Shop Buildout: Part 2 - Electrical Subpanel Installation 

Awesome, glad it was helpful! And if you end up digging a trench, have fun with it! ;)

Hey Brett! Thanks, I'm very thankful to finally have a space to build out a workshop after years of dreaming about it! 😊I hope you and your husband have fun with that laser! It'll still be awhile yet before I'll be able to afford one of my own!

Awesome man, glad it helped! Good luck with your shop build out if you're doing the same thing!

@@FarbulousCreations Yes, I totally am! I'm just about done with framing. Next is sheathing - then I can start on some wiring, etc., hence my finding your video SO informative and refreshing. Namely, finding other handy gays out there making amazing things together. Cheers, boys!

Haha, for sure! There are dozens of us! I'm hoping to use the downtime and lack of social activities with the covid stuff to really focus on getting my garage finished! Hope you and your family is staying healthy!

@@FarbulousCreations This was/is so lovely to read! Yes, we've been making the most of the extra home time and, luckily, great weather for the same ends. Cheers to the dozens! Hahahah! I think sometime midsummer I'll post my own vid of my workshop in its (at that time) current state of construction. We've just begun sheathing! Things start to feel real then. (smiles to you both)

Sorry I didn't see this reply come through for a timely response! Glad to hear you've been making the most of things, and that your workshop is coming along! I still haven't done any sheathing because I need to finish electrical, but the weather is about to be perfect for leaving the garage door open all day while working, so I'm excited! Take care, and cheers!

Awesome, glad you found the video helpful! Good luck on the tiny house(s) project!

Glad you liked the video, Mike! That sounds like a fun project! Do you have a lot of storms near you that the generator inlets are needed?

@@FarbulousCreations we used to lose power quite a bit during thunderstorms but our power company has been hardening the grid since just before Superstorm Sandy. We didn’t lose power during that or at any point since that storm. A few flickers here and there, but it also can’t hurt to have the inlets. There are still some weak points between my house and the substation down the road so you can never be too prepared!

Thanks! Glad we haven't had to dig a trench since then! 😅

Thanks Kevin! Glad you liked the video! And good luck on your buildout!

Oof da! I wouldn't wish that on anyone! Hopefully you can find a way to do it that has minimal repair work needed on the concrete! Good luck! :)

Hey Carlos! I believe it was 2", schedule 80 conduit - but I'm not an electrician, so I'm going off memory based on what he told me. Good luck!

Awesome, glad it helped!

Hey Albert! I don't know for sure since it was Steven who did the install, but the panel in the garage is 100 amp service, so based on a quick Google, it would likely be #4 AWG copper. Be sure to check with someone smarter than me to be sure what size you need, though. :)

Oh dang, I wouldn't wish digging 100' of clay on anyone! Glad the video was useful! I for sure wanted to do a video on it because I had difficulty finding videos on my options back when I was researching this project too, so I'm happy to pass on my findings! 😊

Hey Hassan! Looks like the electrician used Schedule 80 conduit. That’s what’s on the side of the house, at least. Hope that helps!

@@FarbulousCreations Thanks I was just trying to see because I want to build an ADU in my back yard and wanted to see how to go about with Conduit. I plan on putting 1 1/2 in Schedule 80 down below for a 100 amp sub panel. It is too bad Lowes and Home Depot do not sell it =/

Hey Jeff! Yep, I figured I'd at minimum need 60 amps available, but the electrician said for the gauge of wire he ran to the garage we could put a 100 amp breaker in there. We have 150 amps to the house, but if you add up the individual breakers in any given house panel, they'll most likely add up to more than the house is supplied, which was also the case for us - even before the subpanel was installed. The reason why is because it's not expected for every circuit in the panel to be maxed out all the time. Realistically, during most of a given day, we're probably not using more than 20-40 amps at a time to power lights, HVAC and a few computers. When the high-usage devices kick on, like washers and dryers, it's obviously more than that, but those are the exception. So more than 150 amps would have to be drawn all at the same time in order for the house's main breaker to trip. In order for the garage's 100 amp breaker to trip the house's panel, I'd have to have 5-10 high power machines like a table saw, lathe, dust collection, planer, jointer, etc, all running at the same time, and the house itself would already have to be drawing 50 amps sustained on it's own. For what it's worth, there is a master breaker in the garage panel as well as the breaker that connects it to the house's panel, so if there were ever to be a surge that massive, it would trip the garage's master breaker in the garage before it tripped the garage breaker in the house's panel. Long story short, just because it has that much available doesn't mean it's allocated and taken away from the supply. Oofda, did not mean to write that much, but hope that helps explain it a bit!

