Electrical woes

[Ryan W Taylor]

So as some of you may have seen, I plan on buying a proper table saw. Unfortunately I only have 110v service out in the garage and will have to run a 220 line out to it. That is where it gets interesting. I have to have it run from the opposite side of the house (breaker box), up the wall, across the attic, down a wall and out the side of the house (two story house) to where the other line 90's down into the ground and then over into the garage. This is the same path as the current 110v line. Probably around 100' total and I know it's not going to be cheap. I am just dreading the estimate and trying to think of ways to save money on it. Maybe instead of going down the wall in the back of the house, make the new drop run outside of the house inside of PVC? I don't know though, I am just...stumped and quite frankly dreading this.

If any of you guys have dealt with this before or have advice, I would love to hear it. I really want the 3HP motor and not be stuck with the 110v motor.

[Bill Dufour]

Under the first floor. That is a long enough run that you should up size the conductors to reduce voltage drop. As long as you are doing this is there any reason to add a subpanel inside the house opposite side from the meter?
Bill D.

[Ron Selzer]

Basement?
Run conduit around outside of house, fasten to foundation lower than siding.
Bury it in the ground, pvc conduit with no 6 copper wire and subpanel in garage
good luck
Ron

[Frank Pratt]

That's a lot of labor to run that circuit, so you might as well run some 6/3 or at least 8/3 & put a sub-panel in the shop. I don't think you'll ever regret having one and it's almost a certainty that you'll need more circuits at some point.

[Jim Becker]

For the leve or work required, have a small sub-panel installed so you not only get 240v for your intended table saw purchase, but so you can also have a 240v circuit for a dust collector simultaneously, etc. The existing 120v circuit in your garage may also be only 15 amp, depending on when the structure was built. You really should have a 20 amp 120v circuit available for many power tools. So get a subpanel and use surface mount conduit to make your life easy getting things where you need it in the shop space.

[Ryan W Taylor]

We have no basement. Concrete slab since we live right on the coast.

Agree with the sub panel in the garage. Right now we have 110/20amp service. If I am able to pull this off...what amperage and how many drops do you guys think I should run? This is a tiny one car garage with a work space on one side of it.

[Andrew Seemann]

For the effort you are going through, I'd run at least 60 amps of 240V out there. That is plenty for a one person shop running a 3HP table saw, 3HP dust collector, air compressor, lights, etc. Though I have 100A wire going to my shop, I just have a 60A breaker in the box, mostly because I had one on hand at the time. The cost of running 60 amps isn't going to be much different than doing 40 or 50. Plus, when you sell, there will be enough juice for the next persons electric car charger. You could do 100 amps also, again it isn't much more than 60, but it probably is a little overkill, unless you are planning to get an electric car.

[Alex Zeller]

A friend just did that. But he got it partially subsidized because he said he was adding 240v into his garage for a charging port for an electric car. Might want to look into it as someday we all might be driving EV so adding a panel out there now that can charge one will probably be a wise investment vs just going with one dedicated circuit. Even if you don't use it if you sell the house it will be "EV ready".

[Keith Mullins]

When I did mine I just had the Power Company (AEP) install a new service. Minimal cost, high flexibility. Not sure if they do that in your area, but worth looking into.

[Charlie Velasquez]

When I did mine I just had the Power Company (AEP) install a new service. Minimal cost, high flexibility. Not sure if they do that in your area, but worth looking into.

Here in my community the poco will run the new service cheaply, but then there is a $14/month facility charge for all eternity (assuming no rate increases). Additionally, there is a variable rate schedule, 14¢/kWh for the first so much, then it drops to 9¢/kWh. Splitting usage into two meters means always paying the highest rate for that garage electricity.

Every poco is unique, and you would have the extra ampacity should you need that ev charger , but in our community it wouldn't take long to pay for 100 feet of 2-2-2-4 SER/MHF @ $1.45/foot.

[Charlie Velasquez]

Belay that last, it sounds like Ryan plans to contract it out. Costs go up quite a bit if not a DIY project. A separate meter may make it simple enough for him to take it on as a DIY.

[Dave Seng]

One way to save potentially a bunch of money is to work with your electrical contractor and do all of the trench digging and backfilling yourself. A good way to save money and it's good exercise

[Jim Becker]

One way to save potentially a bunch of money is to work with your electrical contractor and do all of the trench digging and backfilling yourself. A good way to save money and it's good exercise

I actually did that when our electric service was upgraded in 2005 so I could have up to 200 amps for the shop as well as a new panel 200 amp panel in the house to replace an old PushMatic that had nearly zero parts availability. A new 400 amp meter box and feed from the overhead was installed and the split to the shop is right after the meter with a 200 amp breaker/cutout in the house basement. All of the trenching from the house to the shop was done by my with my literally day old Kubota BX-22 TLB so it was both a labor saver and an, um...learning experience.

[Thomas Crawford]

I had a similar setup as you did, it was much cheaper to trench through the backyard and then you can use aluminum wire instead (can't run that inside the house) which lowers the cost a lot. I put it in conduit 24" down.

[Malcolm McLeod]

When I did mine I just had the Power Company (AEP) install a new service. Minimal cost, high flexibility. Not sure if they do that in your area, but worth looking into.

+1 on this. If OP has overhead service entry, and a straight shot from pole to the shop, this gets fairly simple. If underground service, you'll have to consider everything from water, sewer/septic, sprinklers, etc. as its trenched - - but still might be simpler and provide a more flexible future?

And now finished reading. Some utilities may offer a 'combined metering' option (I've some dim recollection of this from some past life)? If so, this might make Mr. Velasquez's point about meter base charges more palatable?