100 amp service to barn. wire size4/12/2024 The guys putting up the 36 ft x 50 ft pole barn shell did trip that breaker a few times while running their larger saws and stuff though. My small 110 volt air compressor and buzz box welder also work well on it. I have yet to trip that 15 amp breaker with all of those on, while running a 3/4 hp band saw and a 2 hp shop vac. Currently, there are only (3), 4 ft LED lights, and a garage door opener/light out there. The sub panel will also have to wait until that time. When and if I retire from my day job, I might have time for some bigger projects / equipment out there, that will require more power than the single, direct bury cable on a 15 amp breaker that feeds the pole barn now. At this point, it is there for "future needs". I buried the 2" conduit in 2019, when I was doing the site work. But when the wires are exposed, like going up to to the lights, I put my romex inside conduit. Mostly I run my wires through the walls and then cover up the walls with plywood or OSB, so you don't need conduit. You are not supposed to run Romex through conduit. It's easier and cheaper to use 14 gauge wire, so that's what I always use for lights. 15 amps is plenty for lights, especially LED's. 20 amps means 12 gauge wire.įor you lights, you want to run them on their own breaker. Most tools will run fine on 15 amps, but a few will use all of that 15 amps and you might start tripping breakers when you get really busy in there. Usually one for a welder is enough, but if you never plan on welding, you don't really have to have a 220 outlet.įor your wall outlets, 20 amps is better then 15. Once you get power to the sub panel, then you have to figure out how many 220 outlets you want. Since you might be new to this type of work, you might want to hire somebody to do this for you. You have to decide how much power you want to pull from your main panel and buy the correct sized wire to do this. When and if I ever need more power out there (for a big compressor or welder or something), I will run more power thru the 2 inch conduit from the 200 amp service in the house.įirst thing you need to do is create a sub panel inside the barn. It looks like there is lots of reasonably priced electrical boxes, etc for that 1 inch PVC at Home Depot. I have hundreds of feet of that 1 inch gray PVC, and boxes of fittings for it. That didn't pan out, because it kept blowing out. I have a bunch of that, which an ill informed maintenence man used for air lines at a former employers shop. My plan is to use 1" gray PVC conduit for a "proper" job of the interior wiring. With modern LED lighting, that single 15 amp circuit has been working ok, but running everything on extension cords is getting old. I have been getting by ok with a single direct-bury, 15 amp wire that my grandad ran to the previous barn, that was on the same site. I ran 2" PVC conduit to it during construction, in anticipation of future needs. go figure).I hope to get my pole barn wired this winter. We just never have this much current and i'm really unfamiliar with how a home is wired (but can debug a motherboard. I do have a voltmeter and work at my day job as a computer engineer doing lots of work on embedded circuits. Can I just change out the main in the barn to something like 80A and add a 50A 230V breaker to the panel to run the welder? Is it safe to assume that I have 230V in the barn?ģ. Is it safe to assume that the wires to the subpanel (in the conduit) are rated to carry the full 100A (since they are on a 100A breaker in the main panel)?Ģ. (Sorry this is long, but I'm trying to give an accurate picture).ġ. Inside, there are three thick wires but I see no markings on them.įor some reason, the subpanel in the barn has a single 40A breaker as its main. The only place I can see what's in the conduit is a small access panel about 2 inches by 6 inches right where the conduit exits the house. In the barn, there is conduit coming up the wall from the ground and into the subpanel. The breaker for the subpanel in the barn is tied into the main with the same (2 50A breakers).Īll the wiring is in 1.5 - 2 inch conduit through my basement and out the side of the foundation. There are 2 50A breakers tied together for the main cutoff. My barn is wired as a sub to my main panel in the basement. All the ones I've looked at need 230V outlets. I was thinking of getting a simple stick welder to learn with. I'm looking at a welder (Christmas is coming up /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif). I've got a question for all those who are smarter with home wiring tham me.
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