Wiring my garage

[tedkitch]

I know that local codes may be different, but I'm looking for some good advice on how to get electricity to my garage. The underground option is undesirable as my garage sits uphill from my house and the back yard has a 2 foot terrace, so I would have to dig quite a bit. The garage does have the older ceramic stops on it (meaning that at one point in time it did have electricity to it) and it does have the an older circuit box in it. I would like to try to go overhead from the house to the garage (this appears to be how it was). I'm looking to run at least 30 amps to it. I don't think that I would need more, but I'm not sure of that either. Maybe I run 50 amps?

I'm looking for help with all the steps involved from breaking off of the main panel, creating a sub-panel and wiring in the garage.

Any suggestions?

TIA

[gjat]

This has often been a hot debate. Always have local electricians review and possibly quote a price so you can meet local codes. Do not 'cheap out' on electrical work. More people die from fires than from burglaries. You always lock your does at night, so don't allow possibly inadequate wiring.

Running underground shouldn't be too bad if you rent a small trencher. You probably want to run 100 amps. 30 amps is way too little. You don't want to ever 'max out' what you are running. You may be able to find an electrician who will let you do the grunt/unskilled labor work, and he will come in, make terminations and check things out.

You will want to have a breaker when you tap off your main panel and before you go to your garage. The rule of thumb is, you want to have a means of disconnecting anything you could come in contact with. The feed tap could come off the line side of your main breakers to a disconnect that will feed your garage, or you may feed it right from the Meter Socket (have an Electrician do this.) ANY TIME you are dealing with power coming from the power company, the meter must be removed to safely do the work. This breaks the seal on the meter can and the power company usually checks to see if a permit was pulled to make sure someone wasn't trying to steal power.

It's always better to be safe than sorry. Electricity takes a nano second to kill, or to cook a limb or an organ.

[eltigre]

WIthout out seeing a pic of the land, my vote would initially lean toward going underground also. Trenchers are readily available at the rental store and pretty straightfoward to use.