Any of you know what gauge wire I need from the box to the garage for 220, the run is about 30 feet :confused:

this is a helpfull chart, there is a voltage drop calculator at the bottom.http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm

What amp breaker are you using? Anything over 40amps I'd go with #6

Originally posted by Mustard Dog
Any of you know what gauge wire I need from the box to the garage for 220, the run is about 30 feet :confused:

Depends on what you want to run. How many amps?

#6 would be plenty. The bigger the better.

check your box(es) and run the biggest you can fit into the lug terminals.

FYI - I ran 2/2/2/4 to get 100 amp 220 service to my shop, I think just under 120ft.

Yes, that is one more wire than needed, but this was ground buriable cable meant for mobile homes, got it at Lowe's, and got a screamin deal on some that had been returned :)

I'll be running woodworking machines, nothing over about 15 amps. The deal is my main box is flush mounted to a stuccoed wall, and it's all concrete between the house and the garage. Right now there's 1/2" conduit running from the box to the garage and I'm hoping I can fit what's needed in there. If I can't it means ripping out stucco and cutting concrete :(

Originally posted by Mustard Dog
I'll be running woodworking machines, nothing over about 15 amps. The deal is my main box is flush mounted to a stuccoed wall, and it's all concrete between the house and the garage. Right now there's 1/2" conduit running from the box to the garage and I'm hoping I can fit what's needed in there. If I can't it means ripping out stucco and cutting concrete :(

The stuff I used is well over 1" in diameter...

If you have to go into the stucco, I would suggest building an angle iron frame from the box down to the ground, and make your own remobale panel cover, painted to match the house color. This allows future access at any time, and can look decently attractive if you put a little effort into it :)

hey Eric, lets see some pics :flipoff2:

No pics, never happened ;)

FYI...I ran 20 amps and wish I'd run greater. With everything running (including the dust collector), I can trip it when I turn on the tablesaw...run the biggest you can handle ($$$, etc.-wise).

AWG 14 is the minimum for 15 amps. Be on the safe side, and run #12, which is good for 20 amps. You can easily pull 4 #12 conductors into a 1/2" conduit, but area specific codes and exclusions may not allow this. You also have to worry about box fill (how many wires/what size you're allowed to pull into a box)

Crap - I was assuming you were running another sub panel in the garage... strike my comments if you are just running 220 and no additional panel :clown:

Originally posted by mike
hey Eric, lets see some pics :flipoff2:

No pics, never happened ;)

:D :D :flipoff2:

Obviously the shop has lots of work still to go :emb:

Here's the box, we will be adding another box in the garage.

And the concrete.

You can see why I would hate to have to add another run of conduit:(

Originally posted by MR4WD
AWG 14 is the minimum for 15 amps. Be on the safe side, and run #12, which is good for 20 amps. You can easily pull 4 #12 conductors into a 1/2" conduit, but area specific codes and exclusions may not allow this. You also have to worry about box fill (how many wires/what size you're allowed to pull into a box)

Sweet, there is already #12 there for the existing 110;)

Originally posted by Mustard Dog


Sweet, there is already #12 there for the existing 110;)

You can phase your nuetral with black tape and use that as your 2nd hot if you dont want to pull new wire. Its kinda hack though.:D

12 is good up to 20 amps, so i'd say 12 for 220 woodwaorking machines. Later when you do a subpanel, you can do more

Originally posted by J-Dogg


You can phase your nuetral with black tape and use that as your 2nd hot if you dont want to pull new wire. Its kinda hack though.:D

How? There's only potential on the neutral, no actual current or voltage. How would you provide a suffiecient 120 source off the neutral?

Originally posted by MR4WD


How? There's only potential on the neutral, no actual current or voltage. How would you provide a suffiecient 120 source off the neutral?

Pull off the dead-front, take the nuetral off the nuetral bar, phase it, and attach to breaker. Now he's got 2 hots.

MD -

You could go overhead to run more power...

Jim

Ideally I would run at least a #8 wire(good for about 50 amps) to a sub panel in the garage. From there I would suggest you run dedicated cicuits to each plug. I t will keep you from having to reset the breaker every time you crank up a chop saw in there.

It is easier to overbuild an electrical system than it is to redo it 3-4 times;) BTW I did not pick up on how you were planning on bringing power to the gargage:confused: Buried conduit or cable I hope.

Originally posted by TLCObsession
MD -

You could go overhead to run more power...

Jim

We thought about that, but it's not really the cleanest/neatest rout to go:(

And voltage drop does not occur until you hit 100+ feet and then it is only 5% drop per hundred feet. You can accommadate this by upping your wire size once per hundred feet up to 600'. After that you may need a transformer.

Originally posted by Mustard Dog


:D :D :flipoff2:

Sweet :D Machines are there.. thats a good start :D