Underground Cable conduit

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dal

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dal

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Hi so I'm going to be laying a new patio & I want to run some cable underground before the patio is laid, the cable is for 12V for RGB lights, but I want to have a number of T juntions along the route so individual cables can branch off ( one for each light ). Can anyone suggest a underground conduit suitable for this sort of thing. I know I could buy a long reel of the stuff but it's not ideal for my needs as I would have to 'break in' to it every meter.
Cheers
 
Any joint would need a pit of some description, you can't really leave tees and pull the cable.

If it's only low voltage cable run a conduit to each light back to a central point or daisy chain then so you go in to the first then from the first to the second etc returning back to the start

Why don't you just lay the cable now? You might need to rope the conduit as well.
 
I've used waste pipe for running the cabling to the LED lights and robotic mower.

I used 40mm solvent weld as I already had quite a few bits but could equally use 32mm or push fit connectors.

Just don't expect to be able to pull cables through with T junctions, they will get caught.
 
Push fit waste pipe is quite cheap so I would run a pipe in each direction - if you get bends make sure you buy the swept ones- also it's a must to put in a draw rope as you lay it to pull cables through. - if you pull a cable through also pull another rope for next time.
40mm Push fit is cheaper than solvent but you have to buy joining sleeves- you can get round that buy using 4" cut pieces of 40mm cut along length and slide them over the pipe and push next one in as well -just put a bit of tape over the join.
You can't have enough duct under ground.

PS 40mm should be the minimum you put in.

PPs - Just read your post again - you could use Tee joints but then you MUST run a draw rope from each Tee back to the start. To be honest there are loads of different ways you could do this but it would take up a lot of explaining.

One thing you could try is tying a sandwich bag to a thin rope and try sucking it through with a good vacuum cleaner. Look on youtube
 
Abyss said:
I've used waste pipe for running the cabling to the LED lights and robotic mower.

I used 40mm solvent weld as I already had quite a few bits but could equally use 32mm or push fit connectors.

Just don't expect to be able to pull cables through with T junctions, they will get caught.
Click to expand...

Thats not a bad idea actually, I reckon if I used 40mm pipe with T junctions it would be ok to pull the wire through as the wire is quite small, maybe I'll experiment with that, cheers.
 
RandomMonkeH said:
Why don't you just use the proper stuff - either 20mm or 25mm electrical conduit -you can get any type of joint configuration you require.
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Given how cheap the plastic waste pipe is & that I can get 40mm I think it will actually be easier to work with for my needs. The proper stuff would come to a fair bit in comparison.
 
Yes, bigger is easier to work with, for longer runs and lots of cables - but it depends what you are putting down it. I routinely pull cables through 20 or 25 for runs of 40m or more.

Electrical conduit is absolutely fine for a cable or two (clue is in the name). It is also designed with a wide range of accessories for jointing cables at take off points, which sounds exactly what he wants to do, so why reinvent the wheel?.
If you just want to get a bunch of cables from point A to point B then any sort of tube or duct will do. But presumably he will want to T them off with water tight connections and keep the installation fairly neat.
Conduit is usually about half the price of waste pipe.
 
I used 2" PVC water pipe & fittings, but there were no tees and only one bend. Used it for low-voltage cables, USB and ethernet. It was also only 15M long. I left a pull cord inside (just in case) and also ran an extra USB cable that wasn't needed. Has been good for the past 5 years.
 
ChrisLX200 said:
I used 2" PVC water pipe & fittings, but there were no tees and only one bend. Used it for low-voltage cables, USB and ethernet. It was also only 15M long. I left a pull cord inside (just in case) and also ran an extra USB cable that wasn't needed. Has been good for the past 5 years.
Click to expand...

15m USB cable ..... now i'm intrigued. Ethernet I get but USB?
 
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