How advantageous is having electricity to your coop?

[lazy gardener]

That's hardly any load or distance to run. I'd just use some direct bury 12-2 with a ground and put it on a AFCI breaker. Unless your ground is like mine with lots of tiny sharp rocks then I would run THHN inside of 1/2" PVC conduit.

JT

tHANKS.

 

[Scarlet Girl]

Thanks folks for your replies, all very helpful.
Distance is about 100 foot, so doable going by your posts, sounds like worth doing purely for the winter alone!

 

[Scarlet Girl]

Hey Scarlet, what part of Atlantic Canada are you from? My wife's family is from Pubnico, NS. We had a fun visit up there this past summer.

Hi NorthGeogia, I'm on the Eaatern Shore, NS, moved from the UK seven years ago & we love it here!
We've still lots to see, not been to Pubnico yet, we hear it's a lovely part of NS.

 

[jthornton]

Thanks folks for your replies, all very helpful.
Distance is about 100 foot, so doable going by your posts, sounds like worth doing purely for the winter alone!

Yea 100' is nothing to fret about, you can use 12 awg wire and pull a full 18 amps out there no problem. So 18 amps at 120 volts is 2,160 watts...

JT

 

[ewerbos]

Wow, this thread is almost making me regret that we didn't run electric from the house! Our chicken coop is about 300 feet from the nearest electric (box by pool equipment), so we ended up going with a couple of deep cycle batteries and just managed to get a 150W solar panel up. 300' of trenching (including an easement with some kind of buried drainage line) was pretty intimidating, and the solar seemed more accessible for the little power we need (we just have an itty bitty 30W heated bucket in the coop right now, plan a few LED lights and an rpi for future). It still cost a few hundred dollars, though, pretty evenly split between the batteries and the solar panel.

If it was only 100', though, I probably would have just run an extension cord... Sketchy as that might be.

 

[jthornton]

I would not hesitate to run 300 foot of extension cord for a bucket heater. No worries about voltage drop with a resistance heater. When I used to do commercial wiring we would keep adding temporary lights until the breaker tripped then take one off. Never had to worry about snow covering up the wire...

JT

 

[Folly's place]

We ran an outdoor electric cable in conduit above ground to our coop, about sixty feet, obviously not up to code, until our farm insurance company sent an inspector out to inspect our buildings, etc, from an insurance point of view. So it was included in his report, and we fixed it! Now buried line, all to code, with everything checked out.
Find out what's code where you live, rent a trencher, and bury that line!
Mary

 

[NorthGeogia]

I'm the King of re-purposing junk into chicken coop stuff.
But electrical is one area you should do correctly. There are a lot of commercial poultry farms in my area. I've seen one of their buildings go up in flames from an electrical fire. Very scary!
I lived in Pennsylvania where someone electrified wires to keep birds off his grapevine. His neighbor's child climbed the wire to get some grapes and was electrocuted. The child died and the owner lost everything he owned in the subsequent lawsuit.
I know it may be a pain in the backside, but if you're going to electrify, it's worth it to spend the time and money to run it to code.
(Just my opinion).

 

[ewerbos]

I would not hesitate to run 300 foot of extension cord for a bucket heater. No worries about voltage drop with a resistance heater. When I used to do commercial wiring we would keep adding temporary lights until the breaker tripped then take one off. Never had to worry about snow covering up the wire...

JT

Three+ 100' extension cords would also be pretty pricey! I also feel better about the 12V wiring vs. 120V for fire safety.

 

[Chickassan]

I'm not an electrician but no matter what source anyone goes with i cannot stress using conduit enough! Not a flimsy plastic either, something sturdy and chew proof. Conduit from beginning to end, no plastic outlet boxes metal with covers are going to be your best friends. Does not hurt to install a ground rod either. Mice will love your electric system and so will inscects so do it the very best you can. Even if it is just extension cords, still stick those suckers in a pipe!