Electrical to outdoor patio


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Old 06-30-16, 11:23 AM
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Electrical to outdoor patio

I am planning on putting together a patio in the middle of my yard with pavers and a retaining wall. I decided after little thought to add some lighting and audio to the setup. I have a sub panel in the garage that is 30-40 feet away, as the wire runs. I was thinking I could put two conduit out through the garage wall, one for the LV and one for the 120V. In the LV I would use either two or four conductor CL2 rated speaker cable (either two or one cable depending on conductors).

For the 120V I was going to run romex to a jbox that the conduit will connect to, and then attach via lugs or nuts to THHN that would run all the way to the patio. So then the questions would be:
  • Can I run an outlet and two or three outdoor light enclosures off of the same circuit?
  • Should I run 12ga THHN?
  • Are there any special considerations for outdoor wiring that usually get overlooked?


Thanks
 
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Old 06-30-16, 01:04 PM
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Can I run an outlet and two or three outdoor light enclosures off of the same circuit?
Yes.
Should I run 12ga THHN?
No. It must be THWN but I doubt you could find THHN. Almost all wire is dual rated THHN/THWN. The BigBox employees will often call THWN/THHN THHN though so you need to check the printing on the wire.
Are there any special considerations for outdoor wiring that usually get overlooked?
Receptacles must be GFCI protected. (Lights don't need to be GFCI protected but it is okay if they are.) Receptacles should be outdoor rated. Best to use in-use covers on the receptacles.
 
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Old 06-30-16, 01:47 PM
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I have an electrical supplier so I'll just ask them for THWN.

Thanks again
 
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Old 07-01-16, 09:00 AM
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If you GFCI protect the wire before it goes underground, you can use a 12" burial depth. Otherwise 18" is required. Code now requires plastic bubble style in-use covers on outdoor receptacles. The older style spring loaded door covers are still sold, but not code approved for in-use outdoors.

It's a good idea to keep at least 12" separation between parallel line voltage and low voltage conduits to reduce hum introduced into the audio circuit. You can do this vertically in the trench by placing the power at 18-24" depth and the audio at 6-12" depth.
 
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Old 07-01-16, 01:30 PM
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This is the cover I used last time:

5980-UCL > While-In-Use Covers > Weather-Resistant Covers > Electrical Wiring Devices > Products from Leviton Electrical and Electronic Products

Question is, do I need to use a weather resist outlet if I use the in-use cover as well as GFCI at the panel? Reason is that if I can avoid using a WR outlet I might be able to use a duplex/USB outlet.
 
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Old 07-01-16, 02:29 PM
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Yes that type of cover is good. You are still supposed to use the WR receptacles as anywhere outdoors is a more corrosive environment due to moisture.
 
 

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