I am building a shop!!!

[Shawn Stennett]

As the title says I am building a metal building as a shop and it will be 25x40 . So I need two opinions/suggestions; what size breaker box? , and what for lighting?I figure that I can get either a 120 amp breaker box or a 200 amp breaker since there is one on sale a the orange store with five breakers that come with it. I just want to make sure I am not wrong about something, I am wiring it up from my house and will probaly only be able to run a 60 amp breaker from the house but that doesn't mean that I can't have a bigger one in the shop right? Lights? What kind, how many? Any other suggestions.

[David Roberts,Fitchburg,Ma]

Check with the wire inspector at your town hall, before you do anything further. More than likely you will need an electrician, but maybe you can get a new service from the street to your barn. I did it that way. I hired an electrician and he put in a 100amp box and one 110 and one 220v plugs about 12" from the box, he also put in the ground and the wiring up to the gooseneck. Then the inspector gave it the nod, and the utility company wired it a few days later from the street. I have a one man hobby shop, and haven't filled my box yet, but my guess, if you are like me, it will take years to find the prefered spot for everything, and you will need to rewire a few times.

[Bill ThompsonNM]

Go with which ever box has room for more breakers.. Yes you can run 60 from the house into a larger panel. More space in the box means you don't have to worry about using the double breakers and that you can have separate 220 breakers for each machine.. I think the only other option I would consider with kids around... a small box with the lighting circuits (leave powered on) and a larger box for the outlets and direct wired machines (power off all at once with a switch between the boxes)..

Congratulations on the new shop...

[Shawn Stennett]

I live in a small town, really small that only has a few city ordances. I have spoke to the city the only requirements I have is that I have to be ten feet from my property line and to be 25 feet from an existing building unless a connect with a breeze way. I am also rebuilding my shed which is an existing building not following the code, so I asked about it and they said they would call me back. The next day I got a call from the city hall lady and she said the mayor drove by my house and said it was ok as long as I didn't get any closer to the fence but could add on to it too, lol. Just make it look good he said.

[Peter Kelly]

I'd really consider pricing out a new service line from the street. At the very least, get an electrician to come over and do a load calculation before you add the sub-panel from your house to your shop. Even a 200 amp service in your home can be pretty marginal if you've got an electric oven/stove, water heater, baseboards etc. Just estimate how much load you'll draw in the shop based on number of lights, machines dust collector you'd expect to be running at the same time beforehand.

Other than that, run water and sewage to the shop an put in a sink. You'll be glad you did it.

[David G Baker]

In my area a new line from the street means a monthly fee of around $20 even if you don't use any power in your shop. Not sure what it is called, something like a meter fee or some other name. It helps the utility recover their cost for installing the line, a new power pole, labor, new meter and transformer for which there isn't any up front costs.

[George wilmore]

I built a 33' x 30' garage for my workshop with a 200amp service, water and sewer. I don't regret the water & sewer. Having a bathroom in the shop is great.

[Ray Schwalb]

In my area a new line from the street means a monthly fee of around $20 even if you don't use any power in your shop. Not sure what it is called, something like a meter fee or some other name. It helps the utility recover their cost for installing the line, a new power pole, labor, new meter and transformer for which there isn't any up front costs.

Ditto that. I thought I would it would be smart to do the same, and am now paying $25 a month for using 1 kw. I can't imagine what the bill would be if I was really using it.

[David Roberts,Fitchburg,Ma]

The extra pricing is not universal, I called my utility to ask about service prior to deciding on my barn. I have to pay commercial rates, but no minimum or extra fee, my cost for electricity has been anywhere from $8 to $25 for a month. My son is in the energy industry and he pushed me towards LED lights, but I picked up four 220v lights from a gas station that closed for $1. off EBay.They are the type kids use for growing plants (pot) indoors, I have 10' and 12' ceilings so they work for me, but use a decent amount of electricity.

[Steve Meliza]

I have a sub panel in the garage simply to give me room for the breakers that I needed to run a bunch of outlets in the garage workshop area. The feeder breaker to the sub panel is 60A and I used NM-B 6/3 copper wire that I purchased from the BORG for about $2.50 a foot. The sub panel is "main lugs only" rated at 125A and having 12 positions for breakers. The main breaker panel is only 100A so I can't go crazy with my energy usage in the garage, but it'll be just fine considering my needs and the modest needs of our 1200 sf home. I am using up 7 of the 12 breaker positions so for me an 8 position panel would have not left enough room for future additions and more than 12 positions would have been a waste of money and quite likely would not have fit in the limited area I had available for mounting the panel.

Since your shop's electrical panel will be some distance from its feeder breaker it is usually recommend to have a main breaker in it so you can kill power to the whole shop with out having to run to your house, but I don't believe it is required by most AHJ's (Authority Having Jurisdiction). Calculate how many circuits you want to have then buy a panel with several extra spaces available. The 60A feeder should be plenty for a 1 person shop, but if you have a big electric heater, 5HP cyclone dust collector, and 3HP table saw then you could run out of power in a hurry. If you buy the 200A panel you would have plenty of room and could supply it from the house via a 60A feeder breaker (leaving the 200A breaker in the sub panel), then if you needed to it would be fairly simple to switch to service direct to your shop.

I've fitted my garage with$20 Lithonia T8 florescent two bulb fixtures with 5' power cords and am happy with them so far. I've got 4 rows of fixtures running down the length of the garage about 5' apart and each fixture in the row has 4' of space between them (the garage is about 20'x27'). Additional fixtures were added over the work bench and laundry areas. If I find I need more light then a quick trip to the BORG and the problem is solved. If I need to shift the lights around a little then I have that flexibility thanks to the corded design of the fixtures and the abundance of switch outlets I put up in the rafters. Each shop is different, but for yours I think 5 rows of 5 fixtures would be a good starting point for general lighting of the space. If you add of the wattage of 50 T8 bulbs and add some ballast efficiency losses then you'll find you need a 20A circuit for those lights, so consider two 15A circuits for the shop with two light switches so that you can run #14 wire and only turn on half of the shop lights if you won't be working in the other half of the shop.

[Steven Wayne]

I have separate 200A service in a 33x36 shop. I never draw 200 amps at once. I also don't worry if my four 5kw electric heaters are running at the same time I am welding and the compressor cycles. My electric bill in the shop is about $45/month $150 in the winter when i run the heat while I'm in the shop. I have security lights on three sides of the shop that cycle on and off a lot. And a shop fridge that runs all the time.

My panel has 40 breaker slots in it. It is a little over half full at this point. My heaters, welder and compressor are 12 of the slots alone. I will be hard pressed to need more panel or power in that shop. I prefer to do it once, do it right sort of approach, especially to electric/utility stuff.