Wiring Questions.. Electricians step inside

[rich g]

Ok, so I wired my garage and a bench I installed and I am starting to second guess my self.

I installed a 30amp breaker and ran the 4 wire ten gauge over to my bench (2hot, 1 common, 1 neutral)

I then terminated all 4 at my generator plug

I took the two hot and the common and ran them to my welder plug

I took one hot and the common and ran them to a series of outlets.


In my head it makes sense that it works, but I am starting to second guess myself..

Any electricians out there have an opinion?

Thanks

 

[vekster]

I would be second guessing myself also with that set-up.

thats fine for the welder plug

what are your outlets? if they are 15 or 20 amp receptacles, then they cant run off the 30 amp breaker.

 

[Mustang51js]

Yeah if you can run another wire from the panel to the first outlet and install a 20 amp breaker,you would prob never overload the outlet but it's only rated to 20 amps. And you can't come off a 220 line and continue to 120 volt outlets,it would unbalance the load if you have things running at same time. So just separate the outlets from the welder plug. And you will get guys on here saying you will kill someone having the gen plug on there because you don't have an interlock kit on the panel. My biggest concern with that is the forks of the gen plug would be hot during normal use when breaker is on.

 

[pattenp]

With AC wiring the neutral is sometimes referred to as the common, but the ground is not referred to as the common.
So you have 2 ungrounded conductors (Hots), 1 grounded conductor (Neutral), and 1 grounding conductor (Equipment Ground). I hope you ran one hot, the neutral and ground to the outlets, not just a hot and the common(ground) as you stated.

...

I installed a 30amp breaker and ran the 4 wire ten gauge over to my bench (2hot, 1 common, 1 neutral)........

I took one hot and the common and ran them to a series of outlets.

Thanks

 

[Stuart in MN]

It sounds as though you have some 15 or 20 amp 120vac receptacles on a 30 amp circuit which isn't allowed - you need one 30 amp 240vac circuit for the welder outlet, and a separate 15 or 20 amp 120vac circuit for the receptacles.

 

[yeldogt]

Sounds like you need a small sub-panel for the loads. That way you can have the breaker in the sub for the welder and then get 15 or 20 amps in the sub for the outlets. You have to properly protect the outlet circuits

I would not mix it up with the generator .... and that hook-up sound wrong. How are you protecting the feed from the generator.

The parts are cheap to do it correctly.

 

[gordyy]

hooking your generator into the house will power your house
BUT it will also send power back thru your meter to the pole where the line went down so the lineman who gets to hook it up grabs your hot line and all is not well in his world

 

[JohnX14]

The post is difficult to follow as far as exactly what was done with regard to the generator. But as others have said, you need to provide a different means of powering the receptacles. Either add a small subpanel then power the welder from one circuit and the receptacles from another, or bring an additional 120V circuit to the receptacles and separate them from the 30 amp 4 wire circuit

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Guys- it doesnt soun like he hooked his gen to his house. Instead, it sounds like hes using his generator to power some tools...

Ok, so I wired my garage and a bench I installed and I am starting to second guess my self.

I installed a 30amp breaker and ran the 4 wire ten gauge over to my bench (2hot, 1 common, 1 neutral)

I then terminated all 4 at my generator plug

I took the two hot and the common and ran them to my welder plug

I took one hot and the common and ran them to a series of outlets.


In my head it makes sense that it works, but I am starting to second guess myself..

Any electricians out there have an opinion?

Thanks

By common, do u mean neutral or ground? If your welder is 240v(u said u ran 2 hots) then it doesnt need a neutral, if thats what u mean by common.