@@FarbulousCreations thanks for the detail!! I’m on a similar situation - new shed, 150 amp supply to house. my age will require very minimal power though, no big machines running out there. 😉

Haha, ain't that the truth! Sorry for the slow reply, btw! We started digging around 10 AM and we were done by mid-afternoon, probably 3 PM, with breaks here and there. I think our yard is 30-40 feet long so on the smaller side, but doable. Hope your dig went well! 😊

Farbulous Creations it’s still going. It’s so damn hot the past 10 days or so I go out and dig a bit then stop. Think I’m about 12 inches down.

@@FarbulousCreations BTW which panel did you put in your shop?

Dang, yeah nothing worse than working in the heat! It was a Square D breaker panel, with a 100A primary breaker installed in it. Hope that helps!

@@FarbulousCreations I've got 110 feet to bury in Texas red clay. Helloooo Ditch Witch. At least I hope so. I'm waiting on electric company to determine if the transformer on the pole that services my house and 3 others can handle another 200 amp service. I already have a 360 amp meter and a small load on my house (gas heat - small house) so all I need is that the transformer and wire from it to my meter can handle two 200 amp service lines. I built a medium sized shop but run an 11.5 horse power 3 phase vacuum pump. The alternative is what you didn't want, a second meter and a $7,000 bill from the electric company.

It'll vary highly depending on where you live obviously, as we live in Minneapolis that has a moderate (not low) cost of living... but without digging up the invoice, it was somewhere in the $2000-$2500 range, which I felt was completely reasonable. Steven wasn't the lowest and he wasn't the highest, but he's the one I trusted most based on our early conversations. Hope that helps!

Farbulous Creations Thanks for giving us an idea! :)

Honestly not sure why the electrician didn’t! If I had to take a guess, aluminum might have been more flexible to with with at that gauge inside the electric panel?

Great question! I don't know the answer unfortunately, since it was the electrician's call. I think he had said something about the structure needing it's own proper ground, but I'm not sure why it was tied to the house's ground too. Oh well! Redundancy isn't a bad thing I suppose. Funny you mention the fall thing with the grass seed - I'm currently wanting to redo the lawn because our puppy destroyed our lawn last year while we were training her and we also completely stopped trying to combat weeds. I want to tear the whole thing up and start fresh. Low and behold, in my research I see everyone is saying to do it in the fall instead. 😂 So I guess we'll live with our terrible lawn one more season and then this fall I'm gonna get serious about the grass! :)

I wonder if that’s because of tornado risk? Which if so is odd because we definitely get tornadoes here too, just maybe not as often. Oh well, digging a trench isn’t too bad. ;)

@@FarbulousCreations I have seen overhead wire going to garage in a few houses. I think that is the original from 30+ years ago. After that, not allowed on new connections. I guess I'll do some exercise trenching.😁

Haha, good luck and have fun!

@@BAKERHUSKIE could always just say it was always there and the cable was replaced after a storm took out the original ;)

That sound like a plan.

It's been a few years, but I believe it was in the ballpark of $2500. Hope that helps!

@@FarbulousCreations it helps alot. Thanks for the reply

Aha, yep you're right. That's what it was! I didn't know what to search when trying to remember what it was called for the voiceover. Thanks!

@@FarbulousCreations SER cable isn't supposed to be buried, even in conduit, according to 338.12(A)(2) of the National Electrical Code: 338.12 Uses Not Permitted. (A) Service-Entrance Cable. Service-entrance cable (SE) shall not be used under the following conditions or in the following locations: ... (2) Underground with or without a raceway

@@jchang57 Good call out, but he didn't use SER cable in the conduit, he only used it in the junction box that entered the house. For the rest of the length to the garage he used copper stranded wire - don't ask me the gauge, but it was super thick! :)

Sorry to hear that.

A lot of useful info here, thanks for taking the time to make this video!