Quote:
Originally Posted by keakar
by the way, running over 100 ft (if that's from where it exits the house) you might want to run three #4 wire with a #6 ground, especially if you think you might want to run a welder or something needing a lot of power. always go bigger then you need so you can expand later.and use one side for half of your power tools and put the other half your power tools on the other line so your not running everything off of only one wire. the ground shouldn't be more then one size smaller then the main wires.
the idea of running the lights separated is good but I would run the lights for one half the shop on one wire and a separate switch and wire to the lights for the other half.
the key is to keep your loads balanced equally on both wires as best as you can
just as an example I am running something like you with it feeding off my main panel on a 60 amp breaker feeding a 50 amp breaker box at the back of the house and running three #6 wires with a #8 ground running underground out to the garage that is only 30 ft away from where it exits the house and a total of 75ft from the main panel. it will just be for wall outlets and lights. once inside the garage it will connect to a 60 amp 4 breaker panel, two for lights and two for outlets, one each for each side
this is the best advice ^^^^^^^^^^^^
its been a while since I was up to date on the latest wiring codes and you want to get this right.
with the tools you talk about running in your shop, the best idea might be to not go through the house at all and just run a completely separate 100 amp meter and service to the garage because the load on your house panel may not be adequate to run the garage even though you have space for the breaker.
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He would have to be fully loaded up drawing 55amps and a power factor of .9 for a voltage drop to become an issue. From the sounds of it he's running less than 80% of that. #6 should be sufficient. It Depends on the type of lighting if he goes with say 2 LED high bays he's only drawing about 300watt. Also, Code actually allows you to step down your neutral one size and the ground two sizes. The price difference is not that significant though.
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