I am doing some planning and estimating for a possible 30x45x12 metal building shop, and have been doing some reading about EMT (metal conduit) vs MC cable in a surface mounted workshop setting.
Having never worked with EMT before, a little bit with MC cable, and plenty with Romex in more residential / remodeling I’m trying to assess all options. Current plan is for everything to be surface mounted on wooden walls or open ceiling / bottom of the metal trusses. There will be a mix of 120v and 220v single phase circuits (receps, lights, etc) and also a rotary phase converter with 3 phase sub panel and likely 3 different 3 PH circuits (20 and 30 amp) going to various machines. The wiring needs will be fairly customized and substantial compared to a typical small shop with mostly 110/220v single phase, but nothing I haven’t done already in my basement shop (aside from the actual wire/conduit choice.)
I am aware of the concept of running multiple circuits in a branch to a certain central location inside of larger conduit (as opposed to multiple different runs of MC back to the panel) Being able to fish more wire later inside the EMT seems to be a point of consideration but otherwise similar amounts of wire but visually less going on is the only difference I see in that.
Can anyone more experienced speak to these choices in this application?
What about cost of materials and labor differences at this scale?
I would be doing most of the physical wiring after the initial inspection of minimal electrical from my electrician (panel and a couple of circuits with a few receps and lights to pass inspection.) I am comfortable with wiring and learning whatever I need to / asking for clarification from electrician friends to do the bulk of the physical wiring and planning the runs and then having one of them double check my work before hooking up.
Any thoughts?
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