settled. The "sinking" of the conduit pulled so hard on the wire that it almost tore it. I saw that because the conduit pulled apart before it elboed in to the house. I had to use a butter knife to dig all the insulation out to the point where I could pull wire slack from inside the house to accomondate the sinking. Then rework the conduit on the outside where it came out of the ground and went in to the house. That was hard. Another hint: On the inside, I mounted an on/off switch to kill power to that outlet when I am not using it. #1 for safety and #2 to keep neighbors from steeling power. Came home one day from work and the neighbors were not home, but contractors were building an addition on to their house. Their house was locked up and Richard had killed the power to his outside outlets. Well, guess where the contracters were getting their power from? A generator? Noooo!! They ran about 200 feet of cord to my outside outlets and never aksed! Those freaking outlets now only get power when I need them too. Dave