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Wiring shed main circuit panel

alex1988

New member
Joined
Jul 11, 2015
Messages
2
Want to move woodworking power tools from basement to 10x16 foot shed. Shed currently wired in a Connecting Box (not a Panel) via 2" underground #40 PVC to home 200 amp Main Panel with 125 feet of #4 THHN (4 wires including ground). This circuit connects my gasoline generator in the shed to the house when we lose power. Also in the conduit is a 20 amp circuit from the Main Panel to the to the shed for lighting and small power usages (3 wires including ground). I also have a 100 amp sub panel (Sub Panel #1) in the shop area of my basement - about 50 closer to the shed than the Main Panel.

Questions:
1) Is it permissible to feed Sub Panel #2 from existing Sub Panel #1?
2) Using Southwire's Conduit Fill Calculator using the existing Main Panel to shed 2" PVC #40 conduit, 4 wires of the existing #4 THHN wire, and 4 wires of new #6 THHN wire results in a Fill of 15.6% and a Very Low Jam Probability of 6.4%. My question is: Can I remove the existing #10 wire and pull through the new #6 wire without damaging the existing #4 wire? If that is not a wise choice, what are my options?
3) Is it realistic to pull all of the existing cable from the conduit to the shed, remove the #10 wire, and add the #6 wire and then pull the #4 & #6 back through, together?
4) Or, run a new 1" or 1.25" conduit from the Main Panel to the shed for Sub Panel #2 - I could run it side-by-side with the existing 2" conduit. The new Sub Panel #2 will be in a different location than the existing Connection Box in the shed so two conduits would be no problem from a wiring standpoint.

The new Sub Panel will have a 60 amp Main Breaker and grounded with (2) 8 foot grounding rods outside the shed.

Sorry for so many questions but I really want to know what I am talking about before going to my regular electrician.

Many thanks!
Bob
 
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exranger06

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Aug 9, 2015
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Location
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I couldn't tell you how hard/feasible it is to remove or add wires to the existing conduit, but to answer your first question, yes you can feed the shed panel from the basement subpanel.
 
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wyliesdiesels

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Joined
Aug 14, 2012
Messages
20,258
Location
Modesto, CA
Want to move woodworking power tools from basement to 10x16 foot shed. Shed currently wired in a Connecting Box (not a Panel) via 2" underground #40 PVC to home 200 amp Main Panel with 125 feet of #4 THHN (4 wires including ground). This circuit connects my gasoline generator in the shed to the house when we lose power. Also in the conduit is a 20 amp circuit from the Main Panel to the to the shed for lighting and small power usages (3 wires including ground). I also have a 100 amp sub panel (Sub Panel #1) in the shop area of my basement - about 50 closer to the shed than the Main Panel.

Questions:
1) Is it permissible to feed Sub Panel #2 from existing Sub Panel #1?
2) Using Southwire's Conduit Fill Calculator using the existing Main Panel to shed 2" PVC #40 conduit, 4 wires of the existing #4 THHN wire, and 4 wires of new #6 THHN wire results in a Fill of 15.6% and a Very Low Jam Probability of 6.4%. My question is: Can I remove the existing #10 wire and pull through the new #6 wire without damaging the existing #4 wire? If that is not a wise choice, what are my options?
3) Is it realistic to pull all of the existing cable from the conduit to the shed, remove the #10 wire, and add the #6 wire and then pull the #4 & #6 back through, together?
4) Or, run a new 1" or 1.25" conduit from the Main Panel to the shed for Sub Panel #2 - I could run it side-by-side with the existing 2" conduit. The new Sub Panel #2 will be in a different location than the existing Connection Box in the shed so two conduits would be no problem from a wiring standpoint.

The new Sub Panel will have a 60 amp Main Breaker and grounded with (2) 8 foot grounding rods outside the shed.

Sorry for so many questions but I really want to know what I am talking about before going to my regular electrician.

Many thanks!
Bob

What size feeding breaker do you plan on using for the #2 subpanel? In other words, what size breaker will you be putting in subpanel #1?

1) subpanel #2 is in shed? then yes. you will need to abandoned the current feed...
2) i would not use the southwire calculators. they have errors
3 & 4) i would run a separate conduit.
 
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