Runnign 100 amp service to garage

jonnysteals · Mar 26, 2012

Let me first state that I am not an eletrician. I have rewired many outlets, lights welders and such but I never had to deal with running new services and such. My father was a certified electrician and I got used to him doing that kind of stuff for me. My father passed away and now wish I would have payed attention to this kind of stuff.

My pole barn is 54.2 feet from a telephone pole. I want to run 100 amps to the garage. My electric company wants to go overhead but I dont want to. They want 948 dollars to run the wire them 54 feet. I can easily run the wire and stuff but have a few questions.

My plan is to run aluminum mobile home feeder. My local lowes has the wire 2/2/4/6 in stock for 1.47 a foot. They can't tell me if it is direct burial or not. I obviolsy would need to find out if it is prior to buying it. I plan on running it in 2 inch conduit around 18 inches underground. The 10 foot sections of 2 inch conduit is 5.08 a section. The conduit will run allt he way up the pole with a service mast on the top. I am unsure how it will enter the garage yet.

Here is the wire; everything I have found online states that this is direct burial. Shop Southwire 2/2/4/6 Aluminum Mobile Home Feeder Cable at Lowes.com

Here is the manufacture website that statis its for direct burial http://www.google.com/url?q=http://...cQFjAD&usg=AFQjCNGYIP7KfDYKzzI_iDGgxa227l3bGg

I plan on a 100 foot run(30 feet for pole height, the 52 feet plus extra). The wire is only 150 bucks and the conduit is only 50 but with fittings and such I am estimating 100.

I read online that I need 2 10 foot 5/8 grounding rods. I then ground my groud bar with the grounding rod and the ground from the power company. My question is do I really need 2 grounding rods. I plan on #6 cooper from grounding rod to the breaker box. Is two grounding rods code?

The neutral will not be attached directly to the metal breaker box. it will be seperated from that. The neutral and ground wont be connected either. Neutral from electric company connected to the neutral bus bar.

This is my plan; does anything seem wrong with my plan?

Now I plan on running the trench and buying the wire and all that. i want an electrician to hook up the meter and hook it up to the breaker box so the power company will turn me on. How much should something like this cost? I have never had a new service connected so I don't know how the process works. I assume my electrician will have everyhting ready and the power company will just hook it all up(connection to pole and meter). Any insight would be great to me; I am on a budget and need this done cheaply but SAFETY is the priority.

RPW · Mar 26, 2012

Stay away from aluminum. Just my 2 cents.

Pipestone Kid · Mar 26, 2012

Not knowing your locale, I don't know if two rods are code or not, but if you are having an electrician hook up the final phases, he would know. As far as aluminum is concerned, installed properly it is just fine. I have mine in for over 25 years with no problems. Is this going to be a separate service with its own meter, etc?

jonnysteals · Mar 26, 2012

Yes this is a seperate meter. Its my rental property where I have tenants living in the house. If I lived there I would tap into my box no problems. I am not worried abount aluminum for a few reasons; I can't affor coppper and all connections will be covered in anti-oxident cream. All I want right now is a meter with a breaker box with a single outlet to pass inspection. After that I can decide what I need/don't need and deal with that electrical.

After talking to people it seems heres what I/my electrician am responsible for
The meter box panel, the connections from the meter box to the breaker box, the grounding rod.

The electric company only connects the wire from to the grid and connectes the wire to the meter box panel to install the meter.

Is this correct?

jonnysteals · Mar 26, 2012

I forgot to mention I am in southern NJ in case that matters.

I am 90% sure they use:
National Electrical Code, 2008
Obtained From: National Fire Protection Assoc [617] 770-3000

tractchores · Mar 26, 2012

Given your location i'd have a very close look at code. There's almost certainly some kind of permit and guidelines needed to bury that wire (it'll also get mapped in a digsafe DB). In my area we had to put ours at least 4' under and also put a wire a couple feed above it that would let an equipment operator know that they were about to hit an underground electric wire (don't remember the name of it). You may find an electrician that will let you do the digging etc and then he'll do the wiring so you're legal. This is one of those things you want to get right and do by the book because if something goes wrong it won't be a minor thing given that you're upstream from your breaker box.

One other thing I would think about is if you want to go to 200Amps. 100 is great, but if you start using a lot of equipment, heat etc it can quickly be maxed out. 200 isn't much more expensive at this phase, but if you had to re-bury the wire it'd be very expensive to add later.

Mousefield · Mar 26, 2012

RPW said:
Stay away from aluminum. Just my 2 cents.

I have to agree, stay away from aluminum. Also you need to check the code to see how deep you have to bury it, 18" may not be enough. :2cents:

rneal55555 · Mar 26, 2012

Find the electrician you plan to use pick one that is willing to work with you and guide you through the stuff you want to do. While the NEC is the basis of what's required almost everywhere there are local variations and practices that modify the NEC. It would be a shame to get your stuff bought, paid for and buried only to have the electrician or the power company refuse to connect it be because it didn't meet some local code requirement.

Not sure where you live but here in New Hampshire I put power (separate service) into a garage a couple of years ago, I had an electrician do it because of time constraints and the digging involved. Even so when it was complete the power company would not connect and install the meter until the building inspector had put his seal of approval on it by way of his final inspection.

Something I just thought of but a couple of times over the years in the small towns I've lived in the local building inspector has been a wealth of info, I put a pool in a number of years ago and he laid it all out as to what was required and the easiest way to accomplish it. If I were you I'd run my plans past them.
Bottom line is you have to do what the building inspector/power company requires or all you have is some buried wire and no power.

jonnysteals · Mar 26, 2012

Yea I plan on doing this 100 percent legal. I will have everything permitted and inspected. The problem is finding an electrician; i called a few people and only one person called me back. I spoke with my electric company and they will not turn the power on until the permit has been issued.

I will have to look into the burial depth; if is not a big deal because my buddy has a trenching machine and will dig it out for me. Last year I had a pool installed in my home and I had it inspected. The inspector wanted to make sure that the wire was 18 inches down so that is where I got that number from.

My goal is for me to do alot of the grunt/manual work to hopefully cut back on my electricians bill. I have no problem runnign the wire and installign conduit if that will save me money. Truth be told I would like to find an certified electrian to do this on the side so that I could learn some tips and tricks as well. I would want someone I can shadow and ask question to learn some info. Hopefully I can find someone looking for some side work and we both can benefit from this.

jonnysteals · Mar 26, 2012

Is there any reason in particular to stay away from aluminum. All the home depot/lowes only carry aluminum service entrance cable. I called an electrical supply house and they basically chuckled at me and told me I was wasting money. If copper is truely better and has facts behind it I will look into buying copper wire.