Home shop electrical needs/lighting suggestions?

[Foxfab]

I'm getting ready to wire up my house garage for temporary shop use until the new shop is built. I've already learned from my current shop that more outlets are better. I'm thinking those 4 outlet 2 gang boxes instead of just the singles. How big of a sub panel does everyone have? I currently have a 60 amp and I havent had any problems other than the plasma cutter turned up and compressor running at the same time will blow the circuit. I also will have a few exterior outlets. Any other suggestions? What types of lighting

[Brandon]

I have 4 2 gang outlets down my bench side wall (wish they were 4 gang), 2 overhead, 2 on the opposite wall, and one 220 for my compressor. My welder is only 110 so I have had no problems whatsoever. The fuse in the main breaker going to the box in my garage is a 60 amp. I have 3 circuits in the garage, 2 runs of the 110 stuff and the one 220. Your right, you can't have enough. Chances are your not going to be RUNNING them all at once so basically you can put a ton on one circuit. For lights I have 2 rows of 3 shop lights (I think) but they are on an original house circuit since there was allready a light on a switch in there.

I can't believe the garage only had ONE outlet to start with!!

[plunkinberry]

How long do you plan to stay in the garage before you build a shop? My 2 car garage had one outlet and 2 single bulb lights. I did not run a second panel, but I have run several new lines from 20 and 30 amp breakers in my main box. I ran a series of single outlets down the stud wall (bay where the work gets done) and added a 4 gang at the workbench. Additionally, I've added cheap shop lights in the bay for better light, but still end up using drop lights for under vehicle work.

I ran a seperate 30 amp 220v line for my compressor that I hope can be used for a welder in the future; if not, I'll run another line for that. I still have around a half dozen empty spaces in my main box...

How big is the garage and what types of things are you planning on doing? I'd add several shop lights along each bay so there is plenty of light. If yer gonna run a bunch of them, an additional breaker for the lights isn't a bad idea.

[Foxfab]

Well, I'm going to be optimistic and say about a year, but it'll probably go longer than that. For 220, I have the 60 gal compressor, the Lincoln SP175 MIG, and the plasma cutter, and 2 could be running at the same time but I don't see all three at the same time.

The garage is a 24 x 24 and I'll be doing everything there. I'm not concerned about the price, but I just want to get it done right the first time when I have the electrican there. Once the new shop is done, I'll probably still use the house garage for smaller work space so the added outlets will still get used.



How long do you plan to stay in the garage before you build a shop? My 2 car garage had one outlet and 2 single bulb lights. I did not run a second panel, but I have run several new lines from 20 and 30 amp breakers in my main box. I ran a series of single outlets down the stud wall (bay where the work gets done) and added a 4 gang at the workbench. Additionally, I've added cheap shop lights in the bay for better light, but still end up using drop lights for under vehicle work.

I ran a seperate 30 amp 220v line for my compressor that I hope can be used for a welder in the future; if not, I'll run another line for that. I still have around a half dozen empty spaces in my main box...

How big is the garage and what types of things are you planning on doing? I'd add several shop lights along each bay so there is plenty of light. If yer gonna run a bunch of them, an additional breaker for the lights isn't a bad idea.

[D60]

More outlets are always better. You might consider just the single boxes with two outlets per, and instead install them at shorter intervals along the wall. That way, instead of having 4 cords coming from the wall every 6 feet, you've got two cords every 4 feet, or *whatever.* But it'll work either way....

For temporary use I guess you could go 60A, but I wouldnt' consider less than 100A. During a recent large project I had the compressor running (220), the plasma going, two grinders (two other people), six 8 foot flourescents on and several fans (two ceiling and three floor) with no problems... but I suspect I was close to tripping the 100A supply.

Run 20A on all 110 outlets, the chop saw will thank you (and you'll thank yourself). Anything less than 20A is a waste of time for shop use.

