Redoing Electrical

[BetterDays]

In the near future, I am planning to rewire my 20x20 garage.

Currently, I have 3 - 20A breakers going to the garage:
1 - lights (10 - double bulb four foot fluorescents)
1 - outlets (5 total currently, planning on adding a sixth)
1 - dedicated for 110v 30 gallon air compressor. This one will also be tapped for a single outlet to my shed (located directly behind my garage).

Currently, the wiring is not as I would like it. It is stapled to the header and then comes down the wall to the receptacle, back up to the header, and over to the next one.

Obviously, I want to correct this. One electrician mentioned running it inside of the walls along the footer. Another mentioned running it inside the walls at receptacle height. A third mentioned receptacle height, but using conduit.

How would you recommend completing this task?

 

[ddawg16]

I'm assuming you don't have drywall on it......

In some areas, if the romex is exposed then it has to be in conduit....if you plan to drywall then romex is fine....

I would not run it along the footer....why go from up to down....

I would pick a point between 40" above the floor and less than 60". In the event you add cabinets, you would still be able to cut out the drywall to access the wiring without having to remove anything.

Make sure you anchor the romex within 12" of where it enters the box.

BTW....you might want to consider adding another breaker and dividing your outlets into left and right side....not because you want to use that much more eletricity but I find it handy in those rare cases where you need to run two high current devices at the same time.

Don't forget to put in your GFI.

 

[BetterDays]

I have the outlets on a GFCI currently.

I will be adding drywall, but currently have masonite on the walls. Shoddy, cheap job. Planning to remove, insulate, rewire, and drywall it right.

My compressor is not hardwired, so I can use (and have used) that outlet as needed. But, in the 4 yrs since running the extra power out there, I have never needed more than two breakers. In the winters, I don't do much out there since I use the two outlets for Christmas Lights (along with a breaker or two from the house). Last year, I had just over 10k lights on the house.

The wire is Romex (12-2 is used for lights and main outlets, 12-3 is on the compressor outlet).

One of the concerns is that my house is only a 100A main service. Yes, this needs upgraded, but that is several thousand dollars that I don't have currently.