where to locate electrical outlets in new shop

[dale rex]

I am in the process of finishing the walls of my basement shop. I am starting with bare concrete foundation walls and insulating and building 2 x 4 walls. I want to add plenty of outlets in the new walls. How high should they be? I am thinking of around 4 ft, but I dont want the outlets to be directly in line with the horizintal drywall joint. Any higher and they might interfere with any wall cabinets I will have.And I possibly will be running my dust collector main line along the walls, so I dont want the main duct to interfere with the outlets either. Any suggestions you might have from your experiences would be helpful. I need to know how to separate the circuits,also. I have a new 24 slot, 100 amp sub panel, so I have plenty of room for any amount of 20 amp circuits that I want . How did you run your circuits?one circuit per wall? alternate outlets on diff circuits? Any ideas will be helpful........ thanks

[James Boster]

simple, put them everywhere:D , and your cord will still be too short:eek: . I placed mine about 48" above the floor where I would be using hand held tools and close to the floor where my stationary machines are. Do you have any 220 circuits, if you do those 24 spaces will be gone quick. I seperated mine on circuits for each wall plus lights on a different circuit. I can assure you that wherever you put them you will never have one somewhere you wished you did.:cool:

[Roger Reynolds]

I suggest slightly over 48" from floor height to bottom of outlet. this will allow sheet goods against the wall without covering the outlets.

[John Harden]

See my reply to the other guy on outlets for the shop. I placed all mine 18" off the floor. Has worked well for me. They won't ever get in the way down there, while they might at 48" off the floor. How often do you plan on leaning over to unplug them anyway?

Make sure to buy the narrow, double breakers. 24 full slots would allow you to run 48 dedicated, 120V runs if you use double breakers. For each 240V circuit you need, subtract 2 from that number of 48. Don't worry about the capacity of your panel as you'll never exceed that 100 amp breaker in the main panel. Sit down some time and calculate out how many machines you'd have to have on at the same time to even get close to that.

For woodworking shops, I prefer dedicated circuits as it offers maximum flexibility. You won't trip breakers or overload circuits and any can be converted to 240V and back again if you decide to move tools around, etc. So many of our tools, including hand tools use 13 amps or more that dedicated runs make sense. For example, you can't run an 8 amp sabre saw and and a 14 amp shop vac at the same time when they're plugged into the same circuit. Even if it doesn't pop the breaker, you're overloading that circuit.

Regards,

John

[Jerry Todd]

The best addition to my work shop was lots of ceiling outlets with retractable cords. They sure come in handy and I never have electrical cords on the floor. Just my two cents.
Jerry

[Chris Rosenberger]

I placed mine alittle over 48" to the bottom as Roger said he did his. The outlets are spaced no more than 48" apart. I also have 220 outlets spaced around the shop. I broke the circuits up by walls. If it was a long wall I made it 2 circuits. Also for machines that set away from the walls I made drops from the ceiling as Jerry did.

[Bob D.]

I'll second keeping lights on seperate circuits from tools. Then you won't be left in the dark should you pop a breaker unexpectedly with a saw blade spinning down in the dark :(

[Steve Cox]

Mine are closer to 42" off the floor. High enough to reach easily but out of th eway of wall hung cabinets. When I ran mine I put every other outlet on a separate circuit. If I'm running two tools I just plug them in different outlets and I don't overload the circuit.

[John Mihich]

I have a few under the upper cabinets by my work bench and at bench level. I also have several in the ceiling with short extention cords they go just above my head. I try not to have cords running on the floor; I will trip over them.

[Barry O'Mahony]

My philosophy is that it's a shop, it doesn't have to look pretty. So I just build the walls, and run surface-mount conduit. 'kind of cool in an industrial-looking way, actually. You buy another big tool, just run some new 1/2" conduit over to where it's located.

Ceiling mount reels are very useful for small tools, as other mentioned. I have one an like it so much, I just bought another.

[tod evans]

My philosophy is that it's a shop, it doesn't have to look pretty. So I just build the walls, and run surface-mount conduit. 'kind of cool in an industrial-looking way, actually. You buy another big tool, just run some new 1/2" conduit over to where it's located.
.

this was my choice also........02 tod

[John Hart]

The ones I have in the walls are about waist high....plus, a bunch in the ceiling. I like my ceiling outlets because they are never obstructed.

