As I understand, the grey UF is fine outdoors. The grey stuff is
UV resistant. Just on general principles, I'd try to bury it at
least a couple inches if possible. Or feed the wire through the
grey tubing they sell for that kind of thing. Though, I realize
that might not be practical. I'm thinking of physical damage to
the wire. Critters chewing, etc.

Does your 105 steps have a railing, where you could staple the
wire on the side? or run the grey tubing which is made for
outdoor weather proof applications?

--

Christopher A. Young
You can't shout down a troll.
You have to starve them.
..

"Toller" wrote in message
...
: Two years ago a home center when out of business and I bought
everything at
: 80% off.
: 200ft of 16/3 extension cord, electrical tape, a plug, outdoor
box, and GFCI
: outlet.
: I cut the cable in half and twisted all the insulated
conductors together;
: so I could use one length as the hot and the other as the
neutral. I then
: taped them together to act as one cable. Wired one end to the
plug and the
: other to the outlet.
: Seems to work fine. I doubt I will ever run more than 6 amps
over it, but
: wanted to reduce the voltage drop since it is pretty long.
Sadly, 16/3 was
: the largest stuff they had left.
:
: Why would I do this? I have a dock at the bottom of a 75'
cliff. I don't
: have any power there, and carrying a generator up and down 105
stairs when I
: need power is unpleasant. Now I can plug the generator in at
the top and
: run whatever I need at the bottom. Tried it yesterday and it
works fine.
: The GFCI outlet is probably excessive, since there is already
one on the
: generator, but at 80% off...
:
: I would like to run a lighting circuit off the outlet to my
boat house so I
: can put some lights on it. Can I use UF cable for that (it
will simply be
: exposed to the elements) or must I use do something more
elaborate? I will
: rarely use it, so I don't want to put a lot of money into it.
:
: Any major safety issues I am ignoring in the whole scheme?
:
: The power company wants $2,000 to run power to a the top of the
cliff; the
: breaker box and getting it down would all be my responsibility.
That, and
: the $40 monthly minimum, make my alternative seem reasonable.
:
: