I have just recently bought a new home and there is a barn 200' from the house, can i run electricity to it from my electrical box outside my house? the home was built in 1999. i talked to the man working at home depot in the electrical dept and all he did was tell me that i should contact an electrician, I think he did not have a clue about the task and didnt want to tell me so.
Here is what i have now. A 100 amp box with a main breaker and two other breakers and one last emty spot for a breaker.can i run off the empty spot to the barn? if so what do i need ?

thank you for your time

 

Scott,, where in Northern Michigan? What do you intend on running out there? You want to run a single circuit? If so you will need number 10 wire, 10/2 wg UF You could make it simpler by feeding a recept first of from a GFCI breaker.

 

As sberry says, you can't do a proper design without knowing what your power needs are in the barn.

 

Sberry I live in Harrison Mich, Just north of Mt Pleasantabout 25 miles

What i would like to do is setup a small woodworking shop out there, all of my tools are small and are all 110. there is no electricity out there at all of course and i would like to know what to use as far as the breaker size in the box on the house what size wire to go to the barn and then what size box to put in the barn and what size breakers to use in the box in the barn.......

not asking for alot am i ha ha.
again thank you for your time.

 

Yes, I know exactly where Harrison is, passed thru there on 61 many times on the way to Gladwin. This sounds like the barn that the girl I was dating there had and someone had stretched a wire overhead with a single circuit to it about 200 ft away. Never did fix it for her,, too busy doing "other things" To do this job right you should really have 2 panel spaces though. Here is a page to get some ideas. http://www.homewiringandmore.com/homewiringusa/2002/accessory/detgarage/detgarage.html

 

I'm going to make a lot of very conservative assumptions.

I am going to assume that you have no tools that need more than 15 amps of 120 volts. I am also going to assume that there will only be one person working there at a time, and thus only one tool going at a time. I don't know how big the barn is, so I don't know how much lighting you will need. But let me assume that four shop lights will provide all the light you need (4x2x40 watts = 320 watts). I am also going to assume that you will never need an air conditioner or supplemental electrical heat, and that you will not have a TV or refrigerator or any such accessories out there, and that you don't need a garage door opener there.

Think through these many assumptions and tell me if they are reasonable. Then tell me whether you need to to this job cheaply, or you're willing to spend extra money to gain future flexibility to expand. It's best to think this through carefully. That way what you do now won't need to be ripped out next year.

 

ok here goes, the barn is good sized but the part i want to use is devided off at about 10x30'. as i said before the tools that i use are all small tools, a 10'' table saw, 10'' radial arm saw that is 110 but can be converted to 220 but will not be. Small routers of no more than 1 1/2 h power and the same for the drill press. i intended on putting in 4 overhead florescent lights. i have a wood stove that i am going to put in. and i dont drink beer anymore lol so i wont be needing the fridg(darn). so far your assumptions are right on. there is a slider for a door and a regular entry door also, so no garage door opener. also as i said before we just bought the home and before i thought about the barn we spent all the extra money on the home and landscaping so i would like to go as inexpensively as i can not only to save money but also to keep the wife happy. oh and yes i am the only one that will be out there thank god. keep in mind that the barn is 200' away from the house if that makes a dif. also i want to run the wires to the barn underground.
thank you again.

 

Here are your main choices, in order of increasing expense and flexibility. 200 feet is quite a long ways, so I am going to suggest you use larger wire than you might if the distance was shorter.[list=1][*]Run a single 8/2 UF-B cable to the barn. Connect it to a 20-amp single-pole breaker in the house, and go through a GFCI receptacle in the house before going outside. Because the receptacle will not accept 8-gauge wire, you will need to pigtail the connections with #12 wire to the receptacle. Until the cable reaches the bottom of a 12" trench (on both ends), protect it with 1" PVC conduit.You may direct-bury the cable at least 12" deep. You could possibly get by with 10/2 UF-B instead, but the voltage drop would not fit within the desirable range. In the barn, use a junction box to reduce the wire size from #8 down to #12 for your wiring inside the barn. This solution should be sufficient for one tool and four fluorescent lights.[*]Use 8/3 rather than 8/2, connected to a 20-amp double-pole breaker. This will give you twice the power, and will reduce voltage drop. However, it will require you to either (A) buy an expensive 20-amp 240/120 GFCI breaker for the main panel, or (B) bury the cable 24" deep. The wiring is pretty much the same as your first choice, except that you will not use the GFCI receptacle in the house, and you will use that junction box in the barn to split the 8/3 into two 12/2 runs. Put all the lights and accessory receptacles (e.g., for you radio and clock) on one run, and dedicate the other run for the tools. Careful splitting of the loads will minimize the voltage drop on the neutral. Because of reduced voltage drop on the neutral, the use of 10/3 rather than 8/3 is reasonable.[*]Install a subpanel in the barn. Since you indicated modest needs and budget, I won't provide details.[/list=1]

 

well i did it and it works great. and the air compressor doesnt even drag the lights down when it kicks on as i thought it might.
I sure do appreciate all your help in the matter and would recomend this site to anyone needing this kind of advice. you guys are great.

thank you again for your time

 

Scott, just curious, but what exactly did you do?

 

well i started out with the 20 amp breaker in the box at the house and ran 10/2 uf to the barn only becouse the hardware store here didnt have 8/2 or 8/3 uf and would be a week to get it. i burried it about a foot and a half deep, more work than i had to but my kids helped and we had fun. I ran that to a 30 amp box in the barn and put 2 single pole 15 amp breakers in that, one for the lights, and one for the tools. on the line comming out for the tools i put a gfci outlet there for the first outlet and also ran a ground out to a ground rod from the box. everything works great and i am happy.

thanks again.