Subpanel and 220V in the garage

[jussi]

In the future I'd like to get 220 in the garage and have it run through the sub panel. I'm trying figure what I would need and more importantly what it would cost. What gauge wire would I need? I'll probably have an electrician actually attach the lines to the panel but I figure I could at least run the lines myself.

[gary]

I had an electrician do the entire thing for me. He ran the line from the main panel, mounted a 60A subpanel, and ran one 220v circuit to the tablesaw (ceiling mount with strain releif). Entire thing cost me about $1000.

[MikeMcCoy]

I'm electrically inept so I did the same as Gary (but 100 amp sub panel) and at about the same cost. I did the grunt work, trenching and drywall repair and played electicians helper. I didn't have any shop wall access at the time so all 10 of the 110 recepticles and the 220 are in the overhead. I also don't have an attic so the drop from my main had to be cut through my interior drywall out to the rear of the house.

[BobSch]

I had a 100amp sub put in the garage last fall. Cost me about $900 for the panel and 4 120v outlets. I didn't have him install any 220 because I'm not sure of the final shop layout.

[kbkreisler]

I just pulled a 60A subpanel into my garage last fall. I did it myself and with 75' of the 6/3 wire, some 12/3 wire, some 12/2 wire, and some 14/2 wire, a main lug breaker box, about a dozen receptacles on four 20A circuits, and a couple 15A lighting circuits it cost under $400
You will need two slots available in your main breaker panel, this is where you will put the breaker that determines the subpanels current rating. you cannot tie your subpanel feeders into your main panel feeder taps. They must come from a breaker that is sized to the capacity of the feeder wires or smaller.
If you do the work yourself make sure to follow codes, all outlets in garages must be GFCI protected these things are cheap and save lives. If it is an attached garage you must not bond the ground and nuetral wires at the subpanel. If it is a detached building you can bond nuetral and ground at the panel but you need to drive in a ground rod at the service entrance to the building.
I have in the past pulled a 3 conductor wire into a box and ran a 20A circuit from each leg sharing the nuetral between the circuits. A way to feed a remote area 2 circuits with one pull. I dont know how big of an impact this has in residential wiring but NEC states as of last year you cannot share nuetral wires between circuits anymore, as this may pose a shock hazard to open the nuetral somewhere in the circuit with only one of the two breakers turned off. Maybe someone can offer some clarification of residential code here.
Its always a good idea to have any electrical work inspected, and if you aren't sure about something ask dont guess.

[Garasaki]

I put a 50 amp subpanel in my basement. Did the work myself. There's really nothing even remotely complicated about hooking the panel up - if you feel comfortable running the lines yourself then there's no reason you can't install the panel on your own.

You didn't say your garage is attached, but everything I type from here on out is going to assume it is. Disregard everything I say if it isn't.

I'm not sure what gage wire you'll need (its really easy to figure that out). But budget 3 bucks a foot for the wire. Good news is that's the expensive part.

Budget 5 bucks for each breaker you want in the subpanel and budget 10 bucks for the breaker in your main panel.

Budget 50 bucks for the panel itself. Outlets cost maybe 10 bucks for a box of 12. If you are adding lights, you'll have to figure out your own budget on those.

12/2 wire price fluctuates tremendously, but I budgeted 75 bucks for 250 feet, and believe me you'll run thru this way more then you think. So figure how many feet you think you'll need, then double it.

Throw some fudge factor in for wire nuts, tools, staples, etc.

It isn't REALLY all that expensive.

I just pulled a 60A subpanel into my garage last fall. I did it myself and with 75' of the 6/3 wire, some 12/3 wire, some 12/2 wire, and some 14/2 wire, a main lug breaker box, about a dozen receptacles on four 20A circuits, and a couple 15A lighting circuits it cost under $400

Yep that's about where I was at too. Actually cheaper for me cause I only needed 40 ft of feeder wire (the big feeder wire was the most expensive part). Also make sure you know exactly what you need when you buy that - it's easy to measure with a tape and forget the vertical portions or account for the curve and general slack a wire needs. You don't want to buy too much of this, at 3 bucks a foot, but you are ROYALLY screwed if you don't buy enough.

[pelligrini]

I picked up a GE panel Kit when I did my detached shed. Plenty of room for expansion if needed. The 120' of 6/3 wire wasn't cheap.

[Crash2510]

I would recommend as the others stated a small 60 amp lug only panel. You will need to run 6-3 romex (3 wire with ground) or Conduit with 3 #6THHN copper and 1 #8THHN ground (if you use aluminum you will need a #6 ground). The ground wires need to be seperated in the sub panel with the use of a ground bar kit. This means you do not put in the green bonding screw.

Depending on how far it is between your panel and where you want to set the sub panel and how difficult it will be to get the wire there, you can expect it to cost somewhere between $750-1000

[Hellrazor]

In the future I'd like to get 220 in the garage and have it run through the sub panel. I'm trying figure what I would need and more importantly what it would cost. What gauge wire would I need? I'll probably have an electrician actually attach the lines to the panel but I figure I could at least run the lines myself.

Is the garage attached to the house or an out building?

[just started]

Depends on where you live for doing it yourself. The township I live in requires that ANY electrical work (including just replacing an existing switch, outlet or light fixture) be done by an electrician licensed by the township.

[jussi]

It's a detached garage. A couple of years ago I ran a line from the main panel to the garage myself (but had the electrician hook up the breaker). I finally got around to getting a dust collector and will need another line since the one breaker won't be able to run both it and the other machine (TS, jointer, etc). I was initially going to just run another line but thought it would be more efficient to just run one sub panel. As of yet I don't have any tools that need 220 (although I can convert my TS) but with CL deals who knows if I end up upgrading in the future.

I ran it through 1/2" emt and was hoping I could just re-use that but obviously there's no way #6 awg wire will fit in that.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

[pelligrini]

How far is the run from your main breaker panel? You might be able to use a smaller wire if the distance isn't great. There are a bunch of good online calculators to get your sizing.