On Sun, 28 Jun 2015 18:59:16 -0500, Texas Kingsnake
wrote:


Yes, I suspect wire is going to be cheapest part of this project. I
wanted
to run a closed circuit TV cable in the same ditch but everything I've
read
says it's going to pick up interference. I don't know enough
electronics to
know for sure, but shouldn't that TV cable with 4 layers of shielding be
immune to any RF radiating from a 110 volt AC line running along side
it? I
bought a thousand feet of it so I can afford to experiment. Didn't know
they made that in burial v. indoor stuff, either until I was looking a
few
minutes ago. Not sure why I would really want a second UF 14/2 cable
because the ground's pretty stable and too tough for critters to drill
through.

We have clay and loam etc. in my part of the country. It's good crop
growing soil. We keep the rocks in our heads. Critters sometimes chew
the insulation
off buried wires. The wires can corrode and actually rot through. It
happens
to both buried aluminum and copper. Lightning doesn't help either.
I did run across one time when a badger did chew through a single 14AWG
copper wire. I've found a couple times when lightning bored a hole into
the
ground to the wire and creating an open.
This is irrigation system wiring so the underground wires can run
hundreds
of feet. One low voltage wire we use will typically have a 9000 ft.
circuit.
The odds are greatly in your favor with a 40' run.

Are gophers or mice an issue in your area?

Not unless they recently mutated. Well, mice maybe but no one I know had
complained about rodents other than raccoons and they keep to the
once-a-week garbage bins, mostly. With my luck, my new trench will find
them
all. frown

Our county went to once-a-week to save money but in the summer, it's no
fun
to live downwind of a large family with lots of youngsters that consume
Pampers by the bale. Think they would get the message if I set up a huge
pedestal fan in the yard to blow the stench back their way? smile

TKS




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