[lou sansone]

conduit on the outside of the wall and heights above 48" as others have said
lou

[Marcus Ward]

Mine are about 55" above the floor every 4' on all walls and the ceiling. Ceiling is really handy for lights and plugging in machines in the center of the shop.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I placed the outlets in my new shop a little over 48" above the floor. If you stand sheet goods against the wall, the outlet is still accessible.

[John Gregory]

I'll second keeping lights on seperate circuits from tools. Then you won't be left in the dark should you pop a breaker unexpectedly with a saw blade spinning down in the dark :(

When I built my shop, I installed a battery emergency light from Home Depot. Then if there is a power failure, I can get out of the shop without bumping into things. I did put my lights on their own breaker too.

John

[John Weber]

Mine alternate between bench level (around 4') and standard floor height (the height of my hammer), on every other stud. Each wall is on a seperate circuit, and I think I put at least one dedicated 20 amp outlet on each wall. I've not really had any issues after 5+ years. Some outlets are behind benches, tools, etc... but I only use an extension cord with my drum sander, since I use it in the middle of the shop. Also add a couple ceiling circuits for air cleaner, ceiling fan, drop cord (if I ever get around to it), circuits are cheap and easy.

John

[Steve Clardy]

Mine are all above the 48" mark.
Use double boxes, this gives you four outlets per each box.

[Bert Johansen]

Dale,
A couple of thoughts that haven't been discussed already.
If you have a cabinet saw--or anticipate owning one--it will require 220 Volts. The issue is locating the outlet, since the tool will be located away from the walls. I organized my space so that three sides of the TS are accessible routinely, and the fourth (to the left of the TS from where you will stand) is still open, but has the electrical and DC lines coming to the saw. You will need to run steel conduit for the electrical, and you have the choice of flex or solid. I chose solid at first but later replaced it with flex.

Also, you should run 220V to several other spots in your shop. The larger duct collectors, jointers and bandsaws are mostly 220V. Consider what your shop will be like 5-10 years from now and prepare for the upgrades.

Good luck!
Bert

[Tyler Howell]

If I were starting from scratch, I would run square duct around the parimeter of the shop great for updates Slightly over 4' to clear standing sheat goods. Talk about industrial looking.:D

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Tyler, you have a great point. It would look very industrial and with the right labeling, you could really use it for future expansion or tieing into additional lines.

[Frank Pellow]

My 120 volt 20 amp outlets are 42" above the ground and every 42" along the wall. They are on two circuits and adjacent outlets are on alternate circuits. There are also two 120 volt 20 amp outlets suspended from the ceiling.

You don't mention 240 volt outlets but you should certainly have some. I have three 240 volt 20 amp outlets in the wall, three suspended from the cieling ,and several 2 metre loop of cable buiried behind junction boxes in the wall should I want a 240 volt outlet somewhere else some day.

[John Weber]

[QUOTE=Steve Clardy]Mine are all above the 48" mark.[QUOTE]

+1 on the 48" mark, in a small shop you stick sheet good where ever you can...

John

[Ron Robinson]

If I were starting over I would run 3 conductor wire for all of my outlets and create separate circuits for the top and bottom outlets. That way if I have two tools plugged in the same outlet they would be on different circuits.

Ron

[Jim Becker]

I have some up high (48') and some down low. (18") I also don't have a gazzillion of them, either. In a few places I have quads, but most are just duplexes and that works out just fine for a one-person shop. But they are convenient relative to "where" they are in the shop... ;) That's what is most important.

[Jim DeLaney]

If I were building a new shop, I'd put an outlet everywhere I even thought I might need one. Then, I'd go back and put another outlet in between each and every one of those.

I'd also wire adjacent outlets on different circuits to help prevent overloading.

[Steven J Corpstein]

Where I live, city code require outlets to be at least 36" off the floor in a garage. Their reasoning is if you park cars in the garage/shop, there are gas fumes down low that could explode if you plug something in and it sparks at the outlet. I realize that is fairly unlikely, but it is code here.

