Adding Electric Service to a shop
twotowers
| Posted in Energy, Heating & Insulation on
Hi everyone,
I am buying a home that has a 900 square foot shed that I want to weatherproof and add electrical lines for my wood working shop.
I have no idea how to run power to the shop, other than I will hire a crew to dig a trench and bury the power line to the shed.
I want to run 80 amps to the shed aff my house’s existing 200 anp electric pannel.
Do I run one 80 amp wire to an electric box that divides it into 4- 15 amp and 1- 20 amp electric pannel?
What type of wire do you think I need to buy, what do you think it would cost (I think its 200 feet from the house)? Finally what type of box would I buy for the shed?
Any suggestions that you would have if this were your project would be most helpful!
Thanks,
Jim
Replies
I've always found that doing what I know how is best.
You say you know to hire a crew to dig the ditch. Do that.
You admit you don't know how to do the wiring, so hire an electrician. Let him decide how big of a conduit to put in the trench and where it should go. Also tell him in detail what tools, lights, etc. you'll be operating at the same time and where they'll be in the shed. If you have some great idea how things should be wired, sketch it out and let him decide whether it works or not.
I've found that letting them handle such ultimately costs less. But you dig the ditch.
Thanks for the kind advise
Consider it your opportunity to determine for yourself wherre the trench will be. Arond a flower bed or such. As opposed to where someone says it'll be disregarding your wife's columbines.
Ain't noone going argue after it's already dug - unless you've introduced too many turns...
My son in law is an ELE...I asked the same foolishness.
Guess what?
Listen to Stonefever..he is most correct.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Why look here?
"Do I run one 80 amp wire to an electric box that divides it into 4- 15 amp and 1- 20 amp electric pannel?"
Let me give you some basics.
First services is figured by demaind loads, not by adding up the circuit breakers. For a home it is a little more envolved.
But for a workshop it is based on a largest combination of loads that will be run at any one time. Assuming that this is a single user workshop that might be a 3 hp 240 TS, a 2 hp 240 dust collector, plus lights.
Most wood working shops can easy get by with 50-60 amp service. If you do welding or have electric heat, etc you might need more.
You will have an sub-panel installed in the workshop. And while not always required the best option is to run 4 wires to the shop (2 hots, neutral, and ground).
Also I recommend that you get a 100 to 125 amp panel in the workshop as the smaller ones are usually limited in the number of breakers.
Assuming you are talking to an electrician let me pass on a little bit of info I learned about 25 years ago when I decided to wire my 550 sf garage for a shop. First thing was I ran conduit about waist high with junction boxes everywhere--just in case I found out my original tool layout wasn't as good as I thought. Next, and most important, I discovered that I had some of those junction boxes on the same circuit as the lights. I had about 8 eight foot fluorescent lights on the ceiling. One pedestal grinder I had (this was a metal shop) took a lot of current when starting up. Pop went the breaker and I was in total darkness (some people would say I'm ALWAYS in the dark). Well, my shins got sore banging into things in the darkened shop so I took a hint from a mechanic I know and wired little pull chain switches into the lights so I could individually turn them on or off if the main switch was on.
Cut a few lights, fire up the grinder, all was well. Should have rewired the circuitry what with the conduit being in place but.....
Anyway, make the lights in that detached shed independent of the wall/tool circuits! Pass it on. Tyr
While you have the ditch open, think about what else you might like to have run to your shop or vice versa. Extra pvc conduits for phone line to the shop - maybe even a computer network connection. Copper or galvanized pipe to run compressed air back to the house? Water line for a faucet and small work sink in the shop? Add another outdoor faucet outside the shop to water plants with?
Plan on running as many things as possible on 220 - easier starting, lower line losses in the wires to the shop and longer life for the motors. Air compressor, table saw, saw dust vacuum, air conditioner, etc... most can be wired to run off of 220. If you are certain where the table saw will end up, you might want the outlet for it put in the floor so you don't have another cord to trip over.
Good idea on the 240 feed, you might even go three-phase to the shop if you have it at the main panel -- it's only one more wire and it will allow you to use three phase motors on bigger machines.Put a 1-inch PVC conduit in the ditch for low voltage stuff like alarm wires, phone lines, TV, etc. Running a cold water line lets you add a small tankless, electric heater at the sink you will eventually realize that you need.
Great suggestions I didn't think about water and the like. I guess your saying cable for computer and phone need to be in a PVC pipe and not just set in the trench - is that true for the power lines as well , or is the wire sufficiently protected so that you don't need to put it in pipe?
Thanks!Jim
"Great suggestions I didn't think about water and the like. I guess your saying cable for computer and phone need to be in a PVC pipe and not just set in the trench - is that true for the power lines as well , or is the wire sufficiently protected so that you don't need to put it in pipe?"There are direct burial cables that can be used for power (USE) and others for telephone and cable.But using conduit gives you much more flexiblity.And if anything happens that you need to replace or upgrade or add additional just pull it.