electric quistion.

[minowevie]

Hi my friends. ok I am not a electric person. I know when I did my old shop. I ran a #6 or #8.drats need to go check, wire down to the shop. hooked it up to a cerkit box, that devided the differant stuff. and it came off a 220 cerket in my home box. but now. I only have one cerket left. and it is a 20amp cerket. I might could put a 40 in its place. not useing everything all at once. in my new shop,or house. but ok here is my quistion. how much power do I need to run my table saw. out side of a radio, or maybe a fan, or both, at the same time. could I run my table saw on that much power. it will be about 150 to 200 feet. to the new shop. and what gadg wire to this. from the one cerket. the new shop. the other tools, would be a band saw, and sanders, and little tools. oh ya my scroll saw. but the table saw is the biggy. only one or two little things would be going on at the same time. I think I understand that 220 comes into the whole house. witch would have a swamp cooler on in the summer. with refredg, and freezers. and hubbys Tv. but ok getting confused yet. I really need help in this matter. thanks for you for reading all this. your friend Evie

[JohnB]

G'day Evie,
Sorry mate but I can't give you any hints on Power. You fellows use a funny system 110v we use 240v.
It's illegal in Oz for anyone but a licensed electrician to have anything to do with wiring.

Not that that stops me having a bit of a fiddle around, but only on stuff that I'm certain I know what I'm doing.
You can only shake hands with a power house once

[CanadianScroller]

I don't know how things go Stateside, here we have an electrical code that will allow you to do your own wiring. You do need to get a permit and do it to code.
Personaly I would not recommend increasing the breaker size. I also do not know what guage of wire you need. It may help if you call a local contractor and ask them, or even the electrical inspector.
Better safe than sorry.

[Minnesota scroller]

I don't know much about electrical current, but I wouldn't think any of the listed power tools would draw that much. Heck, I'd think a 20 amp off of 110v would be more than sufficient.

[lucky788scroller]

Well Me too, I dont know much about electrical, except I know not to pee on an electric fence anymore!! I would try contacting an electrician, I know they arent cheap, but neither is a burned down house.Might even find one you could barter with, trade a nice clock for some labor. Its worth a try, theres a locksmith around here that fixes doors and such at convenience stores around here that takes their pay in cartons of cigarettes instead of cash. I dont know the correct size wire you would need, but I do know if you tried running your tablesaw on a 150 to 200 foot extension cord, a 12 guage wire cord will get real warm after a little while Ive been there too. Electricity is one of only a couple things I fear.Good luck with it Evie, and if you get it figured out, do teach us! Dale

[jowshu98]

Evie,

You should contact a licensed electrician. There are codes that need to be followed and depending on where you are you may need a licensed electrician. I know when laying out circuits for a new home we are required to evaluate the overall load on the circuit panel and keep it to less than 80% of maximum which requires us to add a second panel. Also 200 feet is along enough run you may need to be concerned about impedence in the wire (think resistance to flow) which may cause the size of the wire to increase. It sounds like you'd probably be better off adding a small sub panel and disconnect in the new shop. I like to do things myself as much as the next guy but I'd leave this to a pro.

Hope this helps,

jowshu

[USMC1126]

Hey Evie, I am an electrician for the NYS Thruway Authority. I saw that you were thinking about changing a 20a breaker and putting in a 40a, if there is already wire that is connected to that 20a you have to make sure it is big enough for a 40a, you cant just put a 40a breaker on 20a wire. Now if you look at the motor of your tablesaw there will be a sticker that tells you the voltage and also the amperage. My tablesaw is only 110v and 15a, but they are all different. Your bandsaw will also have the same thing to determine its amperage. As for the amps to wire guage, 12 wire is 20a, 10 wire is 30a, #8 40a, #6 55a, now these all depend on how you are running the wire (in conduit underground, free air overhead and so on). They also make cable that is for direct burial, when I wired my cousins shop, I brought a 40a 220v circuit out to a disconnect on the outside, then went into a small panel. 1 circuit was for lighting, a 100w light bulb is roughly equal to 1 amp. 2 circuits went to general duty outlets, depending on how many things you are going to have plugged in and using at the same time you can determine how many outlets to put on each circuit. In a home I usually put 10, but in a shop I will cut that number down depending on there location and intended use. I put a dedicated 20a outlet for his table saw, his was also 15a 110v, but if you have anything else on that circuit you may run into problems tripping the circuit, I also made sure to put the lighting and table saw on separate phases so that the lights dont dim when the table saw is in use. Depending on your distance, the voltage you are bringing out, the size of your wire, and the total load your shop is drawing, you may have to consider voltage drop, but if you run a 220v circuit using #8 wire and your shop has a total load of 30amps the voltage drop would only be 4.5 volts which would be acceptable. Hope this helps and if you have anymore questions feel free to ask. One other thing I forgot was that you dont have much space in your panel, you can get tandem breakers which fit into two spaces but will give you four circuits, so if you have two 20a breakers you can take them out put a tandem in have room to put those circuits back and also have space to put a new 220v circuit.

King

[sawdustus]

Evie,

I know that electricians are expensive but replacing your house or shop is even more expensive. Hire a licensced electrician, your neighbors can usually recommend one who is reliable, and let them do the work. Everything that King and Jowshu said is absolutely correct but unless you have had a lot of experience with panels and wiring, DON'T DO THE JOB YOURSELF. The risks are not worth it.

[workin for wood]

I'd hire an electrician. Install a panel in the shop of at least 50 amp, preferably 100 or more. Dig a trench, bury the wire 2 feet down. he'll install a 50 or more breaker in your panel in the house depending on the panel in the shop. A seperate cable will be used for each draw off your house, not just one wire. There will be 3 wires and a ground wire, big cables. You'll need a ground rod for the shop, here in michigan you are required to have 2 ground rods. While he's at it, have him run a phone line too, it's only a pittance more. Bury the cables 8-10" then the phone line on top of that then fill the trench. The saw will draw 15 amps lets say, but should be on a 20amp circuit all by itself. The saw will draw over 15 amps in a stall situation, which causes the wires to get hot, thus the need for a stronger circuit. I'd only hire a pro to wire into the shop, and at 200 ft, I'd expect to pay around $1500. That's for a bare minimum of wiring to code, a couple lights inside, a couple outlets, has to be a door light outside and one outside outlet with ground fault interupter...Michigan code. The outside light...hmmm, I says to the inspector, why? So I can see to get to the door. But I have to get to the door to turn it on. geez.

Anyhow, once there is a panel in the shop, you can run wires off that all day. If you can rewire your tablesaw to 220, you'll have more power from the saw with a lower electric bill.

[Wood Dog]

Hire an electrician Evie....that is dangerous stuff if you are not absolutely sure of what you are doing. While you are at it take workin for wood suggestion and put in a phone line, and if it were me I would have a cable for the computer too. Never know when you will want to log into ssw&c forum.
Just my 2 cents.