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OFOF Dan Cook Briefing Hut Electrification Project

Briefing Hut floor plan including possible location of electrical service box and 120 and 240 vac outlets.

Route for our buried electrical cable service is marked out from the building pad out around the FAA/WBS site to the pole line. Hut perimeter is outlined in the foreground. Circa 9/8/00.

Ground Wire - An 8 ft. ground rod has been driven into the ground outside the perimeter of the pad. Then a ground wire has been buried to connect to the ground rod and carried up to eventually connect inside the service box inside the hut. L-R - Terry Hodges shows the ground rod, Howard Fairbanks holds the "railroad quality" wire cutter, Joe Cook supervises while MD Short holds the inside end of the ground wire. Note the plastic conduit (rag stuffed in end) next to the ground wire. The buried service cables will enter the hut thru this conduit. Circa 9/21/00.

Electrical Cable Burial - Starts with a ditch. We hired a mechanical ditch digger and operator to dig a ditch 6" wide by 24" deep by 671 ft. long. This is a shot part way along the FAA/WBS fence about 100 ft. into the dig. Shown L-R, are Joe Cook, Gary Briley, Ron Turner, Operator Bob (?) in foreground and Bob Foster behind. 9/29/00

Next lay cable in ditch. Here we have the three reels of electrical cable loaded on an axle assy made by Bob Foster and supported by the forks attached to the bucket of Ron Turner's backhoe. Dan Cook on left, Joe Cook on right getting ready to unreel cable into the ditch.

The cables need to be pulled through the conduit on the Hut end to eventually be installed in a service box. Here Gary Briley and Joe Cook attempt to pull 3 cables through with partial success. That's the end of the cables slightly protruding from the conduit. The considerably bent up copper wire was used for the pull and suffered accordingly.

This is a shot of the conduit with an interim length of cable pulled through. We eventually pulled another couple of feet through with the use a fulcrum and a long lever. The cable has been laid in the ditch shown extending to the south.

The mechanical ditch digger left about 100 ft. of ditch undug due to the hardness of the soil in the vicinity of the head end. So Ron Turner and his backhoe came to the rescue and dug the remainder to link up the two sections already dug. The reels and forks were temporarily set down while the digging was done.

This is a long shot of the backhoe at work showing the golf course club house in the background.

We've arrived at the head end with the 3 cables all installed in the ditch and the cables are being cut to length to install into the meter box that will be mounted on a pole to be installed at this location. Gary Briley mans the hacksaw. Ron Turner and Joe Cook secure the cut ends of the first two cables (backs to the camera).

Cable is all laid and this is the service loop for the head end (PG&E transformer attach point). L-R, Joe Cook, Gary Briley, Ron Turner, Glen Lane and Dan Cook. Photo by Ray Bell.

The service loop being held over the hole where the pole and meter box will be installed. The ditch will be backfilled with sand and excavated dirt. The crew, L-R, Glen Lane, Joe Cook, Gary Briley, Ron Turner, and Ray Bell. Photo by Dan Cook. 9/29/00

The headend breaker and meter box has been installed on a pole donated by Koppers, Thank you Koppers, and the pole planted, 10/6/00. PG&E connected wire from their line to our weatherhead on 11/13/00. PG&E finally connected the meter so we had power to the hut on 11/17/00. Thank you, PG&E. And it has made the remaining inside projects much more enjoyable. :-) Photo 1/11/02

Here is the Breaker Box installed inside the Hut. The service comes in through the sweep at the bottom (same sweep seen earlier pulling the cables through). The conduit on the left feeds: Circuit 1) the south wall receptacles (including a GroundFaultCircuitInterruptor in the first one) and the first receptacle over the sink (coffee pot station) and Circuit 2) the east wall receptacles (first one is GFCI), the hot water heater receptacle behind the sink and the two east lights (one inside and one "porch").
The conduit on the right feeds: Circuit 1) one south (west) wall receptacle (GFCI) and two west lights (one inside and one "Porch"), one west inside recept, one west outside recept, and the buried line to the Donor's Wall recept and light and then to the Terry's Glen receptacles, and Circuit 2) the center two light tubes of the south row, Circuit 3) the center two tubes of the north row, Circuit 4) the outer two tubes of the south row and Circuit 5) the outer two tubes of the north row.
There are two 120v GFCI receptacles on the right below the panel powered from the bottom (red) 120 breaker and one 220V receptacle on the left powered by the double (black) breaker at the bottom. The breaker box was installed circa 10/24/00. Photo 1/5/01

Here is a shot of the Breaker layout. The top, black one, is the main 200A breaker on the incoming service line. Below that one on the left are the two red 20A breakers for the south and east side receptacles and service lights. Below on the right are two black and two blue breakers, all 15A, that control the overhead lights, then the top red 20A breaker that controls the one south (west) side and west side receptacles, Donor Wall recept and light and Terry's Glen recepts. The bottom right red 20A breaker controls the two GSCI recepts directly below the box on the right. The two large black 30A breakers on bottom left control the 220V receptacle directly below the box on the left. Appropriate permanent labels remain TBA. Wiring was completed circa 12/21/00. Photo 1/5/01

This is the forklift that has been loaned by the Richter Bros., Thank you, Richters, for the project and has proven to be extremely useful to high up operations such as installing the north wall, lights, and the DES among other duties. The scaffold allows the worker to do his thing in relative safety with plenty of room to move around and also store supplies and tools to be used at height. Photo 1/5/01

The overhead lights in the Hut consist of two banks of five each, four bulb fluorescents fixtures donated by Ray Bell. Each bank is wired to allow the inner rows to be turned on separately to conserve power when desired.

Here is Dan Cook driving the Ditchwitch making the route for power to Terry's Glen and water to the SW corner of outside the Hut. Ron Turner works the shovel while Joe Cook leans on one.Photo 3/28/01

Here is the exit point for power coming from the Hut and going to T's Glen. Howard Fairbank's works the shovel. The ditch continuing to the right goes to the location of the new faucet at the SW corner.3/28/01

At the Terry's Glen end we installed a power outlet and wired AC power to our sprinkler timer box that was previously battery powered. Completed 4/7/01

On the way to Terry's Glen with the power, we tapped off a branch to this receptacle and light for the flag. The flag light has a photo-sensor so, in good weather, we can leave the flag flying and it stays lighted at night.4/7/01

Here is Old Glory flying proudly in the light of the new flag light.4/7/01

Last Updated 1/13/02