Tony--
20 years ago when I put in my new well I needed to run 400 feet of #8 3 wire
from the house up the hill to the well. I looked at the price of #8 3 wire UF
cable and choked. Instead I bought a 500 foot spool of #8 wire with white
insulation and 1000ft. of black #8 wire. Cut the black in half and pulled all
3 through 400 feet of 1" PVC conduit and 45&90 bends. This wasn't as hard as
it sounds because I assembled the whole works one length at a time and the
last thing I did before covering the trench was to glue each joint starting
from one end. The extra wire just piled up at the ends as the conduit joints
closed and the conduit run reached its final length. At that point I had two
black wires at each end. Which was which? I connected one of the blacks to
the white and painted the last foot where it came out of the conduit red.
(This was allowed by the code at the time and probably still is.) Then I
walked to the other end of the wires with my DVM and the can of paint. A
continuity check told me which was the "red" wire and that one got painted
red. Done!!
Ed Weldon
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