I put mine at 50" because of the sheet goods issue.

[dale rex]

I like the idea of running every other outlet on a different circuit. I do have several 220v machines and pretty well know where they are going, so I can wire in dedicated 220v, 20 amp circuits for each of those. Thinking about a height of 40" for the outlets, so I can easily mark and cut the openings all in the lower sheet of drywall(as opposed to lifting the upper sheet several times to get the right fit around the outlet cutouts). Thanks for all of your opinions ,all of your input is really appreciated.

[J.R. Rutter]

I like ceiling outlets, too. If your shop is narrow, this isn't a big deal, but if it is square, or you might want an island grouping of machinery, a ceiling outlet will keep you from tripping over the cord.

I have 6 outlets in the middle of my garage shop on 3 different circuits. All are used. I used heavy string as strain reliefs, so that there is a short, slack loop of power cord right at the outlets.

[Silas Smith]

I just got my garage wired a few days ago and I put in double boxes about 4' off the ground. I actually wired each box to have 2 220V and 2 110V plugs and then all of the 220V outlets were wired to thier own breakers. I put in 4 boxes like I described, one quad box of 110V and another 220 V 30 amp box in case I ever get the urge to get a 5 hp machine. 7 new breakers total, which completely filled up my box. I used metal conduit for everything because I was not going to rip apart the drywall for this. The only thing I don't like is the fact that if I move, the new owners will probably look at it and say "thats ugly, and why are the slots pointed the wrong way in half of the outlets?"

[John Bailey]

Dale,

I'm just building my shop and I've decided to go the conduit route. I'm a believer of, no matter how much research and planning one does, there are always unintended consequences. I just like the idea of being able to, easily, get to the wiring in the future when I want to change, add, or modify something.

John

[Randy Meijer]

I have a question about all of this 2 circuit alternate box thing. I understand the logic of it and obviously, it never hurts to have a little extra capacity; but in a one man shop, which I assume is what we are talking about in most cases, what two tools would a single worker have running at the same time that would overload a circuit?? Other than one major tool, which is probably on a dedicated circuit anyway, I can't see one running anything much more than a fan or a TV or radio and those aren't likely to cause an overload......I must be missing something here; but can't quite fathom what it might be?? :confused: :confused:

[Randy Meijer]

Hey!!!

Nobody going to take a shot at this one??

[John Hart]

Randy, I have multiple circuits, and while I agree that there no real safety reason for it, it's nice that when a tool blows a breaker, the lights stay on. I also have my computer on a separate breaker so it won't be disrupted. In total, I have 4 circuits....Ceiling outlets, wall outlets, lights, Computer system.

[Eric Shields]

John,

This is one of the many questions I have been following here at SMC and contemplating for my shop space renovation. Though it will be a long time until I am ready to place my outlets, I am taking copious notes from the replys you are getting. Thanks for posting the question.

[Randy Meijer]

.....it's nice that when a tool blows a breaker, the lights stay on......

John: I agree about the lights. I would add that I like to have two light circuits or at least lights on two different circuits. That way, if a light fixture fails and blows a breaker, your shop will not be totally in the dark. I also like the idea of having a little emergency light with a battery backup in case there is a total power failure.

[dale rex]

Just started placing outlet boxes in the first wall I finished constructing. Putting them at 48" to the top of the box. This way they will clear a base cabinet and still be underneath an upper cabinet. I am not worried about leaning a sheet of plywood up against the wall and interfering with the outlets(I dont have the room to do this.......too many tools lining my walls):rolleyes: I am spacing them 48" apart on the studs. I will alternate outlets on 2 circuits on the long walls. The location of the 220v outlets that I need are still being decided( I have three tool setups that I have been toying with).So until I decide where the TS, planer and jointer will go, I am going to just install a few temp. surface mounted 220v outlets for now, then relocate them permanently when I figure out the final palcement of these tools. ahhhh,finally making some progress in the shop:p .......been waiting for 6 months to start this. Been way too busy working and havent had much time, now the shop is all mine..............:D :D :D maybe if you all behave, I might post a few pics:rolleyes: