Do I have enough outlets?

[Jim Becker]

Bruce, there are plenty of 5hp machines in use in home shops these days that require 30 amp 24ov circuits, including cyclones, table saws, band saws and J/P combos. That's one reason that many of us recommend to wire for that initially as it preserves options without the expense of changing things down the road...especially the wire.

[Lisa Starr]

Consider closing up the walls and then running your electrical in conduit. I have twin conduits circling the shop a couple inches from the ceiling with a drop to a 4 square box about every 8 '. The two receptacles that share the box are on 2 different circuits so you can distribute the load no matter where in the shop you're working. The conduit allows you to pull additional wires later when your needs change. In my case, the upper conduit holds two 20 amp, 110 Volt circuits to feed the receptacles and the lower conduit carries two 30 amp, 220 Volt circuits for machinery.

[Charlie Velasquez]

Run stuff now. Extra $100 and easy to do it now.

Just finished a small 12 x 16 shed.
1- 120v, 20a general purpose;
2- 120v, 20a combination general purpose and lighting (LED light load is only 100watts per circuit and only half would go out if ever a breaker trips, 3 of the outlets are drops from the ceiling;
1- 120v combination outside light and small electric heater controlled by 3-way switches, one in house and one in shed;
1- 120v, 30a, for my RAS or whatever;
1- 240v, 30a for whatever.
1- 240v, 50a for my welder, or something else.

All are gfci, including the 240v. I believe that is code for the 2020 adoption. Our locale just recently adopted the 2017 code so I could have forgone the 240v, but what’s an extra $100?

All in emt conduit on surface @ 50” height.

[Bruce King]

If I remember, some codes were allowing motor devices to be non GFI?

[Curt Harms]

<snip>
If I were to start over on the lighting, I would probably just put up some cheap single bulb outlets and some garage lights like these: https://www.amazon.com/Deformable-Ad...a-870117562449

I put a couple in my car garage and I really like them. Unlike my bulbs, they are physically sturdy so if you bump them nothing bad should happen. They come in different sizes so you could design your lighting to get to 50 or 100 lumens per square foot and if that turns out to not be enough, just screw in some bigger ones later.

SWMBO bought one of those for our single car garage. Little sucker is BRIGHT.

[Jack Frederick]

My electrician thought I was nuts when I told him my receptacle lay-out. My place is 30x34. I had 110v outlets staggered hi/low every 4'. I had and have no idea where permanent benches tools will be located. I also sprinkled 30A and 50A receptacles with the 50's by the doors so I can run my welding machine outside if I need to. One thing I did not do is, which was a mistake, is put any infloor or ceiling drops. Depending upon your lay-out you might consider a couple mid-bay drops. It will eliminate the extension cords trip hazards.

[Bruce King]

I agree, some to drop from the ceiling is good. You use SO or SJO type for this. You will of course get flak from a home inspector for this if you have it inspected before you move your shop.

[David Publicover]

I would definitely recommend going with a 30A 240V circuit simply based on my own experience. Last year I added a couple 240V circuits but only went 20 amp as that was appropriate for my new Sawstop and dust collector. I couldn’t imagine needing 30 amps. Less than a year later, I’m looking at getting a Jointer/planer and a new bandsaw and the ones I prefer both require 30 amps. Grrrr. It would have cost very little extra to have done the 30A circuits originally and I’m kicking my butt for not planning better.
Sounds like you’ll have a great space no matter how many circuits you have!

[Jim Dwight]

54 inches would be the bottom of an upper cabinet with standard sizes. So anything below that works for outlet height. You want them above the normal 36 inch bench height (I use 38 inches) and below where an upper cabinet might be. 50 is fine. My shop is a garage with the bottom foot or so brick. So my outlets were in a horizontal piece of sheet goods unless I went over 60 inches up the wall, which is too high IMHO.

Another idea that I think has merit is to run a circuit just for small tools you want to trigger a shop vac. With that circuit connected to an auto switch, you just plug the tool in, turn it on and the vacuum starts. While I think that has merit you still have to hook up a hose. So what I do is to use a long computer power cord velcroed to a Bosch 5 meter hose with these connectors on the tool https://www.amazon.com/Toptekits-Pow...s%2C172&sr=1-7. I did not spend that much on them, I bought a package of 10 or so for not much more than that. They are a bit of a pain to wire in (I soldered them) but it works well. It is the same idea as Festools use but with a much cheaper way of making the connection. I even did this with my Domino. So I am kind of arguing against this idea but it might have merit for you or somebody else to have a circuit to trigger the vacuum. It could be paired with a tubing setup with gates, for instance.

[Jack Llewyllson]

Obvious answer: no!

I'm moving to a new place with a 3 car garage. One bay is going to be dedicated to a pool table, but the other two are going to be getting covered in sawdust. Currently the garage has a few outlets and lighting only, so I'm planning an entire redo, including a subpanel for future expansion.

