Hello,
I am in the process of navigating the bureaucracy of my town on the way toward building a separate studio on my property. I am at the stage of submitting my plans to contractors for bids.
I was wondering how many amps of service you would recommend? I have 400 amps of service at the house and have no idea how many I actually need or use. The proposed shop would be closer to the road and i will have to have new service brought onto the property as it does not make sense to trench from the house.
I would think that 100 amps would be the least suspicious in the eyes of the town but would it be enough?
thanks
Nico
How many amps of service?
Moderator: crzypete
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mystry_tour
- Posts: 357
- Joined: Mon Mar 13, 2006 9:33 pm
- Location: Greenville Tenn
Hi ya Nico
I have 2 shops and I put 200 amp in both. I am not sure what you will be doing with it but the way I look at it I will be useing the shop myself. As long as i don't run but one machine at a time inclueing the light I will not draww that amount. Size the electrical unites you will have in there and then think if you will be running what machins tool ect. at one time. that will give you the amount of amps you will need at a regular basis. I just get 200 amp because a lot of my stuff is/was 220 but now they are 3 ph so the amps on all my motors have dropped.
Hope that helps
Reg
I have 2 shops and I put 200 amp in both. I am not sure what you will be doing with it but the way I look at it I will be useing the shop myself. As long as i don't run but one machine at a time inclueing the light I will not draww that amount. Size the electrical unites you will have in there and then think if you will be running what machins tool ect. at one time. that will give you the amount of amps you will need at a regular basis. I just get 200 amp because a lot of my stuff is/was 220 but now they are 3 ph so the amps on all my motors have dropped.
Hope that helps
Reg
I fought to keep the Gov. in power......they keep screwing around I'll fight to get rid of them.
Thanks Mystry,
I know that you have given a very safe number. My current shop is based on that same principal... 200 amps is more than enough for one person and adequate for running a number of machines at one time.
My situation here is based on compromise and I want to be prepared with knowing what the minimum amount of amps I can get away with is. I am curious about the people who run off of sub panels. How many amps do you have? When I ask the question I an thinking of Crzy and Mr Douglas
Nico
I know that you have given a very safe number. My current shop is based on that same principal... 200 amps is more than enough for one person and adequate for running a number of machines at one time.
My situation here is based on compromise and I want to be prepared with knowing what the minimum amount of amps I can get away with is. I am curious about the people who run off of sub panels. How many amps do you have? When I ask the question I an thinking of Crzy and Mr Douglas
Nico
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mr douglas t
- Posts: 269
- Joined: Fri Dec 17, 2004 9:58 pm
- Location: Westhampton, MA
- Contact:
Hello Nico
Happy to hear the new prodject is under way. A few thoughts, as I have had these same issues a few times before (Dads new garage, and my shop construction) The first is your decision to have a new service, and not to trench to the house. Why not?? a trench gives you water (a garden hose at the least) Phone/tv and internet access, and electricity. With new services, such as electricity and phone, you end up paying monthly just to have the service, before you even use the services. You also have to pay for any new pole the Utility co has to set, along with a new meter Why get another phone or elecrtic bill? You have an excavator digging the foundation. A trench is 1/2 a days work. In this trench you can run conduit to later feed your phone/cable/ water. You can run these services in the conduit after the town has signed off. For the towns eyes run 100 amp service, but lay large enough wire for later upgrading to 200 amps. I layed large enough wire to run 200 amps to the shop, but I am only puting 150 out to the shop right now. Conduit between house and shop is essential. Last week I ran category 5 cable in the conduit to the shop so I can have high speed internet that runs off my exixting router in the house. Each time I run a wire, I also pull a string thru to pull other wires in the future. One word of advice, run large conduit. I only ran 1" and it is getting full. (1 phone lines and 1 cat 5 wire and 1 string) last winter we built a garage by the house. I ran tubes of conduit and left them empty. THe town saw no electricity or water and had nothing to inspect. Last month I pulled 1/2" pex line for water in one and electricity in another. I ran 5 leads so we can turn the spot light in the garage off from the house. (an example of having future needs that may be see)
I guess I am trying to say, is dig a trench, lay empty tubes to a building that has limited services, have the town inspect and later fill them up.
