You know, I've been putting off my electrical project for almost 6 years now. Time to cut the ****, lol. When I bought the house, I was too cash-strapped to afford another project. Then I switched jobs and had the money, but no time. Isn't that how it always goes?
Backstory- I have a detached garage/shop with a dedicated 100A service. The former owner operated a wood shop out there. Problem is, because it's a second building on my lot, and it's not a residence, I pay commercial rates for electricity. So for only a garage door opener, a DVR and 4 cameras, and a handful of lights I pay $50 a month in electricity! That's on the months that I don't fire up any HVAC or tools out there! That's a huge ripoff around here.
So I've been wanting to connect the garage to my house panel. And I've done this at a previous house, and it wasn't too hard. But this house has a much longer run, the garage has finished walls, the basement in the house has a lot of obstacles. It's been about 20 years since I was in the electrical field, so I don't remember all the code rules, and I certainly don't know what has changed in the code since then either. I have a friend who is an electrician, and I mentioned the project to him, and asked if he could give me his opinion on how he'd do the job. I've worked with him before on jobs where he did the electrical and I did the data and CCTV systems, so I know he does good work. He lives nearby, and offered to stop by and have a look.
Well, we finally met up the other day. I had a certain dollar amount budgeted for me to do the job myself. To this seasoned pro, this job looked like a piece of cake. He said he already had another trench job to do nearby, and he could come by and do mine next week too. He quoted the whole job for right about what I ballparked the cost of doing the job myself! I started the day thinking I was just going to get some advise and continue to never have time to actually DO the job, but ended up giving the job to a qualified person for the same cost! Ahh, it's a big weight off my shoulders.
So I am pretty excited. After 6 years of hem-hawing, the job is finally getting done. I will still have 100A, it will just be fed from the house, and I will have my second 1" conduit for my data, CCTV, cable, etc (I will do the low-voltage wiring myself, he's just putting in the extra conduit). No more $50-minimum bills! No more flaky wi-fi! WOO-HOO! Did I mention that I am excited?!
Backstory- I have a detached garage/shop with a dedicated 100A service. The former owner operated a wood shop out there. Problem is, because it's a second building on my lot, and it's not a residence, I pay commercial rates for electricity. So for only a garage door opener, a DVR and 4 cameras, and a handful of lights I pay $50 a month in electricity! That's on the months that I don't fire up any HVAC or tools out there! That's a huge ripoff around here.
So I've been wanting to connect the garage to my house panel. And I've done this at a previous house, and it wasn't too hard. But this house has a much longer run, the garage has finished walls, the basement in the house has a lot of obstacles. It's been about 20 years since I was in the electrical field, so I don't remember all the code rules, and I certainly don't know what has changed in the code since then either. I have a friend who is an electrician, and I mentioned the project to him, and asked if he could give me his opinion on how he'd do the job. I've worked with him before on jobs where he did the electrical and I did the data and CCTV systems, so I know he does good work. He lives nearby, and offered to stop by and have a look.
Well, we finally met up the other day. I had a certain dollar amount budgeted for me to do the job myself. To this seasoned pro, this job looked like a piece of cake. He said he already had another trench job to do nearby, and he could come by and do mine next week too. He quoted the whole job for right about what I ballparked the cost of doing the job myself! I started the day thinking I was just going to get some advise and continue to never have time to actually DO the job, but ended up giving the job to a qualified person for the same cost! Ahh, it's a big weight off my shoulders.
So I am pretty excited. After 6 years of hem-hawing, the job is finally getting done. I will still have 100A, it will just be fed from the house, and I will have my second 1" conduit for my data, CCTV, cable, etc (I will do the low-voltage wiring myself, he's just putting in the extra conduit). No more $50-minimum bills! No more flaky wi-fi! WOO-HOO! Did I mention that I am excited?!
Last edited:
