What is the life expectancy of armour cable when put underground in soil? I would prefer to lay on the surface or clip to the wall, but I keep hearing stories about cable thefts, especially on the railways.
lol thats a gudun cotton wool. i used my mates ferret with a line in a 4inch duct 40 meters long after sum prick pulled the nylon draw wire outIn 1978 I was present when some cable laid in 1931 was dragged out the ground ..it was four massive solid copper cores each core about 15 mm x 15 mm , pitch and pitch soaked paper wrappings , bundled in more tar paper then double wire wrapped in opposite directions and treated with pitch and animal hair . The only reason it was being ripped out was that it was very very valuable ..far more valuable than the new bigger rated cable that was replacing it for it was a very pure copper conductor set.
I have bunged my 60 amp feed to the office and garage in a cheap duct 400 mm deep and concreted the paths over it think it was just over £1 a metre from a drainage contactor / wholesalers. I had 60 mtrs and three 90 degree bends
I did the 30 mm water pipe trick .. one for for the phones and one broad band ethernet connections ....suck some strong fishing line tied to cotton wool through for the pull line using a vacuum cleaner , make sure you have plenty to spare to secure it to walls and joists etc. and leave a nylon pull cord & spare cord in the tubes incase uou want to pull another cable through as well.
i used my mates ferret with a line in a 4inch duct 40 meters long...
now that was sillyWhen I was younger and dafter I ran armoured cable to the garage I just built then laid a concrete path over it - thinking that the path would forever protect the cable from damage.
A while later I had some garden rubbish to burn so I got a metal dustbin and stood it on the path (so I didn't scorch the grass), banged some holes in it and set to burning my stuff. Went indoors for some dinner when suddenly the lights flickered and went out - the heat from my burning dustbin had ruined the path and melted the cable underneath, causing an earth fault!
once watched a digger put a ditching bucket through a 33KV that was a big bang!
The deeper you go in to the ground the less oxygen so your cable will last longer.