What wire to use for 100A sub-panel

[Skyline]

I want to upgrade (and replace) my garage sub-panel for 100A. I have a pretty long run from my main panel; at least 110 ft through the attic, then 15 ft underground to the garage. I am thinking I will bury the cable in a 2 1/2" conduit rather than using direct burial cable. I would like to run the cable before bringing in a licensed electrician to hook it up, as the cable run is a major PITA in my house (up from panel to attic, 50' across attic, down through wall to basement, 30' through crawl space, then 30 ft through basement work room, then outside...dig 1/2 day for trench).

I am assuming 3 X 2 gauge wire. Any comments?

Should I be shopping anywhere besides Home Depot for the wire?

 

[Aceman]

I want to upgrade (and replace) my garage sub-panel for 100A. I have a pretty long run from my main panel; at least 110 ft through the attic, then 15 ft underground to the garage. I am thinking I will bury the cable in a 2 1/2" conduit rather than using direct burial cable. I would like to run the cable before bringing in a licensed electrician to hook it up, as the cable run is a major PITA in my house (up from panel to attic, 50' across attic, down through wall to basement, 30' through crawl space, then 30 ft through basement work room, then outside...dig 1/2 day for trench).

I am assuming 3 X 2 gauge wire. Any comments?

Should I be shopping anywhere besides Home Depot for the wire?

Have you searched previous posts? 100 amp garage panels have been covered many times.

Your wire path sounds a little off too, I don't know if you're routing it the best way or not without looking at it. Usually we come off the main panel and head to the closest wall in the direction of the garage, stub out, then go underground. Even if you have to run the opposite direction through the house for a little ways just to get outside that is still better IMO. Once your in the ground it's easier, it's only a matter of digging a little longer ditch.

 

[tfi racing]

Just did a similar job on my own house,had to go about 75' through the garage,into the crawl space and about 15' of trench,no other way around it.
I used #2/3c ACWU,that I had left over from a previous project.Don't bother flaming me over the aluminum,thats what I would have used regardless for this type of job.Copper prices at the time would have been ridiculous,EMT and pulling in conductors far too cumbersome. You may be able to find ACWU or Teck far cheaper than NMD or NMW at HD with a bit of research and scrounging.

 

[Skyline]

Have you searched previous posts? 100 amp garage panels have been covered many times.

Your wire path sounds a little off too, I don't know if you're routing it the best way or not without looking at it. Usually we come off the main panel and head to the closest wall in the direction of the garage, stub out, then go underground. Even if you have to run the opposite direction through the house for a little ways just to get outside that is still better IMO. Once your in the ground it's easier, it's only a matter of digging a little longer ditch.

I'd love to run it outside, but aside from a couple of walkways in the way, there is also a septic field and tank in the way. There is no question it is a PITA run, as I ran another cable most of this same path through the house a couple of years ago, (to add a 25A circuit for my big copy machine). But the added cable weight would compound the difficuly by a huge margin.