trjlangdon
Member
Short background: My wife and I bought our first home in Sept 2013. One of the things that we knew when we bought the place was that the electrical cable running to the detached garage had been cut during a landscaping job by the previous home owner. They removed a good deal of earth to create a slope and in doing so had to cut the existing cable but unfortunately didn't replace it. Both myself and our budget were preoccupied last year with other projects with the house, but this year I want to get electricity running again to the garage.
The garage is an over-sized one car garage. I will not be making this a serious workshop or anything like that. Garage door opener, lighting, and a few receptacles are all I am looking for. If I run any tools out there the extent of it might be a pancake air compressor, circular saw, miter saw, etc. Nothing heavy duty and I can't imagine a time when I'd have multiple tools running at once. It will mostly be where I park a car and store our outdoor tools.
Main panel in the house is 200 amps located in the basement. Distance between the panel and detached garage is ~140 feet with 35 of that run being in the basement and the rest outside. The previous homeowners had the garage connected via 10/2 UF-B cable direct buried to a 20amp single pole breaker.
- Would replacing the 10/2 UF-B cable and keeping it on the 20amp breaker be enough juice for what I am looking for? I'm thinking no. What about using the 10-2 with a multi-wire circuit?
- If not, what would you recommend? I've been lurking for the past few days and have seen many suggest here and elsewhere installing a subpanel in the garage but I am thinking it could be overkill for what I be using it for. I've read a lot of people recommending "future proofing" which I understand but I honestly don't see me expanding the use of my garage to anything more than the uses I listed above. The only other thing I could see down the line adding in would be a refrigerator or small chest freezer.
I'm on a budget so I am trying to accomplish what I want and get it done safely, but not put something in I won't come close to using power wise. Any input is appreciated!
The garage is an over-sized one car garage. I will not be making this a serious workshop or anything like that. Garage door opener, lighting, and a few receptacles are all I am looking for. If I run any tools out there the extent of it might be a pancake air compressor, circular saw, miter saw, etc. Nothing heavy duty and I can't imagine a time when I'd have multiple tools running at once. It will mostly be where I park a car and store our outdoor tools.
Main panel in the house is 200 amps located in the basement. Distance between the panel and detached garage is ~140 feet with 35 of that run being in the basement and the rest outside. The previous homeowners had the garage connected via 10/2 UF-B cable direct buried to a 20amp single pole breaker.
- Would replacing the 10/2 UF-B cable and keeping it on the 20amp breaker be enough juice for what I am looking for? I'm thinking no. What about using the 10-2 with a multi-wire circuit?
- If not, what would you recommend? I've been lurking for the past few days and have seen many suggest here and elsewhere installing a subpanel in the garage but I am thinking it could be overkill for what I be using it for. I've read a lot of people recommending "future proofing" which I understand but I honestly don't see me expanding the use of my garage to anything more than the uses I listed above. The only other thing I could see down the line adding in would be a refrigerator or small chest freezer.
I'm on a budget so I am trying to accomplish what I want and get it done safely, but not put something in I won't come close to using power wise. Any input is appreciated!