Bare or Insulated - Ground Wire ... a slight twist

[Zwy]

So, would it be acceptable to use green stranded 6 AWG THHN/THWN2 for this purpose? As noted, it would be totally shaded at all times.

This I can get easily ... sigh ... following all the rules can certainly be difficult ... and mind-numbing

#6 THHN is perfectly fine. Eventually the insulation will deteriorate due to UV rays but then it is just a bare #6 wire above ground.

I'd love to be able to "re-identify" wiring. I have two 120-ft lengths of PV wire (red / black) that I could use for this.

Whoops ... just realized that they are 8 AWG instead of 6 AWG. I don't suppose I could use 8 AWG for for this ... could I?

4AWG and above can be re-identified.

 

[Steelart99]

Would USE-2 wire be suitable for outdoor and direct burial?

I wanted direct burial to avoid issues should the grounding wire come in contact with the ground. USE-2 seems okay for Aerial (outdoor ?) and direct burial.

 

[Steelart99]

Bump

 

[ricardocello]

Would USE-2 wire be suitable for outdoor and direct burial?

I wanted direct burial to avoid issues should the grounding wire come in contact with the ground. USE-2 seems okay for Aerial (outdoor ?) and direct burial.

Yes you can use USE-2 for direct burial.
I recommend you get USE-2 that is also listed as RHH / RHW-2 so it can be used indoors or outdoors

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[Steelart99]

Yes you can use USE-2 for direct burial.
I recommend you get USE-2 that is also listed as RHH / RHW-2 so it can be used indoors or outdoors

USE-2/RHH/RHW-2 Copper Wire | WireAndCableYourWay.com

We stock XLP/USE-2/RHH/RHW-2 Copper Wire in a variety of gauge sizes. Most of our SKUs are sold by the foot and in bulk. Order today for fast shipping!

www.wireandcableyourway.com

Yeah, that is the exact wire I was planning on. Already in my cart.

 

[ricardocello]

Yeah, that is the exact wire I was planning on. Already in my cart.

I went back to the beginning of this thread and looked at the nice trenching you did.

Most people here prefer to run conduit instead of direct burying wire due to critters eating the insulation.
I think that's probably overblown, there's lot of direct buried cable out there.

Nevertheless, you might consider running some additional conduit above the direct buried stuff for future expansion.
The trenching is the hard part.

 

[Steelart99]

Ha! I did put 1-1/2” conduit in and pulled all my wires through it.

Then backfilled, packed the soil, put in a Mylar warning tape about 5-6” below ground level and packed another layer of soil on top to ground level.

Almost 500’ of trenches including a non- solar trench to my barn. I went through two trenchers. The first had engine issues. The second blew off the trenching chain twice. I probably did more maintenance on those machines than they’ve ever seen.

Under the panels I put in discontinuous conduit, mostly to protect the wiring should someone dig around there in the future. So, some of my wires come off the panels, into a weatherhead, down a vertical conduit until about a 8-12” underground. From there, the wires go in two different directions and immediately back into different pieces of conduit traveling over to another row of panels 10’ away. Convoluted, but the wires are “direct burial” for about 6” during that transition.

Whew!!

 

[Steelart99]

Well, I'm waiting on my 6 AWG ground wire to arrive on Monday ... along with the snow ... sigh.

That said, I have all the other wiring installed short of the final 5-ft run to the combiner box. I ended up needing an "extra" 150-ft of wire since apparently purchasing "only" 20% extra did not suffice.

Some pics showing what I meant with running my wires in "discontinuous conduit".

 

[Zwy]

I prefer a weather head with a drip loop. My underground conduit is sealed so more wire can be pulled later. I mount a metal box at the array to transition from PV wire to THWN in the conduit.

I do not see an EGC to the array. This is required.

 

[Steelart99]

I prefer a weather head with a drip loop. My underground conduit is sealed so more wire can be pulled later. I mount a metal box at the array to transition from PV wire to THWN in the conduit.

I do not see an EGC to the array. This is required.

Good point on the drip loop. I had that planned but simply pulled the wires a bit tight; easy to rectify.

The conduit shown above is just what is directly under my panels that I put in to keep the mess down when joining up all the panels. My main run from the array to the garage (inverter, battery) is 350-ft of 1-1/2 conduit to support any future runs. My combiner box at the array is where I transition from PV wire to THWN. All the wire used under my array is rated for direct burial.

EGC wire is showing up tomorrow and was a planned part of my installation. Gotta work around the snow storm coming in tomorrow night ... sigh

I do appreciate your input; it's always too easy to miss things.