Electric to Shed

In most of Spring and some of Summer 2020, I spent a lot of time at home because of the Coronavirus pandemic. This gave me a lot of time to work in the yard and make progress on Norma's "honey-do" list. I typically tend to such tasks during the kayak/SUP off-seaon, which for me runs from November to March. But with so much time on my hands, I got an early jump on some of these jobs.

The top photo shows an electrical conduit that I ran along the garden border to the shed.




 Saturday, April 3, 2021

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Recall that on June 7-12, 2020, I built a rain barrel well. This included laying PVC pipe 70 feet from a rain box to Norma's garden. I dug a two foot deep trench for the pipe which I also used for laying 12 gauge UF-B wire for outdoor use. This wire ran from the garage to the well. About thirty feet of wire lay coiled in the well for future use. That use came on June 21-26, 2020, when I decided to complete the job.

When we bought the house in 2009, an electric line ran to the shed. But it did not work. I reached out to the previous owner and he said it hadn't worked for awhile. Rather than try to solve the problem, I figured it would be easier to start over. At least that way, I would be in control.

The plan was to run half inch PVC conduit from the well to inside the shed via a hole on the east side, just south of the double door. The wire passing through this conduit would feed an exterior double outlet on the east side of the shed, an exterior light above the door, and an interior light. Wiring would be done so that I could easily add additional outlets. All exterior components would need to be weather-resistant.
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 Easter Sunday, April 4, 2021

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At the well, I ran the electric line through half inch PVC conduit.
Electric line in well

I used silicone to keep moisture from entering the conduit. The conduit then ran outside the well and outside the garden border.
Conduit at well

In November and December 2017, I built a groundhog-resistant fence to protect Norma's 1420 square foot back yard garden. This fence is five feet above ground, about a foot underground, and has a 2.5 foot section that runs parallel with the ground to discourage groundhogs from digging under the fence. When I installed the conduit, I dug until I hit the 2.5 foot section that runs parallel with the ground and attached the conduit to the lowest part of the garden border.
Conduit running to the shed

Running along the garden border gave the conduit something sturdy to rest against. By digging down, the conduit would be covered with dirt once my job was complete. I used bricks or large stones to provide additional support for those areas that protrude further out from the garden border than other parts.

In the snapshot below, the conduit passes to the interior of the garden border near the shed before entering it just south of the double door.
Conduit entering shed

Here's a view the inside the shed.
Eletric box inside the shed

Power is sent to a Legrand tamper-resistant, weather-resistant ground-fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) 20 amp double outlet which resides outside.
GFCI double outlet

A gray TayMac MX4280S metal low-profile in-use cover protects this outlet from the weather.
Outlet cover

Load cables deliver power from the GFCI downstream to power the lights. This means that if the GFCI is tripped, then power would be shut off to both the outlets and the lights.

The exterior light receptacle is one that came with the shed when we bought the house. It wasn't getting power but it worked just fine so I wired into it.
Electric wires in shed

I set up a two-way switch covered by a TayMac PTC100GY plastic toggle cover for wet locations so it could safely be turned on and off outside. The switch resides in a TayMac PSB37550GY three hole plastic outlet box for wet locations. I applied silicone caulk around it to provide extra weather resistance.
Outlet box and switch

I installed a switch for the indoor light next to wires which control the outside light. The indoor light is a Lithonia Lighting 2LL version model MNSL LED strip light.
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Wiring on left controls outside light
Switch and wires.
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Outside light
Outside light.
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Inside light
Inside light.

After covering up everything I dug up and completing all the wiring, it was kinda hard to tell that anything was done, seventh photo, second column.

Electricity now runs about 130 feet from the garage to the shed!

The only problem I had was one PVC connection that was hard to make. Maybe I didn't work fast enough and the cement started to harden. Regardless, the two ends of conduit were not seated as deep as I would have liked. So I reinforced the connection with FiberFix. I really like this stuff.

How much did all this cost? $59 of the electrical supplies were purchased when I dug the well. After that, I spent another $165 for a total of $224 after tax.

Years later, things work fine. The only problem is that during the summer, ants like to live in the outlet box and they short the circuit. I just wait awhile and then reset the GFCI.
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