Burial of EMT

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I can't recall seeing HDPE ever. I am sure it is in use somewhere but I don't recall it.



I guess if you are trenching by hand 6 inches deep is a lot easier than 18 inches.

Yes, it is. And you've seen HDPE conduit before, it is bright orange and comes on those giant metal reels, for outside plant use typically for line boring.
 
I can't recall seeing HDPE ever. I am sure it is in use somewhere but I don't recall it.



I guess if you are trenching by hand 6 inches deep is a lot easier than 18 inches.
I just placed an order for 3200' of it - with conductors already installed in it (Cable in Conduit is what Southwire calls it). Will be running it between a well and two center pivot irrigation machines.

Plain HDPE is commonly run by communications companies (usually orange colored). But you also see it used a lot for power applications when installed with a plow or directional boring.
 
Yes, it is. And you've seen HDPE conduit before, it is bright orange and comes on those giant metal reels, for outside plant use typically for line boring.

I have seen some bright orange stuff being buried for cable TV runs along roads. I wonder if it is the same stuff. I don't recall seeing it being used for regular electricity though.
 
For Chapter 3 wiring, unless you consider it a sleeve and not a raceway, "pulling the wire" before the raceway is complete would seem to be a violation.

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When they (Fios) installed the fiber in my neighborhood several years ago, they pulled the fiber and another cable (a coax, I think) outside, not inside, an empty orange tube for future use.
 
For Chapter 3 wiring, unless you consider it a sleeve and not a raceway, "pulling the wire" before the raceway is complete would seem to be a violation.

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Would it not be the same thing as AC or MC? Wiring placed in the raceway by the manufacturer.

Chapter 3 would prohibit field installation of wiring before the raceway is complete.
 
Before I became an electrician I was a delivery driver for DHL. One day I was driving past a FiOS crew hand digging a trench and laying cable. I said to myself "this job sucks but at least I don't have to dig ditches." Shortly thereafter I joined the electrical apprenticeship and spent the next few months doing you know what. :(
 
I just remembered this: when I was a helper, we rewired the outside AC units at an apartment complex. Every one was set away from the building, every one had been wired in buried EMT, and every one had rusted EMT that crumbled like stale crackers where it still existed
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I have seen some bright orange stuff being buried for cable TV runs along roads. I wonder if it is the same stuff. I don't recall seeing it being used for regular electricity though.

Same stuff. It does not have the same OD as an equal trade size of PVC though, subsequently PVC fittings will not work on it, not that they are listed for the use anyway. I've used it for directional bore twice once an inch and a half and once in 4 in. Both were for 480 volt applications.

Handy tip: the ends of the piping tend to be oval shaped due to the weight and being wrapped around a reel. A large C-clamp placed about 6 inches from the end on the long side of the oval and a few turns of the clamp will make it circular again, necessary for the fitting to be applied.
 
I have seen some bright orange stuff being buried for cable TV runs along roads. I wonder if it is the same stuff. I don't recall seeing it being used for regular electricity though.
That most likely HDPE. Communications companies use orange mostly because that is a standard identification color for their type of utility when it comes to buried utilities identification.
 
For Chapter 3 wiring, unless you consider it a sleeve and not a raceway, "pulling the wire" before the raceway is complete would seem to be a violation.

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I didn't pull the wire it was factory installed, you still have to take off some outer covering to terminate just like with cable wiring methods.
 
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