Help choosing wire

[Sweetfarm]

Hi everyone. I’m hoping for a little advice. I am hiring a certified electrician to do this job for me but I’m looking to buy the wire today. I am trying to hook up an outlet for my 30 amp RV and 200 feet away from my house. I I’ve dug and 18 inch trench and plan on using PVC conduit. Here is the outlet that I have purchased. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Midwest-Electric-Products-70-Amp-Power-Outlet-Box-U041CP/202307106

I have a friend who has a couple of schools of this. Would this do the job?

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Southwire-500-ft-4-0-Black-Stranded-3E-AL-XHHW-Wire-11277115/202250399

Thanks

 

[telectrix]

volt drop will be your biggest consideration. honestly, I'd wait for your electrician before buyng cable. expensive mistake if you get it wrong. for a 30A load @ 240V 70mm cable might just cope. that converts to 2/0 if I have got it right.

 

[Megawatt]

Hi everyone. I’m hoping for a little advice. I am hiring a certified electrician to do this job for me but I’m looking to buy the wire today. I am trying to hook up an outlet for my 30 amp RV and 200 feet away from my house. I I’ve dug and 18 inch trench and plan on using PVC conduit. Here is the outlet that I have purchased. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Midwest-Electric-Products-70-Amp-Power-Outlet-Box-U041CP/202307106

I have a friend who has a couple of schools of this. Would this do the job?

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Southwire-500-ft-4-0-Black-Stranded-3E-AL-XHHW-Wire-11277115/202250399

Thanks

Sweet farm welcome to the forum and 30amps requires # 10 wire and at 200 feet my advise to you is buy 8/3 with a ground romex for voltage drop which is approved for direct burial with no pipe and if you do run pipe it would require 1 inch pipe. You can buy the wire at Home Depot for $ 2.17 a foot. If you have an electrician he should know all this, if not he is not an electrician, he is just somebody that does electrical work. Did he say he was going to draw a permit for this job ?

 

[Sweetfarm]

Thanks for your reply. I do have an electrician. He’s not the person who has the wire. I can get the wire very inexpensively and was wondering if it would work. I can certainly look into other options but none of them will be as inexpensive. The 4 gauge aluminum is $.25 a foot.

 

[Megawatt]

Thanks for your reply. I do have an electrician. He’s not the person who has the wire. I can get the wire very inexpensively and was wondering if it would work. I can certainly look into other options but none of them will be as inexpensive. The 4 gauge aluminum is $.25 a foot.

# 4 aluminum will work but it will probably be to big to fit into the lugs and it will also require a bigger PVC conduit. With the aluminum you will still need 4 cuts for 240vac with 2 hot wires 1 neutral and 1 ground. I did the math on 800 feet of 4 single # 4 aluminum and it will cost you $ 200.00 just for the wire. Good luck

 

[Sweetfarm]

Thanks! That’s exactly the information I was looking for. I suspected the wire might be too physically large. Cheers!

 

[Megawatt]

Thanks! That’s exactly the information I was looking for. I suspected the wire might be too physically large. Cheers!

Good luck my friend and hope it works out for you

 

[norcal]

Just to put things in context, 4/0 aluminum is commonly used for 200A residential services.

 

[Megawatt]

Just to put things in context, 4/0 aluminum is commonly used for 200A residential services.

norcal he was talking about # 4 aluminum wire not 4/0

 

[norcal]

norcal he was talking about # 4 aluminum wire not 4/0

I was commenting on the link in the 1st post. The 4 AWG AL spoken about later will be a good choice & will able to use phase tape to mark the conductors, rather then buying green & white conductors since 6 AWG & smaller must be colored green, or white, by code rather then taping black conductors.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Southwire-500-ft-4-0-Black-Stranded-3E-AL-XHHW-Wire-11277115/202250399?irgwc=1&cm_mmc=afl-ir-10078-456723-electriciansforums.net&clickid=SX62qiWTdxyOTPfwUx0Mo36gUki1vwyV13OYTU0

 

[Megawatt]

Sweet farm welcome to the forum and 30amps requires # 10 wire and at 200 feet my advise to you is buy 8/3 with a ground romex for voltage drop which is approved for direct burial with no pipe and if you do run pipe it would require 1 inch pipe. You can buy the wire at Home Depot for $ 2.17 a foot. If you have an electrician he should know all this, if not he is not an electrician, he is just somebody that does electrical work. Did he say he was going to draw a permit for this job ?

I always use copper and it’s not that much more money and it is not nearly half the size of aluminum and easier to work with and get your bending radius right. The only aluminum you will see in my panels when I build a service is the power company’s wire which is always aluminum

 

[Cookie]

Nothing wrong with AL. Its cheap, lighter, a bit easier to bend too.

 

[telectrix]

Nothing wrong with AL. Its cheap, lighter, a bit easier to bend too.

and lasts less than half as long.

 

[Cookie]

and lasts less than half as long.

I'm confused. AL is outlasting the life of most buildings.

 

[norcal]

Copper is the conductor of choice, but properly installed aluminum alloy wiring is fine, and a good way to control costs, if it was so bad PoCo's would not be using aluminum alloy conductors almost exclusively, the PoCo's do use compression connectors for terminating AL, but proper torque is required by the NEC, and is the key to a proper installation, no matter what the conductor material is.

 

[Megawatt]

I'm confused. AL is outlasting the life of most buildings.

The main reason the power company uses aluminum is the price since they have to probably buy maybe hundreds of thousands of feet a year and they can install smaller wire since it is in free air yes they use crimp lugs but I can’t count the times I’ve had to call them because of corrosion and not making a good connection. Obviously you haven’t had to fight much 4/0 aluminum in a small meter base. I use 2/0 copper because it’s half the size and you can easily terminate it. I wired my own home 25 years ago and still no problems. I guess it a personal choice and so much easier. Have you ever went behind another electrician who didn’t use nolox and the screws are all galded, it’s impossible to get the screws loose

 

[Cookie]

Copper is the conductor of choice, but properly installed aluminum alloy wiring is fine, and a good way to control costs, if it was so bad PoCo's would not be using aluminum alloy conductors almost exclusively, the PoCo's do use compression connectors for terminating AL, but proper torque is required by the NEC, and is the key to a proper installation, no matter what the conductor material is.

I agree. I still would like to know how AL lasts half as long. This is just not the case in the US.

 

[Cookie]

The main reason the power company uses aluminum is the price since they have to probably buy maybe hundreds of thousands of feet a year and they can install smaller wire since it is in free air yes they use crimp lugs but I can’t count the times I’ve had to call them because of corrosion and not making a good connection. Obviously you haven’t had to fight much 4/0 aluminum in a small meter base. I use 2/0 copper because it’s half the size and you can easily terminate it. I wired my own home 25 years ago and still no problems. I guess it a personal choice and so much easier. Have you ever went behind another electrician who didn’t use nolox and the screws are all galded, it’s impossible to get the screws loose

POCO wire is not the same alloy are modern 8000 series building wire. There are millions of services entrance and sub feeders wired in aluminum all doing fine, without issue most decades old.

 

[Megawatt]

POCO wire is not the same alloy are modern 8000 series building wire. There are millions of services entrance and sub feeders wired in aluminum all doing fine, without issue most decades old.

I never said that aluminum does not last as long as copper I’m just saying that it’s a personal preference comparing copper versus aluminum. I’m assuming you get all your info from Mike Holt so just ask him

 

[Cookie]

I know, but Teletrix made a comment that has me confused. I can't find any evidence of Aluminum having a shorter lifespan or being inferior in any way.

I agree its a personal preference. Both do well when torqued correctly.