John Pollman
Member
- Messages
- 1,338
- Location
- Rochester Hills, MI
Hi gang!
I've seen a couple electrical questions here lately and saw some pretty detailed answers which leads me to believe that we have some electricians on board. Well I've got a question.
I'm not an electrician but do understand the basics and can change out fixtures, switches/outlets, etc. I've wired an addition on my house so I can do a lot of this stuff but I don't work with it every day so it takes me a while to figure it out by myself if I've got to wade through all of the codes and such. Maybe someone here will know what's required and save me a lot of research. Here's what's up.
Probably ten years ago we built a detached garage at my fathers house. It sits back probably fifty feet from his house. We decided to add power later on after it was finished. Probably five years ago, we dug a trench and installed some conduit and wire in preparation for wiring the garage. We finished that phase of the project but it was late in the season and we decided to finish in the spring when he got back from Florida. Well as usual, things came up and we never got back to it. For the past five years, he's been using a long heavy duty shore-power cord he used to use for his boat. That's getting to be a pain and besides that, I hit it with the snow blower the other day when over there clearing the drive! Luckily I just nicked the outer insulation and there was no damage. After that close call, I decided that it's time to get this project FINISHED. He's in Florida until May but I'd like to get it done for him before he gets back.
We pulled a set of #10 and a set of #12 wire in the conduit. One for the supply and he wanted another set thinking that he might want to add a switch so he could control some flood lights out there from the house. I think he has an unused 30A double pole breaker in the service panel in the house. I was thinking we could just use that to feed a 30A 220V circuit to the garage. I only need three or four circuits in the garage. I'd probably put the lighting on one, outlets on another, and a 220 circuit for his compressor.
Hooking the wire into the service panel in the house is no problem, but I need to know what kind of a box I need in the garage. I can buy a 60A six place sub panel and install that. But I'm thinking that I need a main breaker. The problem is that the smallest main service panel I'm going to be able to get is a 100A. I don't think that I could connect that large of a panel with #10 wire. I can get a 30A disconnect and run the wire to that and mount it next to the 60A sub panel and feed the sub panel from the disconnect. Would that be feasible?
Again, I'm sure I'm capable of doing this wiring but I just need to know what the setup should be. It will take me a while to figure it out and I may miss something if I just start going through the code book. Oh yeah, a couple ground rods is no big deal either. I'll put those in too.
Thanks for any input you may have!
Take care and have a great day.
John
I've seen a couple electrical questions here lately and saw some pretty detailed answers which leads me to believe that we have some electricians on board. Well I've got a question.
I'm not an electrician but do understand the basics and can change out fixtures, switches/outlets, etc. I've wired an addition on my house so I can do a lot of this stuff but I don't work with it every day so it takes me a while to figure it out by myself if I've got to wade through all of the codes and such. Maybe someone here will know what's required and save me a lot of research. Here's what's up.
Probably ten years ago we built a detached garage at my fathers house. It sits back probably fifty feet from his house. We decided to add power later on after it was finished. Probably five years ago, we dug a trench and installed some conduit and wire in preparation for wiring the garage. We finished that phase of the project but it was late in the season and we decided to finish in the spring when he got back from Florida. Well as usual, things came up and we never got back to it. For the past five years, he's been using a long heavy duty shore-power cord he used to use for his boat. That's getting to be a pain and besides that, I hit it with the snow blower the other day when over there clearing the drive! Luckily I just nicked the outer insulation and there was no damage. After that close call, I decided that it's time to get this project FINISHED. He's in Florida until May but I'd like to get it done for him before he gets back.
We pulled a set of #10 and a set of #12 wire in the conduit. One for the supply and he wanted another set thinking that he might want to add a switch so he could control some flood lights out there from the house. I think he has an unused 30A double pole breaker in the service panel in the house. I was thinking we could just use that to feed a 30A 220V circuit to the garage. I only need three or four circuits in the garage. I'd probably put the lighting on one, outlets on another, and a 220 circuit for his compressor.
Hooking the wire into the service panel in the house is no problem, but I need to know what kind of a box I need in the garage. I can buy a 60A six place sub panel and install that. But I'm thinking that I need a main breaker. The problem is that the smallest main service panel I'm going to be able to get is a 100A. I don't think that I could connect that large of a panel with #10 wire. I can get a 30A disconnect and run the wire to that and mount it next to the 60A sub panel and feed the sub panel from the disconnect. Would that be feasible?
Again, I'm sure I'm capable of doing this wiring but I just need to know what the setup should be. It will take me a while to figure it out and I may miss something if I just start going through the code book. Oh yeah, a couple ground rods is no big deal either. I'll put those in too.
Thanks for any input you may have!
Take care and have a great day.
John