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garage wiring question

R

Ray IN

Member
My son is having a garage built right beside, but not attached to, his house. He is letting me help with the wiring. My question is: If he has several open spaces on his home entrance panel, can we just run a couple of branch circuits off that and into the garage with type uf cable under ground? Or is there some reason there has to be a whole new entrance panel for just a few recepticals, lights, and garage door opener. The garage will sit probably less than 10 feet from his house service entrance. Also, are the 4 ft led shoplights the way to go in a pole frame garage?

Thanks for the help.
 
The only code I know of from experience is make sure you use gray conduit underground and not white PVC. Dad buried white PVC under concrete one time to run a wire out like that and it didn't pass inspection.
 
Most places require a sub-panel in a detached building. Even if it's not required you'd be penny wise and pound foolish to not put one in.

Unless you're burying the cable very deep you'll need to run it through conduit to protect it from frost heaving and someone with a shovel.
 
It does not need to be in conduit all the way, use direct burial and frost sleeves on the risers.
 

You will be happier with conduit the entire length and a 60 amp sub panel in the garage .
Do not bond the ground and neutral in the remote panel.
 
If you ever need to replace it,or want to run a heavier wire though,it's best to have it in conduit. A whole lot easier than digging it up again for the few bucks that it'll cost.
 
It sounds like maybe you're only going to run 120V out there? I would at least run 240V. In a similar situation here, where I had no space in my house breaker box, I ran a #10 wire from the 30A 240V clothes dryer breaker out to an old fuse box.(Many good fuse boxes saved around here when breaker boxes replaced them in houses) I run lights, air compressor, battery charger, and 240V electric heater.
 
Yes that's what I figured--advantages of a 60 amp sub panel far outweigh the few dollars that would be saved trying to do without it. Thanks for all the replies.
 
Sinse it is only 10 feet, might as well do it right for what it will cost.

I would set a small sub panel inside the garage. Probably 50 amp would be sufficient for what you have planned and any future use.

Run 3/4" PVC conduit with the long sweep elbows, 18" deep. The advantage to using conduit, it protects the wire, and if something happens it can be repulled without digging. Pull 4 conductors, 2 black, 1 white, 1 green, all #6. Connect to a 2 pole 50a breaker in the house panel.
 
One of the local authorities wants a disconnecting means inside the garage no matter whether it is a light switch to kill the only 20 amp circuit feeding it or a main breaker in a subpanel. Personally I would put a 60 amp panel in for myself. Don't know your needs personally.
 
I agree with everything except the 3/4" conduit. Looking at a chart for the capacity of conduit, schedule 40 3/4 conduit can hold MAX 4 #6 wires. I would use 1 1/2 or 1 1/4 conduit so there is plenty of room for expansion. Wires pull easier too.
 
I would agree, run 1 1/2 or 1 1/4, much easier to pull wires and use sweep elbows.

Put in frost sleeve if the conduit is on outside of house so frost does not tear anything loose, that allow the bottom to rise and fall.
 
A lot depends on your needs. If you are just going to have a couple outlets and lights then I would with the UF wire. If you are setting up a shop I would put in a sub-panel.
 
That is what we did with my garage. It was built 25' away from the house and we installed a small sub panel for all the garage wiring. If I recall correctly there is a "main" breaker in the garage and breaker in the house to kill the power to the garage.
 

Personally, I get quite frustrated with all these building codes and regulations, but I understand why they are necessary. I have seen several do-it-yourself wiring jobs that are just plain scary. Out where I live there are not a lot of codes to comply with, and NO inspectors to satisfy other than the insurance agent. Still, I know enough to at least try to do it right, and who to ask if I do not know all the intricate details.
 
Now-a-days, not adding a subpanel will be a dead giveaway that the wiring is a DYI job. Not every potential buyer will catch it, but every buyer's home inspector and insurance agent will spot it.
 
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