Hi Folks - I'm remodeling a kitchen in an early 60's house in northern New Jersey. The original wiring had 2 circuits for the kitchen. My understanding is I'll need roughly 7 circuits. 2 - 20 amp appliance circuits 1 - 20 amp dedicated Microwave 1 - 20 amp dedicated food disposal 1 - 20 amp dedicated stove hood 1 - 20 amp dedicated for gas range and oven. 1 - 15 or 20 amp lights I'd like to run a 50 amp sub panel close to the kitchen to feed the above circuits. The best place for the sub panel would be recessed in a 2x4 finished hallway wall leading to the kitchen. The reason this location is ideal is a cinderblock chimmey spans all floors (1st, 2nd and attic). This provides a perfect space for running both the main feeder from the main panel and branch circuits into the attic to the kitchen. My concern is the chimmey is used by the furnance and hot water heater. The 2x4 framing around the chimmey has roughly 4" air clearance. I've measured the exterior temp of the cinderblock during the winter while both furnance and water heater are running for a long period. The highest temp I recorded was 112 degrees which is much lower then the temps in attic now during the summer. I'm betting NEC wouldn't allow a sub panel mounted in this location, but I can't find any evidence of this. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Ken

Hi I'm looking for advice on the best way to get power from my generator shed to my home. Distance between the two, is about 20ft. Shed will house my 17.5 kw portable generator. Inside the shed will be a 50Amp inlet socket w/ two hot, one neutral and a ground terminal. This will connect to the generator's 50amp 240v socket. I also want to run a 120v/20 amp line from the house to the shed to allow for the use of a trickle charger to keep the generator's starter battery charged. Will also probably put in an outdoor socket to have a general plug available in that part of my back yard. Correct me if I'm wrong but, I'll have to bury the line since there's no concrete wall to run a UF-B cable along. Just a wooden fence line. There will be no heavy traffic in this area just bushes and a small fig tree. It seems my options are: A) Use 6/3 UF-B for the generator -> house circuit. Use 10/2 UF-B for house -> generator shed circuit. Bury both cables directly in 18" deep trench. B) Use 2" Sch40 PVC conduit in 18" deep trench and; -- For the generator shed -> house path pull 3 THWN #6 cables for the hots and neutral, pull 1 THWN #12 for the ground. --For the house -> generator shed path pull 2 #10 THWN for the hot and neutral and #12 THWN for the ground. Any setup better than the other? Thanks in advance for your answer. BTW, once in the house, generator power is fed to a manual transfer switch setup.