electric in my barn.....need help

[Maxcustody]

I think having five outlets on each sidewall is nice, but I would decide where you work bench is going to be and add a few extra outlets there. My workbench consists of a ten foot metal bench, a two foot lower bench for my chop saw so when I'm cutting wood, it's at the same height as the other benches, and then another 8 foot wood bench. I have an outlet behind my chop saw, two for the 8 foot table and three for the ten foot table. I also have my welder outlet just inside my roll up door, next to the metal table so I can weld on the metal table, or outside. I also have a dedicated outlet just for my air compressor under my metal table.

All my overhead lights are on their own breaker. I spaced them out evening, but plan on redoing it so that I have the ones closest to my work bench, actually over my work bench. Most of the time it's fine, but sometimes I just need more light and the shadow of my body standing there annoys me.

At least one outside outlet on every outside wall. From the look of your barn, it's just a matter of time until you add on with at least a lean to roof off of that tall wall side of the building. I would run a dedicated line to that wall and leave it in a junction box until you add on.

Another thing to consider is that you just never know what you will add in the future around the outside of your barn. For me, it's been a tack room/horse stall on one side about a hundred feet away, and then two chicken coops on the other side 30 and 100 feet away. I also added street lights to my driveway. Way back when I built my shop, I ran four dedicated 12/2 lines to a large junction box on the side of my building and just left them in there. I've now used them all up on projects I never anticipated or thought of. But now I know that I will eventually be building a green house out in the garden and will need another line for lights in there. Think of what you might need ten years from now, or even 20 years. It goes fast and it's easy to have the wire there to use and not need it, then to run it with everything in the way.

Thanks Eddie, he asked again yesterday if I wanted outside outlets....as you and others suggested I think I will go ahead and do it now.

 

[Argonne]

Thank you for all the replies and suggestions. You guys are a great resource. I saw on another topic a different option for a garage door opener I was not aware of....anyone have these or have used them. They look great.
It is a liftmaster side door jackshaft opener.
Elite Series 85 | Garage Door Openers | LiftMaster
View attachment 484045View attachment 484046

I have one and I absolutely love it. I got it because it doesn't need any extra crap to lift a 10' door, and requires no structure over the door. Was dead easy to install, and operates silently. I just got the internet gateway for it ($60), and now I operate the door from my cell phone. Programming is a little goofy, but if you follow the instructions precisely you are golden.

 

[Maxcustody]

I have one and I absolutely love it. I got it because it doesn't need any extra crap to lift a 10' door, and requires no structure over the door. Was dead easy to install, and operates silently. I just got the internet gateway for it ($60), and now I operate the door from my cell phone. Programming is a little goofy, but if you follow the instructions precisely you are golden.

Great, thanks. I am pretty set on using 2 of these, I think they will work perfectly.

 

[texas42]

I have one and I absolutely love it. I got it because it doesn't need any extra crap to lift a 10' door, and requires no structure over the door. Was dead easy to install, and operates silently. I just got the internet gateway for it ($60), and now I operate the door from my cell phone. Programming is a little goofy, but if you follow the instructions precisely you are golden.

I have one - would like to know more about internet gateway
Thanks

 

[DieselBound]

Yeah, those openers look pretty cool: thanks for passing that along! An interest for me is that they might provide me with a better way to setup for operation under generator power*. I was thinking about having openers plug into outlets and should I lose power I could unplug from the regular circuit power and plug into a separate circuit that'll be served by a generator: my situation is more than complicated, so I won't go into all the details. Anyway, having these things down from the ceiling area would tend to allow for this kind of switching.

* I realize that garage doors can be manually opened and closed, but I'm concerned with my wife being able to do so (she's pretty diminutive).

This also points out how much more money I'm facing on shelling out to make the building functional! (after I've already paid for the shell!) I'll probably just outfit two of the three garage doors: third one is a work bay (wife won't need to access it).

 

[CADplans]

* I realize that garage doors can be manually opened and closed, but I'm concerned with my wife being able to do so (she's pretty diminutive).

You can adjust most garage doors so that it takes effort to close,,, and they will then self open,,,
so, with some effort, you can adjust the door so that VERY little effort is needed to open the door.

The adjustment to most new doors requires only a twist of a spring,,, :thumbsup:

 

[Maxcustody]

Yeah, those openers look pretty cool: thanks for passing that along! An interest for me is that they might provide me with a better way to setup for operation under generator power*. I was thinking about having openers plug into outlets and should I lose power I could unplug from the regular circuit power and plug into a separate circuit that'll be served by a generator: my situation is more than complicated, so I won't go into all the details. Anyway, having these things down from the ceiling area would tend to allow for this kind of switching.

* I realize that garage doors can be manually opened and closed, but I'm concerned with my wife being able to do so (she's pretty diminutive).

This also points out how much more money I'm facing on shelling out to make the building functional! (after I've already paid for the shell!) I'll probably just outfit two of the three garage doors: third one is a work bay (wife won't need to access it).

There is a video on you tube that shows they sell a battery backup......no power issues.

 

[Argonne]

I actually just made a little video of mine, here it is:

The 8500 comes with battery backup, all you have to do is purchase and install a compatible battery. One thing I was misled about before purchase, was that this door would be hard to open manually if the power went out. It is NOT difficult. It has an emergency disconnect just like any other door operator which disengages the operator from the door, hence, anyone who can open the door before the operator is installed, can open it after.

The internet gateway turned out to be pretty cool. It doesn't physically connect to anything except power (wall wart) and ethernet to your network. It only needs to be within radio range of any operators you want to control. Setup was simple and straightforward, and it doesn't matter if you use the Chamberlain or Liftmaster apps or hardware, they are totally interchangeable. I bought the Chamberlain gateway, registered it on the MyChamberlan website, and use it with the Liftmaster app on my phone...works fine.

The price worked out to about the same as it would have been if I got a comparable hp conventional operator and the extension kit to make it work on a 10' door.

 

[DieselBound]

You can adjust most garage doors so that it takes effort to close,,, and they will then self open,,,
so, with some effort, you can adjust the door so that VERY little effort is needed to open the door.

The adjustment to most new doors requires only a twist of a spring,,, :thumbsup:

OK, thanks (I've only installed one garage door and it was a long time ago- I was the only one that used it, and, I never had to deal with any power issues [it was on a very stable electric grid, near a hospital!]). I'll look to have my wife test manual operation: if she's OK with that then that'll reduce a lot of complications But if not, then I'll look into the battery backup option


Sorry to take this a bit off-track (pardon the pun).

 

[Maxcustody]

I actually just made a little video of mine, here it is:

The 8500 comes with battery backup, all you have to do is purchase and install a compatible battery. One thing I was misled about before purchase, was that this door would be hard to open manually if the power went out. It is NOT difficult. It has an emergency disconnect just like any other door operator which disengages the operator from the door, hence, anyone who can open the door before the operator is installed, can open it after.

The internet gateway turned out to be pretty cool. It doesn't physically connect to anything except power (wall wart) and ethernet to your network. It only needs to be within radio range of any operators you want to control. Setup was simple and straightforward, and it doesn't matter if you use the Chamberlain or Liftmaster apps or hardware, they are totally interchangeable. I bought the Chamberlain gateway, registered it on the MyChamberlan website, and use it with the Liftmaster app on my phone...works fine.

The price worked out to about the same as it would have been if I got a comparable hp conventional operator and the extension kit to make it work on a 10' door.

Great info, thanks

There is a video on you tube that shows they sell a battery backup......no power issues.