Pulling Wire
With the entire length of conduit installed, I went Friday and bought wire. I was contemplating over pulling a string through first to get a good measurement, but ended up estimating by how much conduit I used (about 80-85 feet) and just bought 100 feet of cable. I got a good deal at Home Depot since Ace Hardware had wire cheaper, but HD does a price match plus beats it by 10%.
After thinking things over, I decided to pull the wire from the shed towards the main panel. Originally, I had thought it would be easier to pull from the house out to the shed, but decided against that. By doing it that way, Marcia didn’t have to try to get up into the attic with me.
We started by having Marcia outside the shed at the junction box and me up in the attic at the next junction box. I tried to push the fish tape from the attic out towards Marcia. It kept getting stuck about 15 feet in right where I used the flexible elbow exiting the attic and going down the side of the house. After some thought, Marcia put the vacuum cleaner on the shed end and I let it suck a string through. At that point, I tied the string onto the fish tape and she pulled the fish tape past where it was sticking. Then, we were able to hook the wire on and pull.
From there, we went outside up by the main breaker panel and fed the fish tape in again until it came out in the attic where I had just pulled the line. We hooked everything back up and Marcia pulled from the front corner of the house as I now fed her the wire from the middle point in the attic. Then all we had to do was feed about 12 feet through my big conduit on the side of the house and back feed 5 feet up into the shed breaker panel. It was about noon by then and getting really hot on Saturday. I was nice and sweaty up in the attic. Blown in insulation feels great stuck to your sweaty arms and legs.
On Sunday I was able to finish making the connections in the shed breaker panel. I still haven't hooked anything up in the main panel so we are not live yet. I also drove in the two grounding rods with the sledge hammer. That actually went in much easier than I had expected. I used the deep root watering spike attached to the garden hose to drive down the first 3 feet. With the hole started, I put the rods down in there and began hammering. Both went difficult for the middle 2-3 feet, but the last 2-3 feet hit some softer soil that went quite easy.
Now I need to get some wire to connect the ground rods to my sub-panel and make the connection at the main panel and the shed is electrified. It ended up being about 85 feet total. With a couple feet scrap at each end, my extra cutoff was only about 10 feet. I'll probably use that up wiring the outlet for the welder.
After thinking things over, I decided to pull the wire from the shed towards the main panel. Originally, I had thought it would be easier to pull from the house out to the shed, but decided against that. By doing it that way, Marcia didn’t have to try to get up into the attic with me.
We started by having Marcia outside the shed at the junction box and me up in the attic at the next junction box. I tried to push the fish tape from the attic out towards Marcia. It kept getting stuck about 15 feet in right where I used the flexible elbow exiting the attic and going down the side of the house. After some thought, Marcia put the vacuum cleaner on the shed end and I let it suck a string through. At that point, I tied the string onto the fish tape and she pulled the fish tape past where it was sticking. Then, we were able to hook the wire on and pull.
From there, we went outside up by the main breaker panel and fed the fish tape in again until it came out in the attic where I had just pulled the line. We hooked everything back up and Marcia pulled from the front corner of the house as I now fed her the wire from the middle point in the attic. Then all we had to do was feed about 12 feet through my big conduit on the side of the house and back feed 5 feet up into the shed breaker panel. It was about noon by then and getting really hot on Saturday. I was nice and sweaty up in the attic. Blown in insulation feels great stuck to your sweaty arms and legs.
On Sunday I was able to finish making the connections in the shed breaker panel. I still haven't hooked anything up in the main panel so we are not live yet. I also drove in the two grounding rods with the sledge hammer. That actually went in much easier than I had expected. I used the deep root watering spike attached to the garden hose to drive down the first 3 feet. With the hole started, I put the rods down in there and began hammering. Both went difficult for the middle 2-3 feet, but the last 2-3 feet hit some softer soil that went quite easy.
Now I need to get some wire to connect the ground rods to my sub-panel and make the connection at the main panel and the shed is electrified. It ended up being about 85 feet total. With a couple feet scrap at each end, my extra cutoff was only about 10 feet. I'll probably use that up wiring the outlet for the welder.
posted by Virgil | 4/29/2007
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