I ran 50A breakers on all my 220 outlets (except the dedicated compressor circuit at 30A) with 6ga wire, the plasma requires it.

[unimogken]

I can't believe the garage only had ONE outlet to start with!!

I'm in the same boat man. My house was built in the 80's and it was common to only have one outlet at the center back of the garage.

I have been drawing up my plan for the wiring in the garage.

I will have 3 circuits also. 1 for 220v and the other 2 for 110's all over the garage.

As far as the outlets I want to have 2 in the ceiling between the bays and one at front and 1 in back of garage. I will use these for a a drop light and a drop extension cord. I will also have a weatherproof outlet for working in the driveway.

So how high is everyone putting the outlets around the garage?

[plunkinberry]

Another thought, put some outlets in the ceiling... trust me; they will become useful. I find myself plugging stuff into the outlet in the ceiling all the time.

Bigger is ALWAYS better; more electricity aint soo much more money. If you run the wire and place the boxes, etc... you can save some $$ when the electrician shows up. Be careful not to use too big a breaker... as you can overload/overheat the wires and cause a fire. You want the breaker sized properly.

[Brandon]

I'm in the same boat man. My house was built in the 80's and it was common to only have one outlet at the center back of the garage.

I have been drawing up my plan for the wiring in the garage.

I will have 3 circuits also. 1 for 220v and the other 2 for 110's all over the garage.

As far as the outlets I want to have 2 in the ceiling between the bays and one at front and 1 in back of garage. I will use these for a a drop light and a drop extension cord. I will also have a weatherproof outlet for working in the driveway.

So how high is everyone putting the outlets around the garage?

They are about 6" above my workbench on that wall, which is backed by that watchamacallit board with holes. The outlets are a bit higher on the other walls since I drilled down and didn't want to rip out the sheetrock. I have a pull down power cord in one of the overhead outlets and another on the wall against the house to connect my.. beer signs ;)

I have one outlet just outside the door on my sideyard which is where I do some of my work, and one outlet on each side of the garage door just inside. I also have a switch at the end of the run that goes to a light out front which is also on a sensor (motion turns it on but I can make it stay on with a flip of the switch).

I am in the process or running air lines all thoughout now, with a couple stubbed out the front and side of the garage, and even one through the attic to the far side of the house where I have a storage shed - ya never know.. ;)

[tsm1mt]

My mom built a shop just a few years ago. It was ICF, so no studs to deal with.. we put a single box, duplex receptable every 3'.

Everyone laughed.. "Got enough outlets, Tom?".. reality was, after I moved my equipment in and starter working... the answer was.. NO!

In that shop, I ran a 100amp feed out of the main panel on the house (had to upgrade to 200amp service first) to the shop, then ran a 60amp slave off of that to a second sub-panel. The 2nd panel was located where the welder, compressors, and powdercoat oven were. The panel saved me the cost of multiple 6-gauge runs AND was pretty convenient.

The 100amp box supplied the rest of the shop.

I bought a house last Spring, and while I hold out hope that we'll build a "real shop" at some point, I'm also realistic.. so the unfinished 34x28 the place came with is getting outfitted overkill for "park cars here".. but reality is, I'll be wrenching in this place for a good long time whether I want to or not.

So.. with that in mind... I started with a 34x28 pole building. Floating slab in 4 sections, 2x6 studs, steel siding, steel roofing, a 16x8 and 9x9 door. No power. No gas. No insulation.. just a shell.

Here's a fairly current picture.

http://tigger.tmcom.com/~tsm1/PlainGallery/shopMay2004/DCP_0041.sized.jpg

I started with just a single 20-slot 100amp box, but realized it was too small.

http://tigger.tmcom.com/~tsm1/PlainGallery/album58/DCP_0007.sized.jpg

So I added another 12/24-slot 100amp box.

http://tigger.tmcom.com/~tsm1/PlainGallery/album58/DCP_0008.sized.jpg

Here's what I have..

