Question on 12v landscape light wiring up a tree???

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jango

jango

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Can I get some to chime in on the approved method(s) for installing low voltage direct burial landscape light wiring up a tree for low voltage lighting which is attached to large branches on the tree? Can this wiring just exit the earth/trench and run up the surface of the tree trunk and be secured to the tree itself? ...or is there a requirement for a certain distance of the low voltage wire going up the tree to be protected somehow? Any feedback on this subject would be greatly appreciated....
 
jango said:
Can I get some to chime in on the approved method(s) for installing low voltage direct burial landscape light wiring up a tree for low voltage lighting which is attached to large branches on the tree? Can this wiring just exit the earth/trench and run up the surface of the tree trunk and be secured to the tree itself? ...or is there a requirement for a certain distance of the low voltage wire going up the tree to be protected somehow? Any feedback on this subject would be greatly appreciated....
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If it were not LV - I would say it's not allowed to use vegitation... But in my personal experiance from my own back yard - bury a loop of cable at the base of the tree - they grow!
 
e57 said:
If it were not LV - I would say it's not allowed to use vegitation... But in my personal experiance from my own back yard - bury a loop of cable at the base of the tree - they grow!
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At low or line voltage you are permitted to attach wiring to a live tree. You cannot span from one tree to another.
 
infinity said:
At low or line voltage you are permitted to attach wiring to a live tree. You cannot span from one tree to another.
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Seems you're right! Apparently with an exception for holiday lighting in chapter 5... But IMO still a bad idea for say conduit... And would personally opt out of say 120 UF or PVC or even EMT due to the fact that at some point it will get damaged by a weed wacker or just natural growth...

e.g. I have a LV light in a tree over my BBQ - it's grown enough in 5 years to pull the cable apart - and suck the staples through the jacket insulation.
 
e57 said:
Seems you're right! Apparently with an exception for holiday lighting in chapter 5... But IMO still a bad idea for say conduit... And would personally opt out of say 120 UF or PVC or even EMT due to the fact that at some point it will get damaged by a weed wacker or just natural growth...

e.g. I have a LV light in a tree over my BBQ - it's grown enough in 5 years to pull the cable apart - and suck the staples through the jacket insulation.
Click to expand...

So based on any NEC requirements, it sounds like it is perfectly acceptible to have the low voltage wire run exposed on the surface up the tree from the ground up without any armor or protection???
 
jango said:
So based on any NEC requirements, it sounds like it is perfectly acceptible to have the low voltage wire run exposed on the surface up the tree from the ground up without any armor or protection???
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Subject to damage depends on wiring method and interpetation...
 
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