Douglas
Happy to hear the new prodject is under way. A few thoughts, as I have had these same issues a few times before (Dads new garage, and my shop construction) The first is your decision to have a new service, and not to trench to the house. Why not?? a trench gives you water (a garden hose at the least) Phone/tv and internet access, and electricity. With new services, such as electricity and phone, you end up paying monthly just to have the service, before you even use the services. You also have to pay for any new pole the Utility co has to set, along with a new meter Why get another phone or elecrtic bill? You have an excavator digging the foundation. A trench is 1/2 a days work. In this trench you can run conduit to later feed your phone/cable/ water. You can run these services in the conduit after the town has signed off. For the towns eyes run 100 amp service, but lay large enough wire for later upgrading to 200 amps. I layed large enough wire to run 200 amps to the shop, but I am only puting 150 out to the shop right now. Conduit between house and shop is essential. Last week I ran category 5 cable in the conduit to the shop so I can have high speed internet that runs off my exixting router in the house. Each time I run a wire, I also pull a string thru to pull other wires in the future. One word of advice, run large conduit. I only ran 1" and it is getting full. (1 phone lines and 1 cat 5 wire and 1 string) last winter we built a garage by the house. I ran tubes of conduit and left them empty. THe town saw no electricity or water and had nothing to inspect. Last month I pulled 1/2" pex line for water in one and electricity in another. I ran 5 leads so we can turn the spot light in the garage off from the house. (an example of having future needs that may be see)
I guess I am trying to say, is dig a trench, lay empty tubes to a building that has limited services, have the town inspect and later fill them up.
Douglas
Douglas,
Thanks for the suggestions. I am beginning to see that i am going to have to use a combination approach.
The proposed shop is going to be about 160 feet from my house (the house is set very far back from the road). The one contractor who has met with me about the project immediately suggested pulling the power off the road as there is a pole within 100' of the proposed shop. This suggestion works well for me as i do not want to open my house to any inspectors... my electrical panels are in the current wood shop and I do not mind paying a bit more if it keeps them out.
I like the flexibility that the buried conduit has allowed you. I will probably have to add that after the fact but I can see that it will be worth the trouble.
happy thanksgiving
Thanks for the suggestions. I am beginning to see that i am going to have to use a combination approach.
The proposed shop is going to be about 160 feet from my house (the house is set very far back from the road). The one contractor who has met with me about the project immediately suggested pulling the power off the road as there is a pole within 100' of the proposed shop. This suggestion works well for me as i do not want to open my house to any inspectors... my electrical panels are in the current wood shop and I do not mind paying a bit more if it keeps them out.
I like the flexibility that the buried conduit has allowed you. I will probably have to add that after the fact but I can see that it will be worth the trouble.
happy thanksgiving
nektai,
this may be a little late due to the date of your post but here goes, my shop is 150' as the crow flies from my house, with a couple of jogs and risers with conduit wire length is just under 200'. My service comes form the pole overhead (150A) which gives me two bills from power co,
When trench was open from house to shop I installed water line and a small conduit for coax, phone but no power. Why I did not lay a 2" conduit and at least 100A service cable is beyond me? Must have been budget driven at the time, big regret (also insulated supply and return for boiler water for heat would have been helpful as well)
My current problems are that my DSL signal will not travel thru the Cat 5E wire due to signal strength and length of line from router (just under 300") so my internet is wireless with a repeater. I have no ability to back feed house or vice versa with generator, eventually I will dig up the yard again and fix what a little fore thought would have.
Getting back to actual power needs, if you have 400A you have tons of power, it seems to me 100A sub panel to your shop is adequate, obvoiusly 200A affords complete coverage for all kinds of growth. My service is 150A single phase, I operate a 35hp rotary phase convertor (no capacitors) fused by a 100A breaker that feeds a 100A sub panel in machine room.
The power planner scratched his head furiosly when he visited for unrelated issue and my shop sparked his curiousity. Convertor 35hp, Timesaver 20hp, Blower 15hp and Altendorf 10, 80hp feed by 100A breaker! not possible right? I doubled wire size from sub panel to large machines and have no heating, breaker tripping issues due to this condition. Also single phase load (lighting, air compressor, outlets etc) must total 30A at least.
