I am putting electrical service to a outdoor shed and a chicken coop. I had outside service to a pool. The pool is no longer there. the wire to the pool was 12/2. I have wired the coop with 14/2 outside wire and I just dug a 18 foot ditch min of 18" deep. I was going to put the wires through the conduit, and I saw the wire coming from the house was 12/2. there is no way I can change that wire at the circuit box. can I use the 14/2 or do I need to change the shed and coop to 12/2?
Electrical – use of 12/2 wire with 14/2 wire
electrical
Related Solutions
Exposed ground wires are normal. In the last year I've seen a main panel and 2 subpanels approved with exposed ground wires. They were 6ga stranded.
At the shed
Grounding Electrode
The first thing you'll need to do, is to install an approved grounding electrode at the shed. For this answer, I'll assume a 5/8" x 8' grounding rod will be installed.
Bond the Mast
You'll have to bond the mast of the antenna to the newly installed grounding rod, which you'll do using a 10 AWG copper conductor. You'll attach the #10 conductor to the ground rod, using a fitting approved for the purpose. This fitting is only allowed to attach this single wire to the rod, so you can't use it to attach multiple wires.
Bonding the Electrodes
A bonding jumper of not less than 6 AWG copper (or equivalent) should be connected between this new ground rod, and the grounding electrode of the house.
Grounding the Cable
You'll want to run a coaxial cable with a built-in ground wire, from the antenna to the house. Otherwise you'll have to pull a 10 AWG grounding conductor along with the cable.
At the House
Connect the Cable
The coaxial cable should be attached to an approved Antenna Discharge Unit, before it enters the house.
NOTE: When shopping for an Antenna Discharge Unit, you'll want to look for a device that is listed to comply with ANSI/UL 452 "Antenna - Discharge Units".
Grounding
How the cable and ADU are grounded, completely depends on your grounding system. I'll cover two common methods, which should give you a good idea of how to handle it.
Intersystem Bonding Termination
The easiest method, is if your house has an Intersystem Bonding Termination. This is typically a terminal affixed to the outside of the service equipment enclosure, or a terminal on the outside of the house that is connected to the service equipment. In this case, you'll simply attach the ADU and cable grounding conductor to the IBT.
Grounding Electrode
If there is no IBT, you can connect the grounding conductors to the grounding electrode at the house.
No Intersystem Bonding Termination or Grounding Electrode
If your house is really old, you might have neither an Intersystem Bonding Termination, nor a Grounding Electrode. In this case, you can use any of the approved grounding electrodes described in the National Electrical Code article 250.52.
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Best Answer
It's perfectly fine to use the 12/2 wire, but if it's connected to 14/2, the circuit breaker needs to be 15 amp, not 20 amp, (due to the wire size of the 14 ga wire) and should also be GFCI (not due to the wire size, due to the location/use being outside)