Best way to make an underground wire splice?

[Kamaski]

The lamppost base is set in concrete with the wire so making the junction at the lamppost is not possible. And where the wire goes into the ground is under a concrete slab so running a new wire isn’t really possible either. There might be enough play in the wire to get it in an above ground box, I’ll have to see. How long do those direct burial splice kits with the heat shrink tube last? 5 yrs? 10yrs? 100yrs? Are they just as good as the wire itself or a signifificant weak point.

[davida03801]

CadWelds work good, but that is a commercial solution.

[watchwolf49]

@Kamaski

The lamppost base is set in concrete with the wire so making the junction at the lamppost is not possible. And where the wire goes into the ground is under a concrete slab so running a new wire isn’t really possible either. There might be enough play in the wire to get it in an above ground box, I’ll have to see. How long do those direct burial splice kits with the heat shrink tube last? 5 yrs? 10yrs? 100yrs? Are they just as good as the wire itself or a signifificant weak point.

You might want to consider having these new lamps on a new circuit … and this is well into the “qualified electrician” types of projects … your new wire will start at the service entrance and be on a separate breaker … if you can find enough play in the existing wire, great … if not, hire an electrician …

The EPCO product I looked at for the heat shrink method claims “No penetration after 236 hrs (min) of continuous immersion” … as a rule of thumb, all connections are significantly weaker than the wire itself … although this may err on the side of caution, and there’s nothing wrong with extra caution in matters electrical …

[Tim_T-Bonham.net]

@watchwolf49

You might want to consider having these new lamps on a new circuit … and this is well into the “qualified electrician” types of projects … your new wire will start at the service entrance and be on a separate breaker.

That might be a good solution. But you could just connect this new UF cable to the same breaker in the panel (assuming you aren’t overloading it). That would save the cost of an additional breaker (and, often more important, finding an empty breaker space).

[Snnipe_70E]

@Kamaski

The lamppost base is set in concrete with the wire so making the junction at the lamppost is not possible. And where the wire goes into the ground is under a concrete slab so running a new wire isn’t really possible either. There might be enough play in the wire to get it in an above ground box, I’ll have to see. How long do those direct burial splice kits with the heat shrink tube last? 5 yrs? 10yrs? 100yrs? Are they just as good as the wire itself or a signifificant weak point.

Is the wire set in the concrete? Or does it pass through conduit that is set in the concrete?

[Kamaski]

Yeah the wire is in the cement.

[watchwolf49]

@Kamaski

Yeah the wire is in the cement.

My guess it this installation didn’t consider any expansion … and there may be good reasons for that … I don’t know … it would probably be a waste of time to check at your local county seat to see if an electrical permit was pulled for this … either way your safest option is a new circuit (or tap into an existing circuit) … and presumably a qualified electrician will do the job so that it can be expanded at some later date …

Perhaps the lesson here for everybody is to not be afraid of added extra wires where expansion is possible … I once ran 10-guage romex to a gas heater to run the little fan … simply so someone in the future could replace the gas heater with an electric one … and not have to fool with running the correct wire to it … pretty smart if you asked the electrical inspector …