New Garage Lighting/Electrical

[nitsuj02532]

Hi All!

I'm kind of new, kind of lurking from time to time, but now that I'm making progress on my garage I'm going past 'read and learn' and up to the 'oh **** what should I do now' phase.

Long and short, last year I made the decision to start building my detached garage/shop...

it started out the winter before as a 'we should build a big shed' then turned into 'well it would be nice to pull the car in to work on it in the winter, so it will be a bigger shed and we will just engineer a floor to support it' and ended up as 'oh screw it, concrete is cheaper than wood, were building a garage' and last year I dug and poured a 20x24 foundation.

Last week I put the building up, framed out of 2x6's, 10ft tall walls, went with scissor trusses with a 5/12 pitch, it gives me 14'6" from what will be the finished floor to inside peak, and 12'6" from the finished floor to ceiling 5ft in from each wall (plenty for a 2 post lift and a car, or even the truck for short people like me) front is going to have a 9'6" wide by 9" tall roll top door centered on the 20ft front, pass door on the front left about 3ft in from the corner. Building is pretty much done, only big thing left is final grade and pour the floor then put up the doors. Now that were there, I'm trying to plan out my electrical and lighting situation.

I'm planning to put a 100a sub-panel out there, thinking of going either 24 or 30 position panel, for the little bit extra over a smaller panel, i figure I can't ever run out of space. I'm going to run conduit for where I believe my heat source will go, future compressor (only have a smaller compressor today), an outlet for the welder on each side wall, and I'm going to run conduit to about where on the wall I think it would land if/when I put a lift in, so I can close up the walls when I'm done and at most have to run exposed conduit across the ceiling down to the lift. so I think I have that pretty mapped out, regular 20a outlets are easy to figure out, I don't think I missed anything there correct?

Lighting is my big one I'm having trouble with exactly what my best route will be.

For exterior lighting, I'm planning on putting a flood light up high on the front gable end and a regular outdoor light next to the door, I'm going to size my conduit to the house so I can put those on a 3-way switch and control them from the garage or the house.

Interior lighting, I have no idea...I want to make sure it's well lit, and not have to go back and add more lighting later, thinking of doing it on 2 or 3 separate switches so that I can have some or all depending on my needs. There are no windows at all, the roll top and pass door will be the only way that day light will be able to get in (I might be overly paranoid, but windows just make more places for someone to break in) so thats where I really hope someone could help me out...the ceiling being the way it is makes it a little harder to figure out since all the lighting will be at a slight angle.

 

[sands35]

I have a 26x32 garage and am happy with 25, 100 watt equivalent cfl lights. Enough for car work and woodworking. I do have some under cabinet task lights over work benches around the walls. Your basic fluorescent 18" tube lights.

By installing ceiling boxes on a 4' by 5' ish grid, it is easy to install tubes later if needed. The boxes are about $1.50 and the edison base is about the same. CFL bulbs are about $4 each.

2 or three light zones makes sense.

I did put in a loading dock light to get some task light under a car hood too. No matter how much light (more or less) you put on the ceiling, the car hood will block it.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

What is the main feeder cable length going to be?

 

[nitsuj02532]

I have a 26x32 garage and am happy with 25, 100 watt equivalent cfl lights. Enough for car work and woodworking. I do have some under cabinet task lights over work benches around the walls. Your basic fluorescent 18" tube lights.

By installing ceiling boxes on a 4' by 5' ish grid, it is easy to install tubes later if needed. The boxes are about $1.50 and the edison base is about the same. CFL bulbs are about $4 each.

2 or three light zones makes sense.

I did put in a loading dock light to get some task light under a car hood too. No matter how much light (more or less) you put on the ceiling, the car hood will block it.

Thanks for the input! That makes sense and seems to get in done pretty inexpensively...I'm assuming you used the simple screw-in ceramic fixtures for the CFL's? (I am right assuming you're talking about the compact florescent lights bulbs right?)

What is the main feeder cable length going to be?

I think it's around 80-90ft end to end, I'm going to rough measure it and then dig and put it in a large conduit than needed so if I decide to put something else later I'm good to go

 

[alfredeneuman]

I think it's around 80-90ft end to end, I'm going to rough measure it and then dig and put it in a large conduit than needed so if I decide to put something else later I'm good to go

It's against the Code to use more than 1 circuit to a detached garage.
(that includes the 3 way switches that run off the house circuit)

If you want to run a separate thing like telephone, internet, CATV, etc. you'll have to install a separate conduit for that purpose.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Thanks for the input! That makes sense and seems to get in done pretty inexpensively...I'm assuming you used the simple screw-in ceramic fixtures for the CFL's? (I am right assuming you're talking about the compact florescent lights bulbs right?)



I think it's around 80-90ft end to end, I'm going to rough measure it and then dig and put it in a large conduit than needed so if I decide to put something else later I'm good to go

At 90' you could run #2 MHF. Breaker it at 90a.

Also, as alfred said, u cant have more than one electrical feed to a building and cables like telecom, CAT5 and CATV cant be put in the same conduit as electrical because those cables arent rated for 300v! Use separate conduits for telecom and communication cable!

 

[nitsuj02532]

It's against the Code to use more than 1 circuit to a detached garage.
(that includes the 3 way switches that run off the house circuit)

If you want to run a separate thing like telephone, internet, CATV, etc. you'll have to install a separate conduit for that purpose.

I didn't even think of the more than 1 circuit being a code violation...good catch on that one...

At 90' you could run #2 MHF. Breaker it at 90a.

Also, as alfred said, u cant have more than one electrical feed to a building and cables like telecom, CAT5 and CATV cant be put in the same conduit as electrical because those cables arent rated for 300v! Use separate conduits for telecom and communication cable!

I planned on a separate conduit for data/coax, I know mixing those with the electrical is a code violation.

Good idea on the MHF, I'm going to get a more accurate measurement of the cable run once I decide the exact path I'm going to excavate outside, my luck, the guesstimate is way off!

 

[wyliesdiesels]

I didn't even think of the more than 1 circuit being a code violation...good catch on that one...



I planned on a separate conduit for data/coax, I know mixing those with the electrical is a code violation.

Good idea on the MHF, I'm going to get a more accurate measurement of the cable run once I decide the exact path I'm going to excavate outside, my luck, the guesstimate is way off!

Yes its important to get really close to the exact measurement as voltage drop plays into the calcs at longer distances....