On 4 Aug 2005 17:45:17 -0700, "Stretch" wrote:

Noozer,

When I lived in Pennsylvania, we needed to bury water lines at least 5
feet deep to prevent freezing in normal winters. A couple of years it
got down to -20, and five feet deep was not deep enough. I would
suggest 7-feet deep for the water line, but ask your local water
company.


I ran my lines as per OP's post some 10 years ago but had gotten
around just this summer to hooking them up.

1. I buried them at least 5 feet deep to be below the frost line.
The cable was to code but I no longer remember what the code
requirements were. The 240V cable is the same gauge as the one from
the Electric company to my main panel. The cable was manufactured for
direct burial and didn't need to be buried in a conduit although the
code required that the ends emerging from and above the ground be
protected inside a conduit.

2. The breaker from my main panel is 40 amp 240V. It is hooked up to
a sub panel in the garage. There I have a 30 amp 240V breaker for my
240 outlets and separate regular 15 amp 115V breakers for the 115V
outlets and the lights.

3. I ran a gas line from the house to garage. The gas line had been
tested for gas pressure integrity after burial and certified. It is
not connected to any gas supply or appliance. I don't think I will
ever use this gas line as I don't think it is worth the cost of
installing a garage furnace and heating the garage. A garage costs
too much money and trouble to insulate. In any case it has a bare
concrete floor that will really absorb the heat and therefore waste
fuel. It will be a lot easier to wear warm clothes or don't use the
garage workshop if it is too cold (at times it gets down to minus 20
to minus 40 celcius here.). After all its a hobby thing.

The Provincial code allows the electrical cable to run in the same
trench so long as the electric cable and the gas line are separated by
a 2 x 4 stud along its buried length.

The electrical will need (2) #10 hots, (1) # 10 neutral and 1 # 10
ground if you are going to a subpanel in the garage. If you are
putting GFCIs in the house, they cannot share a neutral, so you will
need 2 neutrals then.

I do not know how far apart to separate the gas and electric, but I
would not bury them together without permission from the gas company.


Keep the phone lines and cat-5 away from the power, use separate
conduits.


I ran a TV coax cable as well as many phone gauge wired from the house
to the garage. These are protected inside a 3/4 inch PVC conduit
along the whole length, parallel with the buried electric cable and
gas line. I now have a working landline phone extension to the
garage. The Coax is cable TV ready. I have at least half a dozen
pairs of twisted wire spares. I can't recall what I had intended them
for other than one pair will be connected to the door chime to let me
know someone is at the house door.