Electric feed to new shop

[captnrbrt]

Hi, guys, I am new to the forum and looking for advice. I live out in country in MS, I have a new 25 X 35' metal shop building on concrete slab 65' from house that I need to run power to. I probably will never use lots of power out there, but would like to have more available for myself or future owners. My run from meter to end of house where underground line will start is 70'. The underground portion is almost same length. I was thinking of using copper THHN/THWN 4 awg(6 for ground?) all the way to shop. I want to come off meter to a switch box(or breaker?), then a service panel inside garage for 120/240 V feeds. I can't(easily) run thru house attic because of vaulted ceiling in middle of house(living room), can't easily bury that part because of pool slab that is connected to house for most of run. Can I use pvc conduit to run at corner under eave from meter area to end of house, then down underground to shop? I would like at least 50 amp service to shop. The house is 200 amp service, there is a 50 amp box from meter for pool pumps and light. What grounding will I need at shop end? There is rebar in slab.
Thanks for any help, I have learned a lot just lurking here!

 

[thrifty bill]

Sounds very similar to my thread on where to find wire at a decent price. I plan to put 60A service in my detached garage as well. You never know what you might put out there.

Not sure you need to run 4 AWG. I was planning to run 6AWG, with a 10G bare ground. But I may just run that aluminum mobile home cable instead. Its pretty cheap compared to the copper, can be directly buried (no conduit), but I am not looking forward to hooking it into my main box.

Edit: I just saw you are going to run 140 feet total. At that point, the 4 is probably the way to go. You really need to look into the mobile home feed. That much 4 AWG is going to cost some $$. I am quibbling about buying enough for a 50 foot run...

As luck would have it, in my case, the main service is mounted on an outside wall, near where my garage is located (40 feet away). So I was planning on running conduit from the box to a subpanel in the garage.

I am not an electrician!

 

[captnrbrt]

Hello, ThriftyBill! I saw your thread about wire costs, am looking at same problem with price. I have managed to save a lot of money by doing everything myself, except hiring nice semi-retired guy and son to help with slab framing, pour, and finishing. That helps to make wire price easier to handle, still have room in budget according to my accountant/better half. The 4 awg THWN price from Lowes wasn't bad if I buy whole roll (450'(?), haven't checked electric supply store yet. Stepping up to 2 awg gets expensive! I am looking at the 4 awg THWN because of going conduit all the way from meter to shop to keep wire outside of house.

 

[thrifty bill]

Look at that mobile home stuff.

And realize you will at least need two colors: white for the neutral, black for the two hot, plus a bare copper ground. So that is three separate wire buys at a minimum. The mobile home stuff is a single cable, with the four wires, and it is suitable for direct burial (no conduit). The reason it is cheaper is that it is aluminum wire. I don't think I can fit that large of a wire into the lugs of a 60A breaker.

I am on month three rehabbing a dumpy duplex. This week, ceilings in six rooms came out. What a mess! Hope to build a separate workshop on the lot eventually.

 

[Norcal]

You will run into a code issue if you oversize your wire, as no good deed goes unpunished. If you increase the size of the ungrounded conductors (Hots) you must increase the size of the grounding conductor proportionally. See NEC art. 250.122(B)

At one time that art. said if increased for voltage drop, but it was changed to just increased in size.