Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Underwater Electrical Line

I'm guessing this might have been covered at some point, but I am pretty much clueless on how to search... I'm curious to get some feedback on the following idea:

I have a dock on our 12 acre lake which I ran power to when we built our house (double outlet GFCI) for running lights, battery charger for the john boat Etc. My in-laws live across the cove from us and have a boat house roughly 200 feet from our dock. My father in law would like to run power to his boat house (also just for lights / battery charger), but in order to run it from his house we would be looking at trenching through about 200 yards of dense woods (not fun). The water between my dock and his boat house does not exceed 6 feet, and we are the only people who use the lake for what it is worth.

What I would like to do is run power underwater from my dock to his boat house, but being at best a weekend electrician I am not sure if this is a smart / practical idea. I would sure appreciate any feedback you all might have to offer. Thanks!

- Cullen

Honestly a couple of solar lights would do the trick and cost a fraction of the price.

https://www.amazon.ca/Pendant-Outdoor-Lighting-Control-Powered/dp/B09V7R2DDX/ref=sr_1_11?crid=2KNV494UEAHQV&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ilBZ8GaaBBbnASFbnGitDtb3KwfaKYXfEW4ZemNBiatSr5Jw77QAdAdvuBTkQyKbVBLeRy7vBx8Bv9erfIxTSXKL6RN2VMpvjCrzet0biarTbG6ht-njoyWW96K_eq6i2FHqnKeufBI4WALAVqtQWYFKMoTWU299J5SxLl2Ii29b6PQ9mIFhkJbBS5Di_QhE49jpqmJ1Ai0Dk2inxyUln-xpN4c4crxC6itJzpscujnEPKQOBLOD_6DdzLcuZBxs9EMW1J-EZlVmvTwg44n9Xpj1rjh34P8Bhf39XCBs5-B4QGuWLdbu2h1OY6CIiZfj_ogcGhtxIAjuXyuETCO7zSdHQyWMUG4oGbL-8uKodO3flD3YOI2Bo_TE7oXiJoLSdMsOJsqW0LgB9nxhxCY_vXPhL7d1exbRT9VqL7xf3vU6bSbLdS0AhzQQkTBwQdOF.4bGeSoOOt0Ttm9qbfBtMF6SYyZLYB0VD0TeUl4K1X3k&dib_tag=se&keywords=solar+lights&qid=1739365245&sprefix=solar+lights%2Caps%2C122&sr=8-11

Since you have docks on the lake, I assume that you frequently have people on or in the water.

I am not an electrician, but I would NOT want 110V AC current running through that water. You absolutely need a certified electrician for this project. He may say your plan is a code violation, and that kind of answers your question.

Another option would be to install a power converter at your dock to change the AC to 12V DC current. Your inlaws could then run 12V lights and the battery charger at their dock. I think that might(?) be a safe alternative. I do not know if my plan would work though, since I don't know about the voltage drop for 12V DC over a 200' wiring run. All of my wire sizing calculators are only for AC electricity. I would still get an estimate from an electrician for my alternative plan, and if it is stupid he will probably immediately tell you so.

Actually, I rethought my idea when I hit "send".

I like Tinylake's idea of just running solar. I am pretty sure that you can put up a solar panel and easily run 12V lights and a trickle charger for the boat batteries.

Should be cheaper and less work than running an electrical line.

I leave my battery in my boat and run directly to a solar panel (with a charge controller regulator of course). Solar panel is mounted to side of the dock. Worked great all summer.

Thanks for all of the great feedback! I like the idea of solar - had not thought of that. Any chance those who have gone down that path could share specifics of what equipment has worked well for you and the set up?

For the simplest see my above post, you can set them up for motion detection or use a remote to fire them up for hours. motion detection you can set to staty activated for hours as well. The crappy kind only turns on motion detected lights for about 3 minutes and they drove me crazy - get the good ones. I bought 2, they do the trick and are very bright.

First, GFCI should protect the circuit from leaking electricity in the water. My story, all of our docks on the lake are over 20 years old. Most were not wired by electricians. I had my underground line to my dock cut by the sprinkler guys when they expanded my system. It was near the dock so I took the opportunity to set a post and a GFCI plug at the splice to protect downstream circuits. As soon as I turned it on it snapped. My old boathouse was wired with plain old white ROMEX and it had sagged into the water several places. Even though it worked and didn't trip the breaker it was leaking electricity in the water.

Experts now believe as many as 90% of drownings near docks are actually electrocutions. I got a new rule passed by our association that all docks had to be protected by shoreside GFCI or be disconnected from shore power. I ended up replacing all the wiring in my boathouse with underground feeder armored cable to get it to quit tripping the GFCI. I also wired it well above the waterline, although it can trip in a flood.