Mod note: member is in Canada

Hello all, need some advice please.

Just bought a new house and the main panel is in the house with a sub panel in garage.

I have a welder that requires 50amps 220v and a compressor that needs 20amp and 220v. Plus the lights and a 110v welder.

At my current house panel was in garage so it was a easy hook up. But I'm confused with the sun panel, wondering if the sun panel is receiving enough juice to run all this. The main breaker on sub panel appears to be 40amp and the breaker in house for garage appears to be 40amp.

My confusion is the wires, the wires appear to change somewhere. I have included pics of the setup. The first couple are panel in house feeding garage. The rest with be of panel in garage.

Any help would be great.

I did buy a new sub panel with new breakers for the setup I need to have, I'm just not sure if the wires going to garage are sufficient.

 

Welcome to the forums.

Your pictures didn't make it. http://www.doityourself.com/forum/el...-pictures.html

You are limited to the size of the breaker feeding the sub panel and the size of the wiring. 40A is certainly not going to be large enough for your application.

 

Right, what I am asking is if the wiring is thick enough to handle the larger breaker to feed garage.

 

The pics.

https://imgur.com/gallery/UrmVl

The wires from the panel don't seem to match what shows up in garage. Not sure I mentioned that.

 

The wire in the main panel is #6 and the wire in the conduit appears to be #8. The circuit is limited to 40 amps max. There must be a junction box where the wires changed. I would suspect the main panel feed goes to the kitchen perhaps an old feed to a range or oven.

 

So neither of those are sufficient for what I want?

 

It really depends on your actual loads. People always say they have a 50 amp welder when really the welder only has a 50 amp plug on it. That actual settings and duty cycle of the welder will come into play when determining if the circuit will handle the load. The nameplate on the welder is worst case, full power, running everything, full duty.

You need to run a new feeder to the sub panel. On a side note: the 40 amp breaker in the sub panel is redundant. The feeder can be connected to the main lugs of the panel. (In the US, Canada may be different) That will open up 2 spaces for a 240 volt breaker.

 

That's what I wondered. I couldn't figure out why the sub panel had a breaker for the main.

Also what size cable and types etc should I be running when I decide to tackle that crappy job?

My welder is a Lincoln 225 stick welder. Plate on it does say 50amp constant.

 

Yes, but that would be at max power on the welder. Do you normally crank the welder on full power when welding? If so, then you will likely need a larger feeder to the garage.

 

What would I need to run from the panel to the garage to support the max load from welder?

 

You would need a new circuit back to the service panel to feed the welder.

Is the garage attached?

 

Detached garage, sits about 30feet or so from panel in house. Maybe a little more.

What size wire should I be using? Etc.

 

You could use 2-2-4-6 aluminum mobile home cable on as 90 amp breaker to a 100 amp main breaker panel in the garage. The MH cable can be direct buried without conduit but will need to be sleeved in conduit to where it enters the ground and from where it leaves the ground. Note: MH cable inside a structure must be in conduit all the way to the panel even if inside a finished wall.

Subpanel at garage will need a ground bar added. The neutral bar will not be bonded. You will need one or two ground rods at the garage connected to the subpanel ground bar with #6 copper.

Suggestions based on NEC not CEC. Your milage may vary.