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    PGerard's Avatar
    PGerard Posts: 37, Reputation: 1
    Junior Member
     
    #1

    Jul 23, 2019, 04:49 AM
    Run 60A power to the new garage
    Good Morning All. I need some advice on running 60A power from my attached garage to my new detached garage, which is ~150' from the house. My initial thought was to run a 4/3 Copper line from a 60A breaker in the main panel, to a small subpanel in the new garage where I would have a 120v/30A breaker for my camper, and 2 120v/15A breakers for tools and lighting. Normally there isn't any more than 1 120v tool being used at a time, since alot of my stuff is either Air or Battery powered. Lighting will be LED. That option is going to be expensive since #4 copper is really pricey, plus I have to get a subpanel. Option #2 would be to run 3 individual 10/3 wires from the 30A & 15A breakers in the main panel, through a 3" buried PVC conduit to the garage 150' feet away, and not have a panel in the garage at all.
    Using 10/3 still allows me to switch one to 240v in the future if I ever need to (either temporarily or permanently)
    Without getting hung up on what "Code" is, can someone tell me if Option #2 would be feasible given Voltage Drop at that distance? Could there potentially be a danger here, or would the worst case scenario be that something doesn't work right? Since I will have a 3" conduit in the ground, and it will be strung, there's really nothing stopping me from pulling in another wire at some point if needed.
    Thank-You
    donf's Avatar
    donf Posts: 5,679, Reputation: 582
    Printers & Electronics Expert
     
    #2

    Jul 23, 2019, 02:26 PM
    Let's begin with the existing garage. What is the amperage coming into the garage and what is the load being used by the garage?

    Since the garage is a stand-alone garage, your problems just increased. To begin with, you need a four wire feed from garage A to Garage B. Next you need to build a separate grounding system at garage B. I cannot share the grounding system from garage A.
    hfcarson's Avatar
    hfcarson Posts: 1,003, Reputation: 49
    Ultra Member
     
    #3

    Aug 14, 2019, 10:08 AM
    If this is just a voltage drop question then, yes 120 volts with #10 AWG wire at about 150 feet and a 10 ampere load will drop about 3 to 4 volts. Most things will run just fine.

    If at some time you want to discuss the code and safety recommendations that go along with this write back...

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