"Afubar via HomeKB.com" u33477@uwe wrote in message
news:70f322fd8e6a0@uwe...
Hang on, before you guys get all upset, from what I can tell, what he
buried
was romex. Nothing fancy or special. And it's not the first time this
guy
has acted like he knew what he was doing, I've had him mess up an older
motorhome I was remodeling as well, I wound up re doing that, not to
mention
a few other things. I'm not blaming him, I just should have known better
and
tried to do it myself. And for the books, I'm a 53 year old female. I
often
don't know the correct name for things, but I'm not afraid to try. I've
changed the alternator in my car, it involved lowering the cardle and
pulling
a tie rod end, I've built a deck that is 10sf less than my house,
remodeled a
bath, installing a large garden tub, and last but not least, I put in a
french door from my bedroom out onto the deck. So, Please, I'm willing to
learn, teach me.
Thanks
Kaye
Okay Kaye, we need to know exactly what you're dealing with. You mentioned
Romex buried underground. If it really is Romex (NM) and not UF then you
are going to need to change it anyway. Romex is not rated for underground
use and sooner or later moisture will get inside the conductors and they
will just arc in the ground until the connection is broken.
If it is actually UF you have that is good. It is approved for direct
burial and hopefully it is at least 18 inches underground. If it is UF we
need to know what size is the wire. Is it #14, 12, 10? How many insulated
conductors are there? One white, one black, one red? Hopefully there is a
bare or green grounding conductor also. We also need to know the horsepower
of the pump and the voltage it is currently wired for. We also need to know
the approximate length of this wire from the source to the pump. We also
need to know what is at the source for this circuit. Is it at your main
panel where the meter is located? Is it on a two pole circuit breaker?
What size breaker? Pictures would be very helpful.
With good information perhaps we can advise you of a possible solution that
will be safe.
Right now based on what you have already told us I'm thinking that the whole
circuit needs to be trashed. I would suggest installing a 1" or 1 1/4" PVC
underground conduit and pull in a 40 or 50 amp circuit with four conductors.
Install a subpanel in the pumphouse and feed your pump and everything else
from that.
Chris Friesen wrote:
Multiple code and safety violations:
- The existing ground conductor is almost certainly uninsulated and
therefore
unsuitable for use as a neutral.
Valid point.
- The ground conductor at the shed would not be tied to the service
entrance
ground and could therefore be at a different potential. Google on
"ground
loop" for information regarding the dangers.
Around here (Saskatchewan) separate buildings are allowed to have their
own ground rods and a ground line is not required to be brought with the
feeders (although it is allowed to omit the ground rod and bring ground
in with the feeder lines, as long as the building doesn't house
livestock).
Looking at the online 2005 NEC, 250.32 B(2) seems to discuss this case,
in that it describes what to do with the "grounded conductor" when a
"grounding conductor" is not brought along with the supply. Am I
missing something here?
Chris
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