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Wiring run from house to garage.

2K views 14 replies 7 participants last post by  boman47k 
#1 ·
I'm basically wondering what is the cheapest way to do this. Do I need top use metal conduit which is quite expensive or are there cheaper alternatives? I should mention that the garage had power supplied underground but that conductor has failed.
 
#3 ·
A little of my walkway will go over it. Upstate NY is the location. Probably will go with PVC if I can. There were two wires originally. One ran from a switch in the kitchen to a flood light just standatd white cable. I nicked that with a shovel or some other tool digging post holes, taped it good but it failed also.
 
#5 ·
There are couple issue it allready arise as I can see the situation now senice you mention the switch in kitchen to feed the floodlight luminaire at the garage now that is one circuit now second circuit you have one from your breaker panel to garage indoor luminaire plus recetptales.

Now that is two circuits and per NEC codes we are only allowed run one circuit to any type of building { yeah.,, there is a extempt for it but it is not used in your situation }

So a single MWBC will work for your situation if you required 240 volts devices like compressor or whatever ya plan to to use otherwise keep that MWBC use one for your garage recetpales / inside light and use the other part of that MWBC for your exteral lights that is one way it is legit.

I will have to dig up the NEC code little more deeper to see if they have any more loop holes but I think I really doubt it they seems cover it very well.

and is your house side lumianire { the one with kitchen light switch } that tied to the outdoor garage luminaire ?

Merci,Marc
 
#7 ·
Dave it used to do that in old codes however now that change a bit to order to stay with single MWBC set up you have to feed the light from this circuit.

Some way I will make a drawing you will get the idea what I am refering to this.

Merci,Marc
 
#8 ·
and is your house side lumianire { the one with kitchen light switch } that tied to the outdoor garage luminaire ?
The light on my back porch is seperate from the garage light although both switches are in the same junction box.

If I understand you you are saying that I need to run a single MWBC to supply the switched light and the unswitched fixtures inside the garage.

I guess I need to figure out how to tie these wires in together to make this work.
 
#10 ·
We just used EMT from the house into the ground to protect the wire, then ran UF to the garage, and did the same at the garage with EMT. No need to run PVC or EMT all the way to the garage, unless you believe in replacing the wire in 5-10 years or maybe 20.
I should mention that the garage had power supplied underground but that conductor has failed.
Yeah...not like wires ever fail :whistling2:
I've yet to run UF anywhere where it can't be easily replaced
With conduit you can usually just pull new wire
 
#12 · (Edited)
I would think that the cheapest and simplest way is to string the wires overhead. The same requirement of separate neutral and ground applies.

This may not be permitted in all cities and has the obvious disadvantage of being subject to weather conditions. Also if you have to add house to garage light switching, the additional conductors needed make the installation more messy looking.

Normally nowadays, for lights in either location meant to be switched from the other location, the power connection is made at the garage. You can run switch loops or 3 way travelers in the same underground conduit that carries the primary feed.

If a light on the house is controlled by a switch in the garage, run both hot and neutral exclusively for the light from the garage to the light; do not tap another nearby neutral of a house circuit.

For a pair of lights one on the house and one on the garage both controlled by the same 3 way switch setup with switches at both locations, run a 3 wire cable "nonstop" between the switches and run a 2 conductor cable "nonstop" between the lights, which is the "formally correct" method of wiring 3 way multiple light circuits within the same building too.

The maximum garage load with a two conductor cable and no garage subpanel is 20 amps. Using a 120/240 volt circuit aka multiwire branch circuit (3 conductor) with no subpanel you get two 20 amp circuits.
 
#14 ·
You can run PVC conduit from the house to the garage sub panel, but to save a little bit of time and money in the garage, you can use the flexible spiral conduit that already has the wires ran through it. You can buy a 100 foot spool for about 40 bucks from Home Depot. That way, you don't have to cut and bend a bunch of short lengths of conduit for all the switches and fixtures. This is code compliant in my area for walls with exposed studs, but I'm not sure if it's compliant in all areas.
 
#15 ·
My house had an old line suspended to the shop about 10 to 12 feet maybe. Not only that, but it 10 g romex the best I remember. This was run to an old 60 amp fuse box and powered the rec's and lights. Rec's were wired parallel with the wires going up the wall and wrapped and taped to a line going along the ceiling. The wires were not spliced in the sense of being cut. The line going along the ceiling was not cut, just had the insulation cut back and the feeder for each rec wrapped and taped to it. Yeah, scarey!

My dad came off my main in the house through the exterior wall where he used a piece of grey conduit to the ground. Then ran UF to the shop. I think it was #8 stranded (3). At the entrance to the shop, was another piece of conduit. So it had 3 conductors. The shop also had it's own ground stake. I later gutted the shop and rewired with new romex. The 60 amp sub panel is fed from a 60 amp breaker in my updated main panel. The underground feed was installed sometime in the mid to late 80's. I have a buzz box welder (seldom used), 6 florecent shop lights (wired rec's in the ceiling), a radial arm saw, bandsaw, and tablesaw. I have had 4 to six sewing machines in the shop in the past before I moved the saws in. Normally, there is only one saw on at any given time. So far, so good.
 
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