Temporary lighting an electrical for shop?

[Hobby_Man22]

My shop is about 300ft from the breaker box. Is their a more temporary method to powering lights and a couple 20 amp outlets? I would also like a 50 amp breaker to power an air compressor. Maybe run some underground feed wire? Vs spending $5 or 10k and going all out on this?

 

[BillK]

Is their a more temporary method to powering lights and a couple 20 amp outlets? I would also like a 50 amp breaker to power an air compressor. Maybe run some underground feed wire?

How long is "temporary" ? How much will you be using the shop ?

Buy a generator and a gas powered air compressor and then just sell them when you finally get your power run ?

If you are going to buy the feed wire that's going to be the biggest expense anyway. Might as well go ahead and do the whole job.

 

[mike93lx]

2-2-2-4 aluminum MHF gets you 40a at less than 3% voltage drop and 50a at less than 4%. That will be about the cheapest option

 

[Innovate1]

More temporary than what? It's a little hard to understand what you are wanting to do so more explanation would be good. Guessing maybe you want temporary power for lights and small loads and eventually going to a buried feed for larger loads? That's a long way for extension cords but could be used for lights. Extremely limited for any sort of power tools though. I installed buried conduit but for temporary service post during construction of the detached garage about 200' from house ran the conduit on the ground to the temp panel close to the building site. Once it was framed I put the conduit in the ground. On the ground wasn't code so it's up to you if you want to do it but it worked well for me.

 

[Innovate1]

If you can do it yourself you can do it for a lot less than $5-10k.

 

[Crazyjake8493]

If you just want light there's plenty of options. If you need an outlet or two as well, I'd suggest a generator.

As soon as you're looking at a 50-amp compressor circuit, just bite the bullet and run power out there properly. Or buy a gas-powered compressor.

 

[75gmck25]

I'm not sure how "temporary" you want, and whether it will later transition to a more permanent installation. However, if I was in complete control of the job site and all traffic that might damage wire laying on the surface, I can suggest one possibility.

As a quick, solution for a temporary sub-panel you could run 2" electrical conduit on the ground between the two buildings (for physical protection on the site), and then run 2-2-2-4 AL mobile home feeder in the conduit, with up to a 90 amp breaker at the main panel. Also drive two ground rods at the new building for the sub-panel. Wire it up properly to the sub-panel, with ground and neutral not bonded.
Note: MHF can be run buried in a wet environment, either direct bury or in conduit, but must be in conduit inside a building.

If you are careful with the "temporary" wire and conduit you could go back later and trench the conduit in at the proper depth, and make your connections for the permanent panel.

 

[u2slow]

On construction sites around here, typical to run #2 ACWU (PVC coated MC with aluminum conductors) on the ground to a temp panel on a scrap of plywood. At 300' probably want to limit the feeder breaker to 60-70A. The grounds rods at the main service entrance will do the job.

Save the Code nuances for the future, (permanent) installation.