Re-wiring my barn, conduit/code questions

[Fallon]

My barn/shop had 4 gauge (I think) wire buried running out to it & a 150@ breaker at the house, along with a lot of other shoddy wiring. I've cleaned up some of the really shoddy stuff already & been thinking about upgrading the service out there for a bit as I do some welding & other high juice things. I just got some solar panels installed out on the barn & Namaste solar was kind enough to run me a 125@ circuit though the same conduit for just the price of the wire & the breaker box.

So now I have a properly installed 125@ breaker box installed (looks proper to me & I believe the inspector signed off on their work there). The old circuit with its improper breaker is now dead as is the old breaker box out in the barn. The solar guys said the inspector signed off on their work, but he had some issues with the legacy wiring & wouldn't close out the permit until it was sorted out. The fact it was disconnected wasn't enough as he (probably rightly) expected it would be hooked up when he left. Colorado is subject to NEC & Elbert county just lets the state deal with electrical inspections. So I need to clean up some of my stuff so that the inspector can close out their permit for the solar stuff. Well that & I should just do it right for all the reasons you should do things the right way.

So I need to clean things up a bit out there. Most everything is ran with appropriately gauged romex. There really won't ever be any finished walls to run the wire behind. Will I need to put conduit over that to make the inspector happy? Metallic or PVC? Re-run it with MC cable? Do I need to run the conduit through the rafters as well or just up to 8-10'?

I'm proficient with electrical stuff enough to get that right, so I'm mostly concerned with what code stuff relates to protecting the wire in an outbuilding.

 

[Pwrgeek]

Is the Romex stapled to studs? Does it run through the walls or along them. There is no problem with Romex in open walls as long as it is protected from physical damage. That means no running on the outside of studs here it has to go through them. That said if you are going to pull everything down anyway I love pipe installs for "work" areas like shops and garages. Makes it easy to move stuff around as tooling and usage changes and absolutely answers the physical protection needs of the conductors.


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[wyliesdiesels]

I didnt quite follow.

Are u feeding the garage with #4 cu wire on a 150a breaker? If so, that wire is WAY undersized! What is the length of the wire?

 

[Fallon]

None of it is run through studs. Most of it is actually overhead. My shop side has metal trusses about 8' up & the romex weaves through hose with overhead outlets.

I'm actually tinking about keeping the old breaker box on the far shop side & feeding it off a 100@ breaker from the new box. One of the inspectors more easily resolved issues is multiple wires on 1 breaker (because there werent enough breakers & slots in the old box)

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[Fallon]

I didnt quite follow.

Are u feeding the garage with #4 cu wire on a 150a breaker? If so, that wire is WAY undersized! What is the length of the wire?

Yes, I am very well aware of it, which is why the old #4 wire is now disconnected & the 150@ breaker is removed. There was a 50@ breaker on the barn panel, which cut down on the risk a bit, but the wire out to the barn was under protected by a factor of 2 or 3. The previous owners did some very non-kosher stuff out in the barn electrical wise. That was the worst though. I've cleaned up most of the really nasty stuff, but still have some lights that have wire nuts just free hanging where they are tied into the romex & what not.

I'm mostly concerned about what I need to do to physically protect the wire going from the panel to the lights & outlets. I'm thinking/hoping I can just replace the stuff under 8' or so with MC wire. I'd look at EMT, but I don't have a tubing bender or the skill to use it.

 

[Pwrgeek]

Romex running through / along overhead trusses is generally accepted as physically protected. You'll need to secure it. Ty raps are your friend.


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