I am building a shop 360′ from my residence and would like to have an intercom connection and a smoke/fire alarm connection between the two. I am excavating for a waterline and conduit connection in a few days. Any suggestions?
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360' is quite aways but while the trench was open i'd throw in 2" pvc to run wires in later.if you got lots of money maybe 3".thats what i run but i went 1/2 that distance.
another idea might be to buy a 400' roll of 1" poly pipe and throw it in the hole.would probably pull those few little wires without much problem. larry
how about a 10 strand direct bury phone line.
hand me the chainsaw, i need to trim the casing just a hair.
Edited 8/14/2007 12:12 am by alwaysoverbudget
"buy a 400' roll of 1" poly pipe and throw it in the hole."
Should he unroll it first?
Should he unroll it first?
Wanna have some fun? Before unrolling, cut the ends loose. Put one end to your ear and speak into the other end.
There's your intercom, no shid. Like the old ship's tube to the engine room. I don't think it'll work if you bury it though.
Edited 8/14/2007 1:25 pm ET by Hudson Valley Carpenter
I second what Larry said. Put in a 2+" PVC conduit and figure out the wire type later. The real wiring pros will be by shortly.
Bill
I throw in whatever is handy that I got cheap, such as a few TSPair, poly pipe or similar. Even have thrown in 1/4" air hose to a few sheds, easy to then put an air tank (old propane tanks of course, properly evacuated) so a central compressor can have all your buildings with comp air too. For future location if ever needed, usually put in 6" of sand over conduits, then dispose of old boards, plasterboard, car seats, broken toilet ceramic, kitchen sink, etc. in the trench - easy to find in the future.
Even once filled part of a trench with a roadkill deer - approved by county animal control.
Yes, the time to put in service protection is now when the trench is open. Some codes don't let you share low and high voltage conductors in the same conduit. Think about putting in one run of 2" light gauge PVC for phone/intercom/data/video and another run of regular electrical PVC conduit for 120/240 VAC power.
Scott.
Always remember those first immortal words that Adam said to Eve, “You’d better stand back, I don’t know how big this thing’s going to get.”
Mine is 700' down the hill, no problems. But I did discover I didn't run large enough service wire. Bought larger tools than I ever dreamed of owning.
Assuming one electric meter for both, a simple solution is X10 hardware. It uses the electric neutral to transmit from here to there. I use it for my alarm and my driveway sensor, turns on a radio in the house. Multiple receivers possible. RadioShack or ebay.
For voice, AT&T makes an intercom that uses the same wire. When I'm not in the shop it's set for sound-actuated, which also transmits the siren (or forced entry sounds) to the house. ~$35/pr on ebay.
Redundancy is good.
PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
I have a long range cordless phone with an intercom feature. I'm happy with that for communications up to 600' or so. It also has a directory, caller ID and voice mail. Two birds with one phone.
Edited 8/14/2007 10:10 am ET by Hudson Valley Carpenter
How hard do you have to throw a phone to kill a bird?Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA
Also a CRX fanatic!
Oh, good Lord, no. But I can give him two dollars and an assault rifle.