I've been hoping on building a shop but, delayed it until I found out how much it would raise my property taxes. After a couple yrs of procrastination I finally talked to the tax assesor man and he explained how it all works and a 30x40 shop would only cost me about $60 a yr. (I can deal with this)
Now....
I built my house with underground utilities, my panel box is full, but I do have 1 10 ga. wire , 220 curcuit (30 amp) that goes to a box under the house that goes to the garage. right now hooked up to my air compressor.
I suppose it is safe to say that this will not be enough to supply the shop since I'm looking at floresent lighting, air compressor, maybe even a welder in the future.. oh and lets not forgrt the usual guy things like wood shop tools... [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]
The problem I have is my panel box is full.
Where would I get my power from ?
Would I expect to need 100 amps for the shop ?
Would it come from the top of the house panel box going into another panel box in the shop...
OR
Would it hook up at the top side of the meter box going into another panelbox on the side of the house, then going underground to the shop to another panel box.
How would this get done ?
Would the power company hook this up to the primary box from the meter on the house and can they add several wires like this at the meter ?
I was thinking, if possible, mounting a cut off box beside the meter. Then running conduit from it going to the shop under ground, sort of like a mobile home setup.
I have two services w/ two meters. A 100A for the house (soon to be 200A) and another 200A for the shop. I get two bills every month. IMHO, you need at least 100A for your shop, 200A preferred.
Yea, I'd say it's safe to say you're existing electric isn't enough. I'd recommend at least 100A.
For your full panel box issue, there's a few options.
The first 2 I'd consider:
They now have breakers whereby 2 breakers can fit in a single slot in your box. If you got a couple of these and took some of your existing breakers, you could get a couple slots opened to add a 100A breaker for your shop.
The other option is to put another panel that would connect to the main panel. You then have a full empty panel to start with.
For my building, I put a 100A breaker into my main (house box), ran real heavy wire (4 strands, but I don't recall the gauge) out to the building and put another 100A box out there.
Where I am, I'd have to pay for each service from the power company. The route I took above works off my single service so I didn't incur any monthly charges for the extra service.
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