New Garage question

[Tofast4U]

Hey guys need some advise, going to be building new Garage here shortly and have a couple of electrical questions.

1st my house 1952 has 60 amp has a Low voltage on the house.(Old school) has the brain box in the attic so you can the lights turn on,Here the bzz..

1st question I need to upgrade the house to 100amp plus I need to raise the wire outside to the code of 10Ft. For two reason almost hit the cable from the deck and second to upgrade to 100amp.

2nd should I bury the wire to the garage, PIA I have a huge tree in the back yard and going to hit alot of roots. Or should I just drop a second service to the garage. I'm would actually be about 15 feet from the power pole. That would be the easiest.

Well hope it all make sense and I'm no electrician by any means.

 

[Aceman]

1st question I need to upgrade the house to 100amp plus I need to raise the wire outside to the code of 10Ft. For two reason almost hit the cable from the deck and second to upgrade to 100amp.

So what's the question?

2nd should I bury the wire to the garage, PIA I have a huge tree in the back yard and going to hit alot of roots. Or should I just drop a second service to the garage. I'm would actually be about 15 feet from the power pole. That would be the easiest.

Call your power company and tell them your situation. They might not have a problem doing a second service for your garage. It'll certainly be the easiest way.

 

[bradweingartner]

Go with the second service. I pay an extra $12/month or so and get a second bill for it. But having a second dedicated 100amp service to the garage is great. And more than once I've needed to run an extension cord from the garage to the house during remodel when the power is off.

Plus, no digging

 

[mrb]

low voltage with brain box in the attic, i take it that is the touchplate lighting control system common in the mid 1960s?

are you planning to do this yourself? Or are you seeking advice on what to have the qualified, licensed, insured electrical contractor you hire do?

 

[VHF]

Have you considered putting a new 200A service into the garage, then feeding the house as a subpanel off the garage? (House could be 100A, 150A, or 200A depending on your needs..)

Underground between buildings would be desireable if possible.

 

[John in OH]

Have you considered putting a new 200A service into the garage, then feeding the house as a subpanel off the garage? (House could be 100A, 150A, or 200A depending on your needs..)

Underground between buildings would be desireable if possible.

VHF has a good thought here. Or vice-versa, put a new 200amp panel in the house and feed the garage as a sub-panel.

Do you know the existing amp capacity of the utility service feed to your house? Meter capacity? If you upgrade your main panel, the utility company may also need to upgrade the service to the meter, and possibly the meter itself.

If you haven't already done so, you should discuss this situation with your power company. If they have to do some upgrading, you may want to consider installing a new main panel of 150 or 200 amps ... the cost for a larger panel may not be that much greater than for 100 amps. I think that every new house that I've seen in the past 5-10 years was built with 200 amp main panel as standard.

You can never have too much power capacity!

 

[Falcon67]

Have you considered putting a new 200A service into the garage, then feeding the house as a subpanel off the garage? (House could be 100A, 150A, or 200A depending on your needs..)

Here in Texas I would consider this option because any second meter at a residence is considered commercial and billed at those rates. It's in the PUC tarriff, so a homeowner is stuck with it. Been there, done that. Our new house is on a co-op and minimum billing on a second meter is $35/mth. So we're not doing that either, I'll pull feed from the house service entrance. (there is another utilities poles across the alley - so there may be another trick for me yet).

So research your local options first.

If you have room on the house to install a panel and a proper height weather head, that would work too and you could "port over" from old to new. BTDT also. I put a 100A panel on that old house, but there was an existing 30/50 panel off the service that powered the outside AC unit and the dryer. I should have moved that to the new panel, but chose not to at the time. Not sure how big your garage is, but you'd be hard pressed in 80% of cases to pull anything over 50A. Unless you are a crazy like some of us. I've got a lot of equipment and could barely hit 50A any any one time.

 

[79firebird]

I say put a new meter on the shop go with a 200-400 amp service depending on the size and go with like a 125-150 amp to the house from the shop