Boat house wiring

[Paul]

The plan is to run a single 20A (heck it could be 15A) circuit out to a boat house on a fresh water lake up in the northern part of Michigan. The only load in the boat house will be an exterior light and a GFI outlet for the occassional power tool if needed. I figure on burying 10ga UF cable approx

2 feet deep for the 100ft run to the boat house.

Once inside the boat house, I was thinking of running BX up the exposed studs and over to the light switch and then on to the light fixture. Should I be concerned with any issues with corrosion with aluminum clad armored cable? I guess the alternative could be to continue the UF cable run inside the building stapled to the studs? Wasn't sure if critters might try and eat an exposed UF cable.

Since people in the boat house are coming and going to the beach (i.e., wet feet and hands), should I use a waterproof light switch even though it's technically "indoors" ?

TIA

-- Paul

[Doug Miller]

Perhaps, though the fact that it's a freshwater lake will certainly help.

Meets code, but, yes, there is a possibilty of critters chewing on it.

Other options include liquidtight flexible conduit, or rigid nonmetallic conduit (electrical PVC).

I sure would. It would be a good idea to have the light switch protected by the GFCI *also*.

[gfretwell]

You can't use AC cable but a "wet location" rated MC cable (most are) will work. Just be sure it enters the bottom of all the boxes. Otherwise water will wick down the cable. Personally I like the Rigid Nonmetalic conduit better. I would tail my lights off of the load side of the GFCI too, just for extra protection when relamping or if the lamp gets broken. It is not code but it is safer. I did it in my boat house. The GFCI on the receptacle is code so you are right doing that.

[RickH]

If your going to go through the sheer hell of digging a 100 foot by 2 foot trench, I would run something heavier than 10GA. Maybe #8x4 wire at the very least for all that digging effort, and a small 4 breaker sub-panel where you can GFCI the whole building at once or have a locking cutoff. Just in case you want to run more circuits later or maybe a mercury vapor security light, etc. For that matter I'd probably drop in cable TV and a phone line too, I just hate digging;)

[John Grabowski]

The boat house might be considered a damp location. In which case MC cable should be substituted for the AC (BX) cable. PVC conduit is also a good choice. I would use the outdoor switch and you might want to put everything on the GFI.

[Oren]

At the borg locate outdoor boxes for receptacles, They also have a toggle switch plate (wet areas) I used these in patio columns around my pool.

Look in the landscape lighting section. In this case I like the mention of the switch on GFCI.

Any worthy fish in this lake?

-- Oren

"I don't have anything against work. I just figure, why deprive somebody who really loves it."

[Tomes]

This is good advice as I see it. When I dug an underground electric line at the old house for an above ground pool I ran phone and cable in the same trench. Later on I hooked them both up. It would never have been there later on if I did not add those lines when the trench was there. Tomes

[mm]

Sure. Why not? Plus the GFI.

You give good reasons why.