Almost anything will work. Obviously you want to avoid insulated steel. Copper is fine. Even 18-20 gauge solid is fine as long as it does not get broken. Copperweld, copper over steel is good. Just bring it to the surface at both end. When it comes time to locate just ground one end. Even a clip cord and screwdriver is good enough for that. I think the stuff we have on our cable plow is copperweld with a thick orange insulation. Anyone that sells duct and fiber normally sells the normal tracer wire. But short runs in a residential project, just get some 14 gauge THHN.
From: Forrest Christian (List Account) Sent: Monday, January 9, 2023 9:28 AM To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group Subject: [AFMUG] Direct bury tracer wire reccomendations/experience. I'm working on doing specs for a project (home) which will require burying new water and sewer lines on the property. I'm tired of not being able to locate these after they're buried so I plan on having the contractor bury some tracer wire along with the plumbing. I've learned that the best option for things like this is to either spec or provide exactly what I want buried. Otherwise you'll end up with some inexperienced contractor which installs something which won't work. Apparently the choices for tracer wire are far more varied than I had expected. Insulation, metal type, gauge, color, and so on. It looks like 14AWG copper HMWPE might be what I'm looking for. But there are other options as well. Does any of this work better or is less (or more) likely to be damaged in a way which makes it untraceable? I'm assuming green and blue will be needed for sewer and water. I don't think the following will apply, but there is also the possibility that at least one of the lines won't terminate at one end anywhere that we can poke the wire up above the ground (tapping into existing line) I'm assuming that one can resolve this by laying a ground rod in the trench and terminating to that. Any other things I should watch for here? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- AF mailing list AF@af.afmug.com http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
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