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aurelio alarcon
01-12-2006, 11:50 AM
does anyow how to size one know how to size pipe for electrical wire?

Bruce Shiverdecker
01-12-2006, 12:31 PM
Go to the National Electric Code book, posssibly available at your local library. It has all the charts. The electrical department at one of the borg's might have one, or, if all else fails, get one of the home inprovement books on electrical wiring and see if it has it. It might not, since not all communities require conduit in residential applications.

Good Luck,

Bruce

Dan Mages
01-12-2006, 12:52 PM
Where do you live? In my experience, 1/2" pipe is standard fare with 12 gauge solid wire. I also prefer standard square boxes with mud rings on them.

If you tell us what you are planning on doing, we may be able to help you further.

Dan

Chris Gregory
01-12-2006, 1:22 PM
does anyow how to size one know how to size pipe for electrical wire?

It all depends on what you plan to do as in how many conductors and what gauge. A friebd turned me onto an extremely handy book that I think everybody should own, it is called Pocket Ref by Thomas J Glover it cost $11 including shipping do a google on it, this book is an incredible source of information including stuff where you might say I wonder.....it's in there.

Cheers,
Chris

aurelio alarcon
01-12-2006, 3:30 PM
I plan to run conduit to my new (very small shop). It will be about 50 feet from my house main to my workshop. I want to put about a 100 amp box at the workshop. Probably about 5 20 amp breakers. Hope this helps.

Chris Gregory
01-12-2006, 3:50 PM
you are going to need to run three #4 (preferable) or three #6 (adequate) copper wire and you should use 1" or 11/4" conduit, depending how you run it you may also need to add a ground wire, you also might want to look into direct burial cable so you don't need to use conduit if your local codes allow it. I am not a licensed electrician so please double check anything I say with your local building department.

Cheers,
Chris

Joe Pelonio
01-12-2006, 4:11 PM
Go to the library and look at the codes for your city or county because it does vary. I had an uncle do the wiring on an addition years ago, and because he normally worked in another county I had to redo it after the inspection. National codes can be superceded by local authorities, sometimes for no apparent reason.

Travis Porter
01-12-2006, 4:17 PM
I ran 2" PVC conduit for mine. The bigger pipe makes it easier to pull the wires through. Could have gotten by with 1 1/2, but I didn't want to fight pulling cable anymore than I had to. The PVC was easier to deal with than the metal stuff to me. My county did not supercede the NEC so it simplified things for me. My .02

Bill Lewis
01-12-2006, 4:28 PM
Without looking up the wire sizes I can tell you one thing, if you only want 5 20 amp 120V circuits, you don't need a 100 amp panel. However, you will need to run at least 3 wires, a hot, a neutral, and a ground. If indeed you want to have some 240V circuits, then you will need to have 4 wires, 2 hots, 1 neutral, and a ground. Which, if you are going to all of the trouble to do this, then why would you not want the extra capability.

Chris Gregory
01-12-2006, 6:06 PM
Rule of thumb is that your panel meet 80% of your total load, and as Bill says you wouldn't want to cut yourself short and definitely go for the 220 volt capability, what I was referring to in my three wire circuit was 2 single phase hot legs and 1 neutral, if you use metallic conduit some codes don't require that you run a separate ground.

Chris Padilla
01-12-2006, 7:04 PM
I collected a few posts made by Rob "NEC/3-phase" Russell. I think you'll find them helpful.

aurelio alarcon
01-12-2006, 9:00 PM
Thanks for all the info. I will take the advice and wire it for 220. In the event I need it, it will be there. All sound advice! Thanks