Any electricians out there?

I am going to run power from my cabin to a detatched outside deck. I have about a 25 ft run inside, then about a 50 ft run outside. Is 12 gauge wire adequate to hold the voltage? Any advice on whether to just bury at 24″ or do conduit and bury at 18″? This will be a dedicated line with a 20 amp circuit breaker and the GFI inside in the utility room.

not sure on guaging but make sure and bury it 24 inches deep and in metal conduit. you never know if you might have to dig and finding a metal conduit is easier than digging into a hot line. besides most state laws do mandate it I believe. I bury 24″ then my shovel doesnt reach it if I dig. FF

Well,
you have some options. If you want to ever add anything to your deck I would run it in pvc conduit. And run THHN #12 guage wire. That way you can just run a fishtape through the pipe and pull more wires through. If that is the only thing that is going to be on the circuit it will be fine. If you decide to run just a 12 guage wire buried in the ground you have to go at least 24″ down and you have to us a UL listed underground wire. It is called UF for underground feeder. This stuff is harder to strip but is rated for direct buriel. If you have any more questions just post and I’ll see what I can do.
Hope this helps
Hollywood

I am no electrician but am also starting some work on my cabin. A book I have says something about you can run 12 gauge wire up to 50 feet with a 20 amp circut. You can run 12 gauge wire up to 100 feet with a 15 amp circut (maximum 1800 watts on circut).

I am running wires under ground with electrical (grey) PVC pipe, and my neighbor who is an electrician said 18 inches was code. It may depend on what type of wire you are using though??

12 gauge would be fine if it’s for general duty. I would recommend type uf, this direct burial romex that you can run in your house and underground. 12-2 is 1 hot, 1 neutral and 1 bare ground, 12-3 has 1 more hot wire included. the depth of the trench needs to be at least 18″ but if you gfi protect the wire inside the house you can go 12″ but this is only at a max of 20 amps. as stated earlier you could run it in pvc pipe. The advantages of this is you can pull as may wires as you want and this is really good if you have gopher problems. You can go 12″ deep with it being gfi protected or min. 18″ deep other wise. If you have any questions you can PM me.

Just to add. I would also suggest the PVC conduit. Its called “schedule 80″ its made to be buried. Might as well go with 3/4” and run 2 runs of 12/2 (with the bare copper ground wire) Have a spare one there for future use.

12 g is fine. Flex Plastic coated conduit is best.

Thanks for the responses. An electical contractor contacted me with a PM and offered to talk it over (how great are the folks on this site! ). Sounds like 12 ga will be fine along with Schedule 80 conduit. Thanks again