First, I dug a trench from the subpanel to the yurt. Hand digging this soil is hard, and I don't put up with much of that sort of thing. But a machine wouldn't help, because of the close quarters. I got a little over a foot below grade. The specified frost depth for footings is 12" here, so I figure I'm doing fine. I laid down two runs of conduit - one to the subpanel, and one for telephone.
There are well-known ways to wire a conventional house, but they don't apply well to yurts. In a house, wires are run through the walls, through holes in studs, to boxes mounted to studs. A yurt doesn't have enclosed walls or studs, so what to do?
One option is floor outlets with covers. These cost about $50 each, and I'd want quite a few around the yurt. Also, plugging in to the floor is annoying if they're in the wrong spot - everything bumps in to the plugs.
Instead, I decided to add studs. An optional feature on the yurt is the "Snow and Wind Kit", with these parts:
- 2" x 4" studs under each rafter
- angle brackets to attach the studs in to the floor
- tie plates to attach the studs to the rafters
- brackets to attach the rafters to the center compression ring
- 2 wires that zigzag through the rafters to spread loads between them and keep them from shifting
- a screw through the lattice in to each stud
We don't get high winds through here, nor heavy snows, but those studs sure provide a convenient place to attach junction boxes.
I picked over the 2x4 pile at the lumber yard, picking some that were straight and looked nice. I bought angle brackets and tie plates to fasten the studs to the floor and rafters, but skipped the other elements of the kit.
We installed one each at 12 O'Clock, 3 O'Clock, 6 O'Clock, and 9 O'Clock. I only did 4 spots for now, to get the most bang for the buck. Later we'll come back and add a a bunch more + ceiling lights and a light switch.
EMT tubing comes up through the floor in to a metal box on the stud. Romex is stapled to the underside of the joists in the "crawlspace".
