Upgrading electrical service?

[zuren]

Sorry for the length, but I'm trying to get my head around our current electrical situation and come to a good solution for getting service out to a detached 1-car garage/shop and increase service to my attached garage. I have not called anyone yet, but I want to do my homework so that I can ask the right questions when I do speak to electricians and the power company.

What I know and what I have

• Our home has 200A service that comes in via an overhead wire to a relatively cramped electrical panel on the 1st floor of our home
• I have two 50A breakers that are not connected to anything
• I have a 40A breaker that used to power our electric stove, but we updated to a gas stove (the plan is to retain the 220V outlet...just in case)
• I recently acquired a 5000W generator but have no way to tie it into the house, other than extension cords

My "wants"
Attached garage
The attached garage already has lights and outlets but no option to plug in anything that is 220V. I have acquired a welder and an air compressor that each need 220V service. I will be setting up a small workbench area and would want a couple more outlets. This will mostly be my "clean" work space; no saws or other tools that make a lot of dust (been yelled at too many times by the wife). The electric panel in the house is near a door to the garage, so while it would not be fun, I could potentially bring a wire out the top of the panel through the attic from one of the 50A breakers and into a small panel in the garage. My hope would be to have an outlet for a small welder, outlet for the compressor, a couple 120V outlets, and "possibly" an RV hookup outlet near the garage bay door for when grandma/grandpa come to visit in the campervan. Anything wrong with this plan off a single 50A breaker?

Detached 1-car garage/shop
There is no electric service to this structure; everything will be 100% from scratch. The shop is roughly 60 ft. from where my existing meter lives on the house. Future plans include either A) tearing this barn down and building a new one in its place with a climate controlled area for home offices or B) setting a large, finished, insulated, climate controlled shed next to the shop as my wife's home office. Finances will determine which direction we go but if "B" happens, my plan was to pull electric from the shop to the shed. For my immediate needs, I want to run lights and outlets, maybe be able to plug in a welder. This will be my "dirty" space where I can run saws and make whatever mess I want. Considering my future plans, I don't think 50A is enough and getting the wire from the panel in the house to the exterior of the house would be a pain. I have read that there may be an option for the power company to upgrade the meter to something higher (300, 400, ?), then a new feed line runs directly from the meter to a new panel in the shop, giving me 200A in the house and 100-200A service in the shop for future expansion from a single residential meter. Is what I describe accurate or feasible?

Overhead wire
The overhead wire feeding into the house droops very low over our deck, is in our view as we look out over our backyard and pond, and would be in the way if we ever wanted to convert the deck to a screened porch (with shingled roof). I want to look into this being buried.

Generator
I want a way to get this connected to the house to be able to run critical systems. 5000W is not enough to be a "whole house" solution, but if it could run our furnace, well pump, and a few lights due to an outage from an ice storm, I would be happy. We currently have no secondary heat source in the house, but we do have a gas stove so we can cook.


In summary, I think getting a 220V line into the attached garage is fairly straight forward. If there is an elegant solution for getting 100-200A of service to the detached shop from a single meter while also getting the wire in the ground and giving me the ability to connect the generator, that is the solution I want.

Thanks!

 

[tyme2par4]

Attached Garage: I see nothing wrong with your proposal, except 50A may be tight depending on the size of the compressor and the RV. If you need more, breakers are cheap and easy to replace. I would aim a bit higher with the wiring.

Detatched: Best option is probably to run conduit underground and come up right next to the structure. Will 50A be enough? Maybe, but I have no idea what you plan to do out there. A small insulated space wouldn't require much power to condition, but if you plan to have a really big welder and some other tools, you may trip the breaker occasionally. Again, breakers are cheap, just plan your wire size to what you think you may need.
There shouldn't be any need to upgrade your service unless you have a lot of power hungry things in the house. 200A is more than enough for most people.

If you really think you need 200A to the detached structure, you can get a meter base with dual lugs or put a load center immediately after the meter. The PoCo may require you to upgrade your service for this option, and may or may not charge you big bucks.

Overhead wire: Is the utility pole on your side of the street? If so, it shouldn't be too costly to run a new underground service. If you're willing to dig the trench and run the conduit, the work from the power company would be minimal.
If your wire crossed the street, probably forget about it.

Generator: You have 2 options: A generator inter-lock, or a transfer switch. The interlock would allow you to power anything in the house or your detached structure once electrified. You will be responsible for only using the loads that the generator can handle though. Just shut off any 240V breakers and try to turn off anything you don't need, and you should be fine.
A transfer switch will allow you to power the 6-10 circuits that you deem necessary during an outage. Less to worry about, but less flexibility.

 

[Stuart in MN]

In most cases a 50 or 60 amp branch circuit to the detached shop will be more than adequate for a residence. In general you're probably not going to be running a bunch of electrical devices at the same time.


As for the generator, there are about a zillion discussions on the topic here - the trick is finding them. You can try the advanced search function at the top of the page, but you'll most likely have better luck using google - go there and search on


generator site:www.garagejournal.com