Use well 60A 230V as two 30A 115 outlets?

rich624

I have a well about 100 feet in my back yard that has a 60A 230 volt breaker that goes to the pump motor.

This well is only used for irrigation of my lawn, 1 to 2 times a week, during early morning hours.

I am having a small shed (12 x 20) built in the back yard and I would like to have some power for lights, or a few 115V sockets in the building. This would be used when the well is not normally used.

Would it be acceptable practice to utilize the same 230 volts for power in the building, while also using it for the well?

I was thinking of putting a box in the building, running the 230 volts directly to that box.

Then separate the well and building on different breakers and run from the breaker box to the well (about 10 feet away) on a dedicated link.

I will have to verify what size wire was run to the well.

McSteve

Not sure about any other code restrictions, but I'd bet you probably don't have a neutral to the well pump, so it's 240v only, no 120.

rich624

It is three conductor wire plus ground.

AllanJ

No. 6 copper wires will barely provide the full 60 amps at 100 feet. You can have the 60 amp. breaker but you will experience noticeable voltage drop when you draw the full 60 amps.

Yes, run the wires to a box (subpanel) where you have 15 amp or 20 amp breakers for your lights and receptacles, and a double breaker for the pump.

(They also make 30 amp receptacles, typically push-in-and-twist type plugs, for which you can have a dedicated 30 amp 115 volt circuit)

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rjniles

A couple of issues/questions:

Are you sure that you have a 60 amp 240 volt circuit? This is a huge current draw for a pump unless it is a monster pump. ie: 1 HP = 746 watts = about 3 amps @ 240 volts. A 5 HP pump would only draw about 15 amps. What is the gauge of the wire feeding the pump?

You say you have 3 wires plus ground. Are you sure the the third wire is a neutral and not a motor start lead from a pump control box? In others words: is this a 2 wire or 3 wire pump?

120 volt receptacles can be fed with a maximum of a 20 amp circuit. You cannot connect standard receptacles to a circuit fused at 60 amps.

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Location:
Coastal South Carolina

rich624

60A breaker?

You are correct, it was a long time when it was put in, so I had forgotten.

I checked last night and it is a two pole 20A breaker going to the well.

I will have to look and see what wire was used, but it does have neutral and ground.

rjniles

With only 20 amps and probably 12 ga wire there is no way (code compliant) to split it up to supply a 120 and a 240 volt circuit.

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Location:
Coastal South Carolina

rich624

I appreciate all of the input on this. So it looks like I need to run more wire for the building. I was thinking since I have to do it anyway, to get some 1.25" schedule 80 PVC and run the new lines through it.

I figured I could run the lines and maybe get someone to wire the Well and building back in.

Would the best way to go be to size the 230 volt wire for both the building and the well, or run seperate lines for each.

Also, I was just curious about this, if I were to use one side of the 230V for 115V in the building, then the voltage drop would be calculated as if it were a single run of 115V?

frenchelectrican

There are couple items you should be aware one is the well circuit that something I don't touch at all due the motor size and votlage rating.

Second you can able bring out new circuit to the shed so keep them on seperated circuit it will make it easier to troubleshoot it.

And also all the 120 volt circuit in shed have to be RCD'ed { GFCI'ed } I know most area do not have any extempts anymore unless some local codes may override it.

Merci.
Marc