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Garage: Electrical wiring resources


tannji

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Finally getting to the point of reclaiming my garage, but need to replace 80 year old wire-on-insulator technology = ) Power company is coming in a couple of weeks to drop 200-amp service and a meter, I need to have the wiring and box ready for them to connect to. Anyone know of any online source of diagrams and guides? I am basically familiar with the concepts, but I want to do this right and be able to pass an inspection should I need to at some point. I plan on hanging several stategic fluorescent panels, along with plenty of outlets and a boom with a hanging outlet from the center. there will be 3 220 outlets on one side for welding, Air compressor and whatever else may come. I am also making some wheeled pods for fluorescent lighting for the floor.

So... just looking for a wiring version of HybridZ, I suppose.... does it exist??

thanks,

 

tannji

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I found a number of DIY user forums when I was searching for info on how to wire my hot tub. Might try a google search for the same. Came in pretty handy when I miswired my GFI.

 

Better yet would be stopping by Homers or Lowes and getting one of the Reader's Digest books on home wiring. There are a lot of details to fill in.

 

You also realize that most counties require a licensed electrician to pull the permit for a job of this size. If you aren't licensed then there is a good chance you will fail the inspection even if everything else is right. I am a little suprised the electric company agreed to turn on a main panel without a permit and someone with a union card on the other end.

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good deal on the Digest guides... forgot about those. As for the wiring and permit, I intend to do it, either solo or with help according to code, then get someone in to rubberstamp it for the permit needs. It is commonly done around here, and apparently only offends the union ;). Things are a little backwards and casual here it seems... my last housing appraisal by the city for taxes consisted of a 30 second conversation on the sidewalk in front of the house... and I voluntarily let them know that the house had a finished basement and a room in the attic, which the property had never been taxed for in the past. The guy even asked me if I wanted that noted in his report, giving me the option to repair the financial damage I was self-inflicting, lol. So, I intend to do it all by the book... I just prefer not to pay by the book, if you follow me...

 

tannji

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My opinion Get an electrician to put in the meter pan and breaker panel. You are probably going to havae to redo the mast and feed to the breaker panel. If you still got knob and tube in there hope you aren't feeding from the house main. After that it is pretty simple if you can tell black from white. Be very careful with grounding. inadequate grounds can cause enough voltage difference to kill you. only takes around 50 mils to punch your ticket. Use gfi circuits where you are using electric hand tools could save your life. The 120 circuits use black for hot and white for ground. 220 both legs are hot black and white the bare copper is your ground. 14 ga wire pull 15 amp only. 12 ga 20 amp, 10ga 30 amp you can get table from the web on for higher amp sizes. remember romex staples to tie it down. usually want a staple about 6 inches from outlet box.

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Good stuff.... I was already intending on paying the extra for the GFI outlets and dont intend to use anything but GFI. The garage has power strung from the house, original wiring with bi-pole insulators. There is no mast or box in the garage, lol. Fortunately, this only powers a fluorescent light and the garage door opener. The plan is to drop service and meter for the garage for now, then in the spring, run a trench from the garage to the house so I can eliminate the overhead power line from the pole across the yard to the house. This will also allow me to run some Cat-5 to the garage... tho I am not certain how far away from the power line the Cat-5 should be.... I have seen a lot of networking problems end up being EMI from power sources or lines. At work, (welding supply house) They lost all their hard drives do to an ill-advised attempt to TIG some hardware in the showroom down-stairs.

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IT'S Not white for ground on 120 volt single phase, WHITE IS NETURAL NOT GROUND !! Neutral is the grounded current carring counductor, they are differnt. BE CAREFULL!! Run your cat 5 in metal conduit if your putting it in the same trench as the electric or get shielded under ground cat 5 if you can.That should keep out unwanted stray voltages(inductance) and noise.Don't forget to run cable and phone wires in the trench , You need TV and phone in the garage!! When you do the house you will need 4 wires seperate isolated neutral and seperate ground.