100amp breaker in the house box, 2-2-2-4 in 2" PVC conduit from the house into the shop. About a 30' run, feeds into the bottom of the taller box. Main/tall box is located behind the man-door.

50amp breaker in main box, 6-gauge wire, over the man-door and down the other side and feeds the sub-box.

Sub-box is my "220 box" so to speak. It has a 40amp breaker for the oven outlet, and 5 20amp/220 breakers. Those 5 feed 6 20amp/220 outlets around the shop. At least one on each wall. Last night I realized I made a mistake, and since the 'rock is all up and painted, I cut a hole in the ceiling and split one of the 20amp runs (taat's why it's 6 outlets on 5 breakers) into a ceiling jack. Ceiling jack is located right above one of the windows.

Why? DUH.. I forgot about power for an air conditioner. :D :D

I put a 20amp/220 receptacle anywhere I thought I might want to use a plasma, or put an air compressor (preferably out of the way). Might've thrown one or two in for good measure.

The main panel also feeds a 20/220 outlet or two.

I also put two 50amp 220 outlets in (off of the main box). One between the two garage doors, and one roughly across the shop from that one. I did run them off one breaker to save a slot and to save wire. I have some big bolt/clamp splice devices I'll use to tap into the first 50/220 plug and feed the second across the shop.

I intend to put my stick welder between the two doors. It has a 30' lead, so I can hit anywhere in the shop, or almost 30' into the driveway from there.

The outlet on the other end will be just above/next to my main work bench, and will be in a good spot for plugging in a 220 MIG and working on the front half of something (MIG could be moved to the between-doors outlet if needed, too).

But... let's talk 110 now...

Since every 3' wasn't enough, I first thought about double-ganging every 3-4'.. but instead, I went the easy/cheap route.

Just look at the picture above.

I put an outlet box and duplex receptacle on EVERY FAWKIN' STUD.

At least on the 3 "complete" walls of the shop. And on the one big long 34' wall, I added an outlet every 4' up high for the shop stereo, TV, computer, whatever.

All of the outlets have their tops at 48.5" off the floor.

One, if gas fumes pool up on the floor, I won't be plugging/unplugging things "in" the gas fumes (aka let's not torch the place).

Two, I 'rocked it from the bottom up, and this mean I just had to notch the edge of the sheetrock before sliding it up from the bottom and into place.

Second sheet is a full sheet, unmolested.

Where I put a top-row of outlets, I put them just over 8', so that I only had to cut the very top sheet of sheetrock, which had to get cut in half or so anyhow.

In the ceiling, I put 12 outlets per half of the shop, with a "front" half (near the shop doors) and a "back" half (near the long unbroken back wall).

I ran every 4' near the center, and every 8' near the walls.

There's one breaker for each of the 12 ceiling outlets, which are all on a switch.

What that means is I have two switches to flip to turn on all of the lights. It also means if one circuit blows the breaker, the other half of the shop still has light.

I installed 3-4 additional outlets in the ceiling on the "door" side of center. I put an "ivory" cover on 'em instead of the white everything else has (in my mom's shop, I used a black receptacle).

These are constant hot, not switched. The garage door opener plugs into one of these, and there's one on either side of my work bay, for an overhead drop-light reel and/or cord reel.

Back to the walls. Each half of a wall has 6 or 7 outlets, and is on a 20amp breaker. The top run is on it's own circuit.

The last outlet on each run isn't in the shop - it's an outside outlet.

All outlets are GFCI protected.

As I mentioned, I put a 20/220 here and there.

Between the two shop doors I also put a double-gang box and 20-amp receptacles, thinking I would be using the 110 MIG from here a bunch.

http://tigger.tmcom.com/~tsm1/PlainGallery/album58/DCP_0031.sized.jpg

In addition to all of that, I ran a gas line to the shop to supply the 200k BTU heater. It has it's own outlet and the thermostat is behind the door next to the main panel, and there's a switch on the circuit so I can disable the heat with the flip of a switch if I want to.

