Definitely use 10/2. 12/2 will be too small for that length and will have excessive voltage drop!
Can he still use a 20 amp breaker with 10 gauge wire like he wants to?
Yes.
OK. Thanks. I thought the larger diameter wire would not fit into the breaker.
Jim
The shed end is another story, but 10 gauge will be easy enough to wire nut to 12 gauge in that 4" box.
....Do I need a breaker box/disconnect, isolated ground and ground rod at the shed? Or just terminate it in a 4" box then run a light and outlet feed from there with wire nuts?
Isn't some type of disconnect of the power required at the shed? Like using a simple switch to shut the power off? And doesn't the circuit have to be GFCI protected as well?
If he uses a GFCI breaker before the wire goes into the ground from the house, that should be sufficient to cover the GFCI requirements right?
And thanks for the answers about the 10 gauge wire (or larger) being able to fit into a 20 amp breaker!
Jim
you sposed to have a disconnet, simple switch. But I got to wonder, why the absolute panic I. a post about v drop for a couple lights and a trickle charger? No reason not to use the 10 though. You can bury only 12 inches if you gfci first.
Disconnect: Not required. He's allowed a single circuit to the outbuilding. If he wants more power, he could do a MWBC.
GFCI: Yes, required. Cheapest would be to put the GFCI in the 4" box where the wire enters the shed and wire everything past that from the load side.
#10 might be difficult to get into the back of a GFCI outlet though. Might want to pigtail it, or if he's got stranded, crimp on fork terminals.
Doesn't any detached need a disconnect? I thought we still needed a switch in it?
Doesn't any detached need a disconnect? I thought we still needed a switch in it?
Nope.
Remember the 6 breaker handle rule?
That's for the service entrance and also, there's NO handles in this case, never mind less than six. For some reason I thought there needed to be a disconnect on a separate structure as well. At least around here I know there's a requirement, it must be a local code (City of Denver at least).
Where is the exception for a single circuit? Says if it is a multiwire it has to do both poles, says a 15A switch is acceptable on a single circuit.
If the OP use 10-2 (or 10-3 in a MWBC) won't he have problems terminating it under the screw on a switch/outlet ?
There is none. A single branch circuit serving an outbuilding needs a means of disconnect at the outbuilding. NEC 225.31 and 32.
That's what I thought! Thanks P.
When I wired a detached garage in Denver about 10 years ago, with a single circuit (not MWBC), they required a disconnect switch in the building at the first box. A standard toggle switch was sufficient. NEC also counts MWBC as a single circuit for the purposes of feeding a separate structure.
At that point, why not just mount a small subpanel with a main breaker in it? At that point, you have to drive two ground rods ($30 and 20 minutes), but you don't have to figure out how to connect MHF to a disconnect and then a smaller gauge wire to the load, only to have to redo a bunch of that if/when you decide to upgrade later.Since the most difficult part of this job is to trench the new line between the two buildings, it seems like you would want to go with a large gauge wire just in case you decided to make changes later. However, I wonder how far you could go without the inspector thinking you were gaming the system.
For example, to cover possible future upgrades the OP could run MHF from the house to the garage. However, he could use junction boxes at each end so that he could break it out into a single MWBC circuit in the garage and at the panel, would there be any code violation?