BrigUSMC
Member
Howdy, new guy here finally getting around to finishing a project.
A couple years ago I bought a house in New England with a detached barn/garage. This thing is a bit weird, and looks like a barn eating another barn. At some point an owner just built an extension around the existing building. Because of that, the ceiling has three different heights and creates some unique challenges. Once upon a time it had power running to it, but the house was abandoned for a couple years before being bought and renovated and eventually flipped to me, so most of the wires had been stripped out.
This barn is over 43 feet long and I intend to turn the back half into a woodworking shop. When I moved it, I ran power underground from the house to the barn and had a 100amp subpanel installed. And then life got in the way for a couple of years (I travel a lot for work). Now, I want to get back into the project and the first step is to run power and lighting inside the barn itself.
Lots of questions as a DIYer, but I'll start with the basics.
1. Is it better to hardwire or just plug into outlets? A lot of the reasons I've seen listed out are irrelevant to me. People argue aethetics of hardwiring so that wires don't show, but as you can see from the images, this is a barn with no wall panels and no insulation, and I don't intend to add either. I've also found the argument of outlets in case you need to move them to be irrelevant, as it seems people rarely need to move them. What are the real advantages/benefits of hardwiring vs outlets?
2. I'd like to go LEDSs. The back half will be a wood shop, the front half with the higher ceilings will likely just have a few heavier appliances like deep freezer, a compressor, and maybe flood lights for vehicle repair/maintenance. Any recommended brands you think would work best with the setup?
Attaching some images of the ceilings to show the odd, multi-ceiling arrangement and setup I'm working with:
A couple years ago I bought a house in New England with a detached barn/garage. This thing is a bit weird, and looks like a barn eating another barn. At some point an owner just built an extension around the existing building. Because of that, the ceiling has three different heights and creates some unique challenges. Once upon a time it had power running to it, but the house was abandoned for a couple years before being bought and renovated and eventually flipped to me, so most of the wires had been stripped out.
This barn is over 43 feet long and I intend to turn the back half into a woodworking shop. When I moved it, I ran power underground from the house to the barn and had a 100amp subpanel installed. And then life got in the way for a couple of years (I travel a lot for work). Now, I want to get back into the project and the first step is to run power and lighting inside the barn itself.
Lots of questions as a DIYer, but I'll start with the basics.
1. Is it better to hardwire or just plug into outlets? A lot of the reasons I've seen listed out are irrelevant to me. People argue aethetics of hardwiring so that wires don't show, but as you can see from the images, this is a barn with no wall panels and no insulation, and I don't intend to add either. I've also found the argument of outlets in case you need to move them to be irrelevant, as it seems people rarely need to move them. What are the real advantages/benefits of hardwiring vs outlets?
2. I'd like to go LEDSs. The back half will be a wood shop, the front half with the higher ceilings will likely just have a few heavier appliances like deep freezer, a compressor, and maybe flood lights for vehicle repair/maintenance. Any recommended brands you think would work best with the setup?
Attaching some images of the ceilings to show the odd, multi-ceiling arrangement and setup I'm working with:
