# minimum depth of burried low voltage and high voltage canada



## lortech (Mar 7, 2012)

Buried cable or conduit is not in my job description since that is done by electricians and I am a low voltage tech. What I saw the other day made me wonder if this was a code violation.

I watched two guys using a simple garden turf cutter , cutting away the turf, while his partner pushed it down with a pole. Something told me this is wrong. If this was a energized wire, a gardener could be electrocuted in the near future should he force a shovel into the ground. Wire was not in conduit.

I will be stopping by the store today to inspect where this wire leads from and to, and report it to management.


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## CanadianBrad (Feb 9, 2012)

Definitely something questionable there. I'm off to look at my code book.


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## CanadianBrad (Feb 9, 2012)

According to "Table 53: Minimum cover requirements for direct buried conductors, cables, or raceways" in CEC-2009, the minimum listed depth for underground services 750V or less is 450mm, which works out to about 18", for metal-sheathed or -armoured cable and raceways, or 600mm(approx. 24") for conductors or cable not having a metal sheath or armour.

Do you know who they were or what they may have been installing?


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## lortech (Mar 7, 2012)

*Here is a pic of where it is from google earth*

The red line shows where the wire was installed. Yes, the entire perimeter of the store. It was about 3 inches deep, just bellow the grass line.

Do you think it is some kind of shopping card detection wire?


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## CanadianBrad (Feb 9, 2012)

Looks like it could be something like that, one of those magnetic(?) lines that causes shopping cart wheels to lock up when they cross, perhaps? I can't say I'm very familiar with systems like that, but it certainly seems like a reasonable guess. In that case, there's a good chance that those lines can only be sunk to a certain depth, and if that's the case, they would be designed so that there would be minimal risk should someone accidentally stumble upon them.

Hard to say too much definitively with such little information...

Good to see you're watching for stuff like that, though.

EDIT: I'd like to suggest to the mods and the OP that this be moved to the CEC discussion, as I think there will probably be a few more responses there.


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