Help with Subpanel feed

[ccm399]

Nice work, and I love your build!

Now, do you need a ground rod or two at the building? I'm not sure...

Thanks!

Yes I will need a ground rod. The inspector told me as long as we get our rough inspection by the end of the year that we will only need one ground rod (not two). I have read multiple posts mentioning the requirement for two rods (or at least complicated testing to verify less than 25 ohms to the earth).

We will for sure be getting out rough inspection before the end of the year! With a little luck maybe next week.

Chris

PS: don't quote me on that 25 ohms number I am pretty sure it was 25 but that might be a little off.

 

[ccm399]

Oh,

I do have to confess that I did do some tidying up of the wiring a little... I found a couple double tapped breakers so I installed some slim breakers to clean that issue up and make room for the 100amp sub breaker. I stopped short of completely cleaning up of the wiring deal though. Some day maybe just not until the barn is done!

Chris

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Nice work, and I love your build!

Now, do you need a ground rod or two at the building? I'm not sure...

If it's a detached building then yes!

 

[ccm399]

Hi all,

Just wanted to thank everyone that helped me on this project. We passed all our electrical inspections this week! We also passed final building inspection today.

Thanks guys!

Chris

 

[ccm399]

Me again....

Quick one here. I have been working on running lighting and outlet wiring and I am about to the point of running a subpanel for my machine shop area. I thought it would be best to run a single 60-70 amp circuit from the main panel in the barn to the machine shop area rather than home running all that large wire back to the main panel.

Ok, so on to the question.... Can this second panel have a main breaker? The reason I ask is I can get a Siemens panel with a couple breakers for LESS money than the same sized (slots, circuit and amps) main lug panel. Not sure if a main disconnect in the second box would be OK code wiser though.

As always, thank you for the help!

Chris

 

[pattenp]

Yes, the second panel can have a main disconnect breaker.

 

[ccm399]

Awesome. Thank you sir, and thank you for the FAST reply! I couldn't think a reason it would be a problem for the second panel to have it's own main breaker but you never know. I searched on this site and using Google and could not find a good answer.

You guys are the best!

Chris

 

[ccm399]

Hi again...

So to feed from the main barn panel to the machine shop area panel I am thinking that I could use 2-2-2-4 SER cable? I did a quick search and SER has no hits (must need more characters) and service entrance doesn't yield the results I was after.

Is there a reason not to use SER? Home Depot has it for $1.47/ft so it would be fairly inexpensive compared to copper. I know the size is overkill a bit but that should be OK yes?

As always, thank you for your time.

Chris

 

[pattenp]

The 2-2-2-4 AL SER is fine to use inside. Refresh my memory.. what amp size breaker you are using to feed the 2-2-2-4?

Nevermind, I see you said 60A or 70A.

 

[ccm399]

Thank you sir!

Yes I am thinking 60 or 70. If memory serves I could go up to 90 with that wire size @ ~ 100'. I don't think I will go over 70 though.

Chris

 

[ccm399]

Hey Guys,

On a 220 volt outlet on a Sub Panel should the third wire go to the ground bus or the Neutral Bus? The welder I will use this outlet for has 120v spool drive and so I am thinking it would need a neutral but?

Thanks,

Chris


Excuse the Temp wiring of my Compressor! I am sure that machine should be wired to the ground bus as there is no need for the neutral. Once I wire it to stay I will correct that.

 

[Aceman]

On a 220 volt outlet on a Sub Panel should the third wire go to the ground bus or the Neutral Bus? The welder I will use this outlet for has 120v spool drive and so I am thinking it would need a neutral but?

If your welder(or any other piece of equipment, doesn't matter) is 240v and only has a 3 wire cord, that makes it 2 "hots" and a ground. No neutral.

If they wanted a neutral, it'd come with a 4 wire cord.

 

[ccm399]

That makes sense.

Thanks,

Chris

 

[wyliesdiesels]

If your welder(or any other piece of equipment, doesn't matter) is 240v and only has a 3 wire cord, that makes it 2 "hots" and a ground. No neutral.

If they wanted a neutral, it'd come with a 4 wire cord.

He mentioned that the OUTLET has 3 wires but didn't say how many wires are in the welder's cord. I'm curious if the welder has a step down transformer or if the cord has a neutral for the spool drive?

 

[Aceman]

All the welders I've wired have made their own 120v.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

O I c!

 

[ccm399]

The welders both have three wire leads off the machines. Brain fade on my part....