I also put a phone and cable TV jack behind the man-door.

A second phone and cable TV and *ethernet* jack is located in the "long wall", up high, next to the window, and above where my work bench will be.. making it a good spot for my shop computer.

Here you can see the two panels. Main on left, sub on right.

http://tigger.tmcom.com/~tsm1/PlainGallery/album58/DCP_0032.sized.jpg

In front of the sub-panel will be my electric oven for powder-coating.

I'll build a 2x4 or 2x6 frame around it, and then situate my 5hp/220/30gal horizontal air compressor *ABOVE* the oven to save space.

In the corner may end up a 6-7hp/220 60gal upright when the time comes. To the left of the oven will be the fridge, and next to that the blast cabinet.

Idea is I don't need access to this area often/much and they're not anything that'll damage my wife's Toy pickup, which will be parking there, in the one "parking only" stall, closest to the house.

The other two bays are mine.

This is also the only spot where there's enough depth between the garage door and wall to put this stuff.

One thing that's helped was before I even started wiring, I pulled up "diag" (or use Visio if you're on Winblows.. or even graph paper) and started to layout the equipment I already had and stuff I thought I'd be getting soon..

This let me decide where I was going to need what kind of power, and where to put air drops n' such.

This diagram is actually the latest revision, with the wiring stripped and the air system in place..

http://tigger.tmcom.com/~tsm1/PlainGallery/album58/garage_5_air.sized.png

Bought the house in April '03.. I'm still trying to finish the shop and get ready to move my junk from my mom's out to mine. Attic end of the air system is done, and I'm just working on roughing in the "shop space" part at least far enough to get shut-off valves installed.

I have 2 of the walls wired and done, but still have most of the ceiling to install outlets and two walls to finish (wire is there, no receptacles yet).

I did add in a used ceiling fan with light that wasn't in the original plan. Price was right (free). Mounted it sort of between the two work bays, "forward" towards the wall, also putting it not far from the work bench/desk area.

[D60]

So how high is everyone putting the outlets around the garage?

I put the bottom of my 110 boxes about 39" off the ground. Works pretty well. Keep this in mind if you're gonna have a workbench, your bench may very well block some of your outlets. You should run a separate power strip on your workbench anyway, so instead of having cords run from the wall OVER your work area the cords just hang in front:

http://www.superford.org/getfile.php?id=126357&toggle=fullsize&f=.jpg

If it's allowed in your state I'd just do the work yourself. That way you can set it up exactly how you want, and trust me, as you're doing it your plans will change. You'll learn a lot, have a better understanding of your system, and it'll be easier for you to add switches or outlets later.

Also, the outdoor outlet is an EXCELLENT suggestion, you want at least one outdoor outlet. I'm actually doing one outdoor 110 and one outdoor 220, but 220 weatherproof stuff is spendy $$, and usually only available at actual electrical supplies (ie not Home Depot).

[tsm1mt]

I have one outlet just outside the door on my sideyard which is where I do some of my work, and one outlet on each side of the garage door just inside. I also have a switch at the end of the run that goes to a light out front which is also on a sensor (motion turns it on but I can make it stay on with a flip of the switch).

I am in the process or running air lines all thoughout now, with a couple stubbed out the front and side of the garage, and even one through the attic to the far side of the house where I have a storage shed - ya never know.. ;)

I put ~2 outlets on each outside wall of my shop.

I also put a total of 6 motion lights (12 bulbs) around the shop, too. Two each on the long/low walls, and one on either end at the peak.

I'm also going to put an air disconnect out the back of the shop. I plan on "long term parking" being behind the shop, so I wanted an outlet or two, lights, and air available.

For the front/side of the shop, I have outside outlets, and I plan on a 100' air reel just inside the shop door that I can unreel if necessary.