Ain't much of a garage to brag about...

**LEE T** · 08-29-2016, 03:58 PM

Looks like you're ready to start getting serious.
Best wishes forward

**Eds56** · 08-29-2016, 05:23 PM

Looks like you're off to a Good Start, keep moving forward and Good Luck!!

**Bluegrass Trifive** · 08-29-2016, 06:14 PM

Looks good, Nice and neat, takes a lot of discipline to maintain!

**Custer55** · 08-29-2016, 09:03 PM

Congrats on the new shop. Nice to have a place to work on your car again.
Brian

**markm** · 08-30-2016, 06:03 AM

Its a lot more than I started with, I admire your organization.

**WagonCrazy** · 12-08-2016, 10:22 PM

Update:
The house was originally built in 1947. Wood stud single story on concrete slab. Sometime in the late 60's, it got an addition, and the main electric service panel was put on the addition. That's 100 amp panel has been limping along serving the house and freestanding garage. Woefully underserved I might add, as the garage was just an extension off an existing 15 amp circuit that served both the kitchen plugs and lights. Anytime I ran a power tool out there, and my wife was using the microwave or had all the lights on....pop went the breaker.

So job 1 on the resurrection of this property is a new 200 amp panel on the house with a new line out to a 60 amp subpanel on the garage. Now I have 240v out there and can run the compressor AND welder at the same time. And still have capacity for a 120v 30 amp RV plug too. Yee haw!

Out with the old...

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And in with the new...

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We'll have this all buttoned up and stucco repaired by end of day tomorrow.

Then I can get back to work with fabrication on the Nomad project.

**WagonCrazy** · 12-08-2016, 10:27 PM

And it's all properly grounded with new rods in the ground now. That makes me feel a little better...as the grounding on the old system was suspect.

**chevynut** · 12-09-2016, 08:15 AM

Paul, looks good and that's a big project to take on. Did you run a new service cable from the transformer? Seems like going from a 100 amp panel to a 200 amp would require a larger cable if you use a larger main breaker unless it was already large enough.

When I built my house I told the electrician I wanted a 200 amp panel installed and found out when I built the shop that it's only a 150 amp service. I have added a 100 amp panel in the basement, a 125 amp panel in the old shop, and a 125 amp panel in the new shop all coming off of it. They don't have to add up to 150 amps.

**WagonCrazy** · 12-09-2016, 10:46 AM

Did you run a new service cable from the transformer?

No.

Seems like going from a 100 amp panel to a 200 amp would require a larger cable if you use a larger main breaker unless it was already large enough.

The power company (So Cal Edison) came out and verified the drops from the transformer were plenty sized big enough for a 200 amp service. I did this prior to pullng the permit for this changeout. I've had an electrician buddy doing the install. I'm not proficient enough to tackle this, but picked his brain all the way thru the project so I can learn. All kinds of code shit to deal with. Had to add bonded grounds from plumbing pipes serving the water heater over to the gas line. Had to stuff 2 eight foot copper grounding rods into the ground 6 feet apart and then bond those to the new panel.

Also a 3rd ground rod out by the garage subpanel, because the wires going to that panel (technically) don't contain a ground. Only 2 hots and a neutral (for 240v). So the box has a seperate ground bus bar that's bonded to that copper rod now.

**chevynut** · 12-09-2016, 01:41 PM

That grounding crap really gets complicated and how you do it seems to depend on where you live. Some places require you to tie neutral to ground and other places prohibit it, even though it's essentially the same thing in the end. And like you said it depends on if there's a ground at the house panel. I had to drive a rod into the ground and tie ground to it, but I think I had to connect neutral to ground in the panels in both shops, even though there's one at the house 100 feet away. I don't know why you would NOT want to do that.

**WagonCrazy** · 12-10-2016, 09:33 AM

Yes to all. The Neutral bus bar in the service panel is tied to the Ground bus bar. That is then tied to the grounding rods...

Hopefully, my system works as it should in the event of "over draw" on any individual line... That being to cause the breaker to shut off first INSTEAD OF melting a wire somewhere inside the house causing a fire...

**BamaNomad** · 12-10-2016, 10:49 AM

Originally posted by WagonCrazy

...
Hopefully, my system works as it should in the event of "over draw" on any individual line... That being to cause the breaker to shut off first INSTEAD OF melting a wire somewhere inside the house causing a fire...

The KEY to that is to make sure that you always choose your wiring to handle MORE current than the breaker on your circuit... (I always go a size larger on the wire than is recommended for safety, but that does cause more issues when installing, and more cost)...

**chevynut** · 12-10-2016, 11:31 AM

Originally posted by BamaNomad

The KEY to that is to make sure that you always choose your wiring to handle MORE current than the breaker on your circuit... (I always go a size larger on the wire than is recommended for safety, but that does cause more issues when installing, and more cost)...

Actually the wires can handle WAY more current than required by code. It takes a lot of current to fuse even a 20 gauge wire. I wouldn't recommend using a larger wire than recommended because it's a lot harder to handle and it costs a lot more with the price of copper nowadays as you said.....so why do it? You need 14 gauge for a 15A circuit and 12 gauge for a 20A circuit per electrical codes.

**BamaNomad** · 12-10-2016, 12:06 PM

You are correct Chevy nut... 14 gauge for 15A breaker circuits, and 12 gauge for 20A breaker circuits is CODE, and is sufficient for those circuits, but in my garages I've built, I install 12 gauge for all, even if I'm putting in 15A breakers on some. My reason for this is that I once bought a 'hot water/pressure cleaner' (which I love btw and always use cleaning 'new OLD cars I buy)... When I first used it, plugging into the closest outlet I had in my garage at the time, for cleaning under a car outside, after a few minutes, the 15A breaker got hot and popped. So I had find a 20A circuit outlet for that ... and later changed out that breaker for a 20A breaker (I'd wired the entire garage with 12G individual wires in metal conduit, so it was no big deal)...

In a house, 14 gauge is typically all that is used for the standard circuits, but in the garages I've built, I wire with 12G, even with the pains with terminating the ends...

Ain't much of a garage to brag about...

Ain't much of a garage to brag about...

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