Electrician Needed

[alpharic]

I am looking for an electrician. I need advise, maybe just willing to hire. I have a new Portable building being delivered in a couple of weeks, and going to close in some if, insulate, and run electricity to it. This will become my reloading/gun room. I have it drawn out of how i want everything. I need to know whether it is cheaper to run electricity to it from my outside breaker box where the electricity comes into the house, or is it cheaper just to get Entergy to drop a new meter at the building. I firmly believe I can rough the electrical in, but with my limited electrical knowledge, looking for some advice or an electrician to come out and take a look, and give me a price of what they may charge to rough it all in for me.

Any advice or recommendations will be greatly appreciated, and any of you gun fanatics on the board that are electricians and wouldnt mind helping, it would be appreciated as well.

 

[scooterj]

Run a line from your house. If Entergy drops a new meter, it will be billed as comercial.
If you have the room in your box, run 220 to your portable building and break it down to 110 with a small breaker box.

 

[VeedUp]

Yeah I would do exactly what Scooter said. Run 220 off your home panel to a sub panel in the building. Run some conduit underground.

 

[alpharic]

what size wire would you need to run 220 from your house, for a distance of about 100+ feet

 

[stag0608]

what size wire would you need to run 220 from your house, for a distance of about 100+ feet

#6 wire is good for 60amps. That should be all you need. Just make sure you have a 60 amp breaker on both sides of your wire.

 

[mpl006]

#6 wire is good for 60amps. That should be all you need. Just make sure you have a 60 amp breaker on both sides of your wire.

This is exactly what I just did earlier this year or last year, can't remember. I went with XHHW-2, as it is permitted to be used in wet locations, in pvc conduit. The wire was a little over $1/ft. Make sure when you put it in, if you do it yourself, that the TOP of the conduit is 18" below ground. You should also have a red caution buried electric line tape, like this about half way back up from the conduit. No clue if that is a good price for that stuff, just what i found in the first link of a google search. Also, make sure that when you buy the sub panel for the shop that you get an isolated neutral bus bar so that the neutral and ground are not connected at the sub panel, just the main panel.

While getting a main lug panel for the sub panel is ok, I would also recommend a main breaker panel for the simple fact that you can kill the whole panel from the panel and not have to go to the main to kill everything in the shop.

 

[stag0608]

^^^^^^^ +1 you defiantly need to isolate your neutral in a sub panel. So you would need 6-3 with a ground wire.

 

[alpharic]

is 250 foot of 6-3 UF-B wire for $780 a good price. This wire can be directly buried underground.

 

[stag0608]

is 250 foot of 6-3 UF-B wire for $780 a good price. This wire can be directly buried underground.

That sounds about right. Did you price aluminum wire also? It's going to be cheaper than copper. That's what all the electricians are using right now in new home construction for all the 240v feeds.

 

[dantheman]

A separate meter will not be billed as commercial if your just feeding a " storage shed " . That being said , I would still feed it from your existing panel if the capacity is there .

 

[alpharic]

how much drop would there be in a 6-3 wire running 125 feet from 60 amp breaker at house to 60 amp breaker at building. Surely I wouldnt be getting 60 amps, two 120 V feeds.

 

[stag0608]

http://www.cerrowire.com/voltage-drop-table

 

[stag0608]

http://www.calculator.net/voltage-d...ce=125&distanceunit=feet&amperes=60&x=105&y=8

 

[alpharic]

so this is saying i need 4 gauge for a 140-150 ft run to maintain 60 amps from house to building. And yall are saying 6 wire will be enough. Im leaning towards what yall are saying. 6 gauge should give me everything i need in the building. 8 outlets, 4 flourescent lights, grinder, running a skill saw, and other power tools, uh?

 

[stag0608]

so this is saying i need 4 gauge for a 140-150 ft run to maintain 60 amps from house to building. And yall are saying 6 wire will be enough. Im leaning towards what yall are saying. 6 gauge should give me everything i need in the building. 8 outlets, 4 flourescent lights, grinder, running a skill saw, and other power tools, uh?

I think # 6 wire is going to be ok. That's what I would use.

 

[scooterj]

Dan, that must be dependant on the electric company. Entergy, may have still been LP&L, would only drop one residential meter per lot when my paw-in-law built his garage.

 

[Mlapor3]

#6 will get you 2.94% voltage drop from your panel to the building (150' - assuming 48A of load @ 240V).


In summary,

# 6 is fine. If you run (3)-#6 wires & #10 ground you should be good to go.




I would try not to run the grinder, saw, or other large loads all at once.

 

[Leadfoot]

While #6 may be ok, when it comes to electrical my motto is (especially when having to bury or run a long length of wire), it's better to go bigger and not have to worry about it. But, in the end, it's your pocketbook.

 

[southlaems]

I have a 2nd meter for a large garage about 250 feet behind my house. My inside box was not full but we were planning an addition and didnt want to tie up space inside that we might need at a later date. We opted to have a 2nd meter dropped and it was a PIA. Needed permits, health inspector to make sure we didnt have water and fire marshall to inspect with parish inspector since all wiring was run in an open span building. We have 4 outlets, 1 freezer, lights and a dusk to dawn light as well as a garage door opener. Nothing fancy but it all had to be in conduit with no exposed wires. that was the kicker for me, conduit to run crap in a 20X60 building with all connections and boxes was $$$$$.. The bill for the "Shed" runs about $15.00 a month with $7.00 of that being the fee for an extra meter. We have compleated the addition and still have blanks in the box, lots of them. Took 10 months and a permit to get shed done according to code. If I had to do it again, I would go from house supply and bypass permitting and 5 inspectors and HASTLE. Thats just me though.

 

[alpharic]

I have a 2nd meter for a large garage about 250 feet behind my house. My inside box was not full but we were planning an addition and didnt want to tie up space inside that we might need at a later date. We opted to have a 2nd meter dropped and it was a PIA. Needed permits, health inspector to make sure we didnt have water and fire marshall to inspect with parish inspector since all wiring was run in an open span building. We have 4 outlets, 1 freezer, lights and a dusk to dawn light as well as a garage door opener. Nothing fancy but it all had to be in conduit with no exposed wires. that was the kicker for me, conduit to run crap in a 20X60 building with all connections and boxes was $$$$$.. The bill for the "Shed" runs about $15.00 a month with $7.00 of that being the fee for an extra meter. We have compleated the addition and still have blanks in the box, lots of them. Took 10 months and a permit to get shed done according to code. If I had to do it again, I would go from house supply and bypass permitting and 5 inspectors and HASTLE. Thats just me though.

This is exactly what im thinking as of now, just ordered my #6 wire and romex and breaker box for the building. #6 wire can be directly buried, so only conduit im looking at is from house panel to ground and from ground to go inside the new building. $ saved there. Wire was a good bit, cuz i couldnt fine any aluminum for the 6 wire, but it will pay for itself in the long run, not having to pay the monthly bill on it.