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I just finnished wiring my garage and the inspectors said they had seldom if ever seen as nice a job, before you start get a copy of your local specs and follow them, if you don,t understand ASK QUESTIONS,

every last outlet was in conduit, grounded and tested, every group of three, dual 110 volt outlets was 20A rated, on a seperate ground-fault circuit and breaker and 10 GA minimum wire

 

get a larger box than you think youll need, theres ALWAYS extra runs and breakers being added later....and you can run sub boxes in some cases

 

the 110 volt stuffs a no-brainer

hot =black,gold screw

neutral =white, silver screw

green =ground green screw

 

you need to ground the metalic box the outlets in to the ground in the main box and ground rod

the whites go back to the neutral bar in the box

blacks to the power lug on the breakers

greens go to the ground bar in the box,(I had a seperate ground going to each leg terminating on each box in a series and a unique seperate ground to each outlet,(you may not want to go that far but I refuse to do things less than the best I can)

again follow the local specs and don,t cut corners the aggravation durring inspections or in use from doing it cheap/sloppy and potential problems far far out weight the cost in time and materials

 

 

http://www.passandseymour.com/pdf/U077.pdf

http://www.passandseymour.com/pdf/U013-U020.pdf

 

http://www.sigmasystems.com/Techdoc/Tech_Docs/SigmaPowerPlugs.htm

http://leviton.com/pdfs/d-503/d-503T.pdf (see page 21)

http://www.danielwoodhead.com/pdf/139-172/163.pdf

 

http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/tpl/cgi-...i_html/apb.html

 

 

btw this may help, most garages need a welder or a lift, sooner or later so youll more than likely need a 220 volt outlet (30-100amp)

 

this wiring stuffs not hard to do, but use the correct gauge wire and the correct plugs and sockets for the application and ID strongly suggest useing a MINIMUM of 10ga wire for 110volt and 3/4" metalic conduit (use the correct single breaker rating for the application on the 110 volt)

110 v outlet end

black/power to the gold screw

white/neutral to the silver screw

green/ground to the green screw

 

110v at the box

black/power to breaker

white/ neutral to neutral bar

green/ ground to ground bar

 

and 4 GA on the high amp 230 volt applications,like WELDERS, little 230volt stuff like compressors and lifts get along fine with (4) 10 ga wires (use the correct dual breaker rating for the application on the 220 volt)

 

220v at the outlet

red feed to one hot

black feed to one hot

green to ground on plug

(optional but HIGHLY RECOMENDED)

second green to the conduit ground screw

 

220v at the box

red to one side of DUAL breaker

black to one side of DUAL breaker

green/ ground to ground bar

optional green/ ground to ground bar

 

the main fead comes into the main breaker, now youll probably need three or four leads

yeah the wires themselfs are ALL usually black but identify each circuit and use color tape

 

green ground

black=1 power lead

red=1 power lead

white=neutral

theres usually a second short green 3 gauge ground dirrectly to a 10 foot long copper ground rod on the outside of the building within a few feet of the main box location and a short run to the water pipe ground with a 4 gauge and clamp, I ran two 10 ft ground rods plus the water pipe ground

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Wow!! I get a grumpyvette post!! LOL, thanks bunches for the suggestions... I dont intend to cut many corners, in fact, I really only intend to cut some labor cost. Still pricey stuff... materials seem to have gone up a bunch since the last time I wired anything... and I havent done anything this big or all-incompassing. Should be pretty straight=forward tho, like most things its minding the details that counts.

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Sounds like you did a nice job.A little over kill. On a 20amp 120volt circuit. #10 is rated for 30 amps.#12 is rated for 20.unless your doing long runs over a couple hundred feet it's unneeeded and hard to get in the boxes unless deadicated circuit.over a couple hundred feet you start to get voltage drop so up sizing the wire helps.A 20 amp breaker is going to trip with 20 amps weather You use #10 or #12 wire.But if you use #10 wire and you need to up grade for some reason you can to a 30 amp.Double ground rods are being required now at 6 ft apart.But grumpyvette is right get the specs first ask inspecter what he wants.It will save a lot of time.

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