Question for the house electricians

[pagrunt]

This weekend I came to the conclusion that I need to get power back into the garage cause its sucks not having power in there. I have to remove the old doubled up 14/2 that feeds into the unsafe outdoor exposed doubled up 14(/2?) Jerry rigged (😱) that feeds then into the classic cloth wire that ends in the glass fuse fuse box. The house side does have an up to date 20 amp breaker (when the new 100 amp service was put in the whole house got 20 amp but was rewired to 12/2 when we moved in) & my plan is to run off that breaker new 12/2 to the outside where outdoor 12/2 will hang across the driveway to the garage using the current hanging points back to regular 12/2 inside down to a new circuit breaker box with 110 circuits for interior lighting, exterior lighting/1 or 2 outlets, set of indoor 20 amp outlets, set of indoor 15 amp outlets, then one each of a 20 & 15 amp "hard wire extention cables" for certain higher demand power tools (i.e. 120 welder,my portable compressor, torpedo heater) but no 220 for time being. This is all in a planning stage right now with working the budget, see what material I have & will need, what little help from in-laws I will have. One thing I figured is the 20 & 15 amp outlets will be in different colors cause it'll be easier to know which is which by color (& I have a bunch of brown 20 amps in the basment.) From putting it off for a year & a half for good & lazy reasons I need to get this done & some guidance to do it right cause working in a dark garage sucks. Now am I on the right track to rewire the garage using what I planned out or am I thinking in the wrong direction?

 

[pontiac guy]

I think you should call in somebody. It doesn't sound like you have the skillet to do this job.
A #12 is only good for 20A total. So let's say you have 4 florescent lights each drawing 32 watts (typical 4ft T8 bulb). That's 32 x 4 = 128 watts / 120 V = 1A and some change. Leaving you 19A for your portable compressor which draws at least 15A continuous. Leaving you only 4A margin for inrush. You can't even run a radio at that point and honestly you will need more that 4 florescent bulbs to work. Plus if it's a long run you will have transmission losses.


I suggest you come out of the panel with a 50A and a separate disconnect. Put a sub panel in the garage and then pull off from there. You could get a small 220V circuit and a 15A light circuit with a couple 20A plug circuits. You can install more than 50A worth of breakers because you won't be using them all at once but a garage is a heavy usage type thing so you will have to be mindful.

If you want to get sporty, tap the meter directly and pull a new main to the garage. Put in 100A panel there and you should be solid. That's all the power a modest garage shop needs. I've never had a problem and I have a mill, welder(s), big compressor, plenty of lighting and ample plugs

 

[pagrunt]

I think you should call in somebody. It doesn't sound like you have the skillet to do this job.
A #12 is only good for 20A total. So let's say you have 4 florescent lights each drawing 32 watts (typical 4ft T8 bulb). That's 32 x 4 = 128 watts / 120 V = 1A and some change. Leaving you 19A for your portable compressor which draws at least 15A continuous. Leaving you only 4A margin for inrush. You can't even run a radio at that point and honestly you will need more that 4 florescent bulbs to work. Plus if it's a long run you will have transmission losses.


I suggest you come out of the panel with a 50A and a separate disconnect. Put a sub panel in the garage and then pull off from there. You could get a small 220V circuit and a 15A light circuit with a couple 20A plug circuits. You can install more than 50A worth of breakers because you won't be using them all at once but a garage is a heavy usage type thing so you will have to be mindful.

If you want to get sporty, tap the meter directly and pull a new main to the garage. Put in 100A panel there and you should be solid. That's all the power a modest garage shop needs. I've never had a problem and I have a mill, welder(s), big compressor, plenty of lighting and ample plugs

That's the one thing I've gone back & forth on is the feed into the gararge since it's currently a 20A that was feeding 5 LED bulbs (ones equal to regular 60 watt bulbs), my radio & usally a power tool. I wasn't sure if I could upgrade from the 20A to a higher rated breaker. If safe I would replace the 20A to a 50A Then going higher means a heavier wire (8/2) going from the house to the garage. I've evenwas thinking about running right off the 100A main but not sure on the wire needed. Then with the distance it'll be just over 150' between the house & garage breaker boxes to include the needed slack dip so I'm not sure the loss will be. I do plan on all LED lighting. Toss me automotive wire work & I'll do it, house wire work & I turn into crossed eyed idiot.

 

[kornball426]

My garage is way over powered... Has its own 200 amp service. I can't wait to move and get a bigger garage with more tools that make having that kind of power worthwhile.

 

[fleming442]

Dig a conduit in, then run #8 wire. Any idea what the total length is?

 

[Scoot-71]

150 feet is along way and it will drop your amperage available to your garage, I used 6/2 with ground, straight off the main breaker box, but my service was 200 amp, run 220 out there and get a small breaker box to feed your garage, get conduit and bury it, the other thing you can look into is getting a separate power feed right off the pole, my power company gives like 150 feet free then its $9 a foot after that, youll have to mount meter box and breaker box to code tho, I did it myself with guidance from an electrician friend.

 

[pagrunt]

Dig a conduit in, then run #8 wire. Any idea what the total length is?

Remeasured as it is right now trying to allow for some extra inches here & there & I'm looking at 90' fuse box to fuse box. One issue for digging is trying to map out drain pipes & a incomplete gas line (needs to tap into house supply) that the PO did on top of seeing how much asphalt that got buried by the dirt & rock "fix" from 40 years ago. Would rather be underground than above (current 9' lowest point as hanging) but budgeting in the end will deside for now but in the future I could always rerun it underground.

From late last night I has guided to a better direction to see what I need to do/don't do. For lighting I'll go 10A-15A instead of 20A, run 14/2 inplace of 12/2 as it'll be a light only circuit. For the breaker from the house box, I could do a 220V 30A-50A with correct gauge wire to the garage box instead of a 110V 20A breaker. For circuits (all 110V), go with 4 with one for lights, a 20A, a 15A, a proper rated one that will run the compressor or the welder when needed. Then I still need to figure out how many LED tube lights to run to ensure enough lighting. Spent my lunch digging more into this to see I'll have some more learning to do this right.

 

[Streetbu]

You NEED 220 to the garage given the distance and load you want to put on it. Stop even thinking about just running a single 110 line out that far.
I'm running a 60amp 220v subpanel in my garage and I've never had issues. I have a 220v compressor, a dozen 4' led light fixtures on the ceiling, and all of the other assorted electrical items you'd find in a garage. JMO

 

[Tomeal]

At a minimum I would say a double pole breaker in the house adequate sized wire to match the breaker and distance to the garage. Then get a panel box for in the garage, run what you need from there for in the garage. I would also consider a 200 amp panel for in the garage so if you upgrade later you don't have to re do that as well.

It will be better in the long run to pay more now rather than paying even more later.

 

[pagrunt]

At a minimum I would say a double pole breaker in the house adequate sized wire to match the breaker and distance to the garage. Then get a panel box for in the garage, run what you need from there for in the garage. I would also consider a 200 amp panel for in the garage so if you upgrade later you don't have to re do that as well.

It will be better in the long run to pay more now rather than paying even more later.

I'd love to have 200A for the garage but the house only has a 100A service. I'll have to have West Penn come out & put another transformer up as we do share it with two other neighbors. If I had the money (or have the PA Lottery sell me the correct winning ticket) I'd be looking at going 3 phase & buying all the big boy tools to make fixing junk easier. I've seen so many nice things at the shops over the years that would be over kill for a hobbiest you have to have just because.