Step by step photos of new garage

[fullmetal]

4 conductor 100 amp service entrance cable is available at my local Lowes, Home Depot and misc. Electrical supply houses. Aluminum would be my choice. Be sure to use dielectric compound on the conductors or corrosion will result due to dissimilar metals coming into contact in your boxes. Your contractor should know how to do all this correctly.

I agree with the poster that suggested 60A. You should be fine with that. Properly balanced, that will give you up to 120A for your 120 volt loads. Since you will be installing the circuits, I suggest you give a lot of thought to balancing those circuits, irregardless of the size of your feeder.

Dave

 

[fullmetal]

4 conductor 100 amp service entrance cable is available at my local Lowes, Home Depot and misc. Electrical supply houses. Aluminum would be my choice.

Oops, I meant 4 conductor wire. 2-2-2-4 IIRC. SE cable has a jacket around the conductors. The wire is 4 individual conductors lightly twisted together. Of course, the above mentioned vendors probably carry 2-2-2-4 SE cable too (I didn't look for it). I will be going underground with the wire in schedule 80 plastic pipe.

Dave

 

[gemini5362]

Fullmetal I dont do much electrical work but do you not have to have special mains that are set up for aluminum conductors ?

 

[roermo]

well thanks all for weighing in on this subject of the electric. I am sure I am going to get a lot of what is he thinking but here goes.

I was going to jump off the box in my house to a breaker box in the garage. 60 or 100 amp.

Then a few things happened. 1. the wife got mad at me for running around the house turning off lights and complaining about the elec. bill. She said what till the garage is finished and see what happens. So I thought seperate service would settle that point.

2. I found a 200 amp box never opened at a yard sell, square d for 45 bucks.

3. My box in the home was or is close to being full.

4 if my daughter ever moves back home I am just a few walls from inside to having a place for her. ( with sewer being the execption plumbing kit. etc.)

5. I have a bigger garage than the brother in-law so now I have a larger pannel too.

So all in all I have 200 amp service that I will never have to worry about not that I would of in the first place.

The way I see it the only diffrence in the cost is the weather head the 3 lines of copper #2 which was 3x14 42 ft. at 2.00 a foot. gal pipe and meter base. so all in all cheaper than going form the house that would have been about 50 ft. of heavy wire.
Except for the monthly min. charge if I do not use the elec. of 8 dollars a month.

So there we have it my way over done wire job, that goes fine with my way over built garge that is setting back in the hill with 10ft ceilings, and a heck of a lot of concrete. But hay its my home a way from home.

thanks all.

Roger

 

[kmdigital]

It's your money, but I wouldn't pay the $8 per month for a separate meter, unless it is for business purposes. And even then, you would be better to run it off the house and estimate the amount of electricity used, because you can estimate high

That separate meter will cost you $96 annually, even if you don't use any electricity. I don't like throwing $100 a year away, when spending that much or a little more will pay for itself in one year! It sounds like you are pretty good with your money, and paying cash for the building, and I'm sure that you know that the way to get ahead financially is to not pay unnecessary expenses and allow yourself to be nickled and dimed to death.

This assumes that they charge a base rate of $8 per meter plus actual usage, which some utilities do. If they charge you only for the electricity, and if that doesn't reach the minimum, then they charge you $8 it is a somewhat different story. Then you need to determine how much you think you might use. Most home shops aren't likely to use it that much for just lights and a few tools on weekends, unless there is a security light on the meter or they are running something that uses a lot of power like an AC.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I am thinking going up only 7 ft would save studs (8’s instead of 10’s)

Why not just get 14' 2x4's and cut them in half? Then you would have very little waste.

 

[kmdigital]

Why not just get 14' 2x4's and cut them in half? Then you would have very little waste.

Usually, you can buy one 8' 2x4 for considerably less then 1/2 of what a 14' will cost, so the 8 footers would be cheaper.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Around here it is about the same per foot unless you go with economy 8' 2x4's in which case you save about a buck compared to regular 8' 2x4's.

If he isn't going to use the economy 2x4's then he might want to price out the 14' 2x4. If it cost the same then why waste 1' off every 8 footer he cuts.

 

[fullmetal]

Fullmetal I dont do much electrical work but do you not have to have special mains that are set up for aluminum conductors ?

I am not a licensed electrician, just a DIY homeowner. I believe that you can hookup Aluminum conductors to a panel using an anti-oxidation compound. Here is what I plan on using:
Wire Installation - Noalox Table

I attached some pic's of the product.

Comments?

Dave

 

[gemini5362]

I am not a licensed electrician, just a DIY homeowner. I believe that you can hookup Aluminum conductors to a panel using an anti-oxidation compound. Here is what I plan on using:
Wire Installation - Noalox Table

I attached some pic's of the product.

Comments?

Dave

dave you might check and make sure you can do that. I do know that when I am in lowes looking for stuff some of the breakers and boxes say that they are made to use with aluminum. You might want to check into that