I was at the big blue box last night getting a 30Amp 220V plug for my new Pflux and the corresponding outlet. As I was looking at the items I was asked if i needed any help by the friendly electrical dept guy. He asked what I was looking for etc. I told him and said I was looking carefully as sometimes items get put in the wrong box. In this was the first outlet I pulled out was a 50 Amp outlet. I said I only needed a 30 Amp. He replied who cares as long as you have a 30 Amp breaker i would be fine. I didn't quite like that answer so I wasn't going to ask him my other electrical questions. So instead I will ask them here.
I have a nice large garage that has plenty of room for my tools. The previous owner used the bay that I am going to be using for car work. There were already two 220V outlets in the garage one for a heater that was on the other side of the garage and one for a welder. The heater was on a 30 AMP breaker. I moved that outlet over to my bay as we won't be using the garage for social functions like the previous owner did. That was a simple task as the outlet matched my plug for my heater. The welder outlet is in the wall on a 50 AMP breaker. All other garage 120V outlets are on their own circuit on a 20AMP breaker. My heater and my new PFlux are the only things that I have right now that need 220V.
Here are the questions both revolve around the 50 AMP breaker.
1.) I was planning on replacing the 50 AMP outlet that was feeding the welder with my 30 AMP outlet for the PFlux. That should be fine, but can I use the same wires that are coming from the panel to attach the 30 AMP outlet?
2.) I have thought about adding a sub panel off the 50 AMP breaker as well. Not sure if this is really needed as I have confirmed that all the outlets are on their own independent circuit from anything else in the house or garage. And that the lights are alone on their own circuit, so that if somehow I tripped the outlet breaker the lights would still be on. But if I went the sub panel route, would I be able to use the existing wires feeding the 50 AMP outlet to install a new sub panel? I am thinking that for one thing the wires might not be long enough and that its probably not code to pigtail wires to feed a sub panel.
Thanks in advance.
Jay