underground service entrance question

It's going to get water in it because of condensation. When I ran conduit for a hot tub my electrician buddy told me you can't use "ordinary" jacketed cable and to run individual conductors because of the water. Unless you seal the ends any that gets in will evaporate out. The other option is direct burial cable.

Not sure why you don't want to get permits yet because one of the inspections is to make sure the conduit is buried to the correct depth, generally at least 18". Which means you are going to have to dig out all the dirt a second time to prove it's at least the required depth. You can always (at least in this county) get the electrical underground inspection done, hook things up and then get the others later.

You might want to call your local electrical inspectors and have a chat about what you want to do and how to best proceed so you don't wind up redoing a bunch of work later.

Steve.

Good idea. I'll check with the building dept to see if they have a separate permit for the underground. I'm going to have slabs, etc over them, so I don't want any problems later. Thanks, Bill

Finding the keyboard operational bill allemann entered:

I don't see why delaying talking to the Building Dept. is ever a good idea. It just might save you an expensive mistake. You said that the meter is a the rear building and you want to bury the power to the front building. The last time I did something like this, Public Service inspected up to the panel not just the meter so they might be involved too. It wouldn't hurt to ask. Around here permits can stay open for a year so delaying filing for one isn't a problem. If they are issued a the begining of a job and they can be modfied later if needed. Bob

People are forever having plans to build something in the future, but for right now just running the utility conduits.

So it would not be an unusual request to have just your empty conduits inspected. Be sure to tell them in advance what you want to do and be sure your sizes, depth of burial, and specification of conduit are OK.

Don't cover the trench until inspected. Have the writing on the conduit facing up so they can see you are using the correct specification of conduit. And might need to run a single electrical wire along with the conduit so it can be located in the future. In some cases it would need concrete poured over it. So best to check in advance about what is required.

Best to take pictures of the area to your meeting with the building inspector along with a lot layout and a rough drawing of what you want to do. Then he can "see" exactly what you plan to do and "see" the area.

Before digging, call a locate service so they can mark any existing buried lines. This is usually free. (Don't want to dig into a natural gas line!)