I haven't actually gotten to design a shop yet - I've always been squeezed into a smaller space. I also have no idea what tools I'll be doing in the long run, so I'm aiming for versatility instead of dropping outlets precisely where I need them.

Any thoughts on the attached plan?

Mazeltov on your new shop space! I'm going through this process myself so it's interesting to me, but I can't view your layout until I figger out PayPal again.

Quick thoughts: everything coming out of my shop subpanel -- everything -- will be at least 20A on 12/2. My thinking is that gives me more flexibility for tapping a circuit without tearing the walls apart later. Also, I'm stuffing it with GFCI/AFCI breakers on the logic that I won't ever have to go scan outlets to find the popped GFCI button -- it'll just be in the panel, no matter what the reason for circuit interruption.

For 240V, I'm running two circuits, through multiple chained outlets, over 10/2 with 30A breakers. That lets me move my (somewhat puny) DC around the shop with options to have the tool on "A" circuit and the DC on "B" circuit. There's only me in the shop, so an overload is unlikely. My translation of "dedicated circuit" is "nothing else is running on the circuit at the same time." Like you, I'd like maximum flexibility within reason.

I'm not home-running my 120V tool outlets, using the same logic: if I'm over in the corner running the mortiser, it is highly unlikely that someone will crank up my jointer on the same circuit. I'm a one-man show. So all my tool circuits will run around the shop walls (plus a couple of drop cords) in daisy chains. The circuit for my overhead air cleaner will be shared with a drop cord, but the JETstreamer pulls 4.5A max, leaving 15.5 for running other things mid-shop.

I think your shop is gonna make mine look like Peewee's Playhouse. Sounds like a terrific space in the making!

[Drew Bernat]

Thank you!

For future searchers I'm attaching an updated plan. I've got a ping into the city government asking if I can do this as a homeowner; the web page says yes and the permit process says no. If not, I'll get an electrician to help me out.

I upped the lights. Having two sets of overheads is a bit redundant, but it's for "woodworking" mode and "playing pool" mode; I don't want the woodworking light level when I'm hanging with friends. I have noticed my eyes aren't as good as they used to be, and I'm only in my 40s! Side note: LASIK is awesome...

Also, a very good suggestion on the 30A. I haven't decided where the dust collector is going, so I've left that out for now. I'm going to spend a few months settling in before I close up the walls, and I'll run the extra circuit then. Until then, good call on the 20A 220 - I'm not going to go huge as a hobbyist.

[Jim Becker]

You may be able to compromise by doing the grunt work of pulling cable, etc., per the plan by working things out with a licensed electrician where he pulls the permit, completes the terminations at the breakers and handles getting the inspection done.

[Bill Yacey]

Any shop I've ever wired for myself had 15A receptacles every 5 feet around the perimeter walls. I have only a few pieces of equipment advantageous to run on 240V, so I installed 30A Twistloks in a few locations where they would be handy.

As someone mentioned, if you're using LED lighting, one 15A circuit should be more than sufficient for a small shop.

[Brice Rogers]

Drew, if you are planning on submitting your drawing for permit approval, I'd recommend adding the location of the switches for the lights or for any switched receptacles.

It is good that you have a separate circuit for the refrig and freezer because if you accidentally tripped a GFCI, your frig/freezer could stop working.

When I wired my 24 x 36' workshop, I put in quad receptacles rather than duplex. The difference in cost for the whole shop was probably under $30.

I also like using a few ceiling "drops" so that I don't have cords to trip over for my lathe, and workbenches that are out in the middle. On three of my work benches, I used a long power strip mounted under the lip so that wood and metal shavings wouldn't be propelled into the recepacles.

I wired in a phone with an RJ-34 connector, but my wireless portable phone works fine.

I had to have a rebar grounding bar (put in when the slab was poured) but had to leave access to it. So I put in a "box" with no back on it (standard item) and screwed on a plain plate.

By code, IIRC, I had to use 5/8" firecode drywall on the wall where the subpanel was located. The other walls were 1/2" drywall.

You may want to check if want to be able to control any outdoor lights and/or support a weather proof outdoor receptacle. This would be the time to do that.

Finally - - I've heard that AFCI (arc fault circuit interrupters) may be needed on new work. Perhaps others more familiar with code will opine.

[Matthew Curtis]

When building my 30x24' shop, I placed 110v outlets every 4 feet, alternating circuits with each outlet.. I also have 2 spots on each of three walls ready for up to 50 amps at 240v.
I then have four outlets in the ceiling for 110 v.
Then in the concrete floor I have a double box with an outlet for 110, and also a 240v outlet. This was great for the tablesaw. And the workbench.

I also wired for 12 four foot lights in the ceiling and a separate circuit for a heater.

Works good so far. I can always reach atleast one outlet.