I guess my point is DT's suggestion of a "big" conduit is a good one, do we as independent woodworkers run all of our machines at once? I don't
do we have a long list of machines that on paper would require a 200A or larger service, yes but if we only run one maybe two or three at a time, why? expandability is a big plus and bigger is not allways better, $$$ and inspectors
you are most likely in your new studio and this is old news? but i went ahead anyway
this may be a little late due to the date of your post but here goes, my shop is 150' as the crow flies from my house, with a couple of jogs and risers with conduit wire length is just under 200'. My service comes form the pole overhead (150A) which gives me two bills from power co,
When trench was open from house to shop I installed water line and a small conduit for coax, phone but no power. Why I did not lay a 2" conduit and at least 100A service cable is beyond me? Must have been budget driven at the time, big regret (also insulated supply and return for boiler water for heat would have been helpful as well)
My current problems are that my DSL signal will not travel thru the Cat 5E wire due to signal strength and length of line from router (just under 300") so my internet is wireless with a repeater. I have no ability to back feed house or vice versa with generator, eventually I will dig up the yard again and fix what a little fore thought would have.
Getting back to actual power needs, if you have 400A you have tons of power, it seems to me 100A sub panel to your shop is adequate, obvoiusly 200A affords complete coverage for all kinds of growth. My service is 150A single phase, I operate a 35hp rotary phase convertor (no capacitors) fused by a 100A breaker that feeds a 100A sub panel in machine room.
The power planner scratched his head furiosly when he visited for unrelated issue and my shop sparked his curiousity. Convertor 35hp, Timesaver 20hp, Blower 15hp and Altendorf 10, 80hp feed by 100A breaker! not possible right? I doubled wire size from sub panel to large machines and have no heating, breaker tripping issues due to this condition. Also single phase load (lighting, air compressor, outlets etc) must total 30A at least.
I guess my point is DT's suggestion of a "big" conduit is a good one, do we as independent woodworkers run all of our machines at once? I don't
do we have a long list of machines that on paper would require a 200A or larger service, yes but if we only run one maybe two or three at a time, why? expandability is a big plus and bigger is not allways better, $$$ and inspectors
you are most likely in your new studio and this is old news? but i went ahead anyway
my sense is the internet issue is going to be location specific, in theory Cat 5E should conduct workable signal for 3 meters, in my case i am less than 3 meters but have a weak DSL signal. You more than likely will have RR or a cable (coax) internet which has a much stronger signal than DSL, as a default you can go to wireless mine works very well but took some rigging for sure, linksys modem needed booster antenea with add on antenea's 150, i needed a repeater 100, really could use two for complete coverage in my shop, let me know when u get closer i will be happy to help
Dadude
Thanks for the excellent and timely information. I will be breaking ground next month. The contractor I went with is bringing 150 amps of new service off the street for me.
This means that I will be forced to address the internet/phone/coax/water at a later date with a trench from the house. The reason this is not happening now is that I did not want to add the extra time to the permitting process that would have been needed if I was going to legally add water to the building.
Like you I will have about 150 -200 feet of wire by the time I connect the two buildings. There is a new wireless technology that may make the wireless connection a bit easier 802.11 n. I am an Apple guy and they have already adopted the technology. This solution would fit with my time table for the trench from the house...After the prying eyes of inspectors and tax adjusters have come and gone.
Thanks for the excellent and timely information. I will be breaking ground next month. The contractor I went with is bringing 150 amps of new service off the street for me.
This means that I will be forced to address the internet/phone/coax/water at a later date with a trench from the house. The reason this is not happening now is that I did not want to add the extra time to the permitting process that would have been needed if I was going to legally add water to the building.
Like you I will have about 150 -200 feet of wire by the time I connect the two buildings. There is a new wireless technology that may make the wireless connection a bit easier 802.11 n. I am an Apple guy and they have already adopted the technology. This solution would fit with my time table for the trench from the house...After the prying eyes of inspectors and tax adjusters have come and gone.