Here is a fun one.... I have had @Jeffs02rwdSS tucked in my garage for a few months, as he joined the Automobile's Anonymous group at the Piston Powered Autorama at the Cleveland IX center. The black Monte is on the lift.

 

It has been a little while since I have had an update and it's because I haven't had an actual update. Last weekend, finally bought a breaker box for the garage and Sunday, got it mounted. Next to slam in some electrical boxes and run some wiring for rough-in.

 

Nice! How many amps total for the garage? Is it a standalone service or is it fed from the house panel? Are you trenching it there or using suspended wires?


I actually bought a panel for mine a couple months back (unbeatable clearance at the local hardware, even came with a handful of breakers). I can't put mine in yet though as I dont have a permit out for the electrical.

Been keeping my eye on sales and such to start picking up other components - man that feed wire is eye watering expensive! I'd only planned on 100 amps for mine, but the length of run necessitates a pretty heavy gauge wire on mine.

 

This is a 100amp Siemens panel. It supports 20 spaces and 20 circuits. Came with the main breaker and a couple starter breakers. This should be plenty for what I need now and room for extras in the future, if I need. The plan is to connect it with the panel in my house and to trench to the garage.

 

I really appreciate everything you've done for me in the last few months. You were a huge help in getting that fuel injection put on the car and got it running. 😎

 

All fun stuff

 

My county wants a count of all switches and outlets when I file the permit. So, I decided I would start doing all the slamming in boxes, run wiring, this way I can have an actual count. Easier for me to walk it and think this out than the mess with it on paper (and worked out, I had to re-think it a couple of times). Plus, code requires each circuit that has an outlet on it to be a GFCI protected circuit. I would really prefer to use the actual GFCI breakers, but those are about $60ish a piece. Another acceptable solution is protecting the circuit with a GFCI outlet or wall mount GFCI at the start of the circuit. Looking at cost, I believe I would be money ahead on the breaker/GFCI outlet combo.
After some messages with the county, I can actually have the electrical all install, panel energized, so long as they can inspect and see the wire in the walls and the trench. Sounds almost too easy to be true.

I have been working on this wiring for a couple hours here and there. Pushing my cheap-o Harbor Freight DrillMaster cored drill and Warrior 18v cordless to their limits. The Warrior drill is holding up better than I thought it would, but it only last about 1-1.5 hours of drilling with a 3/4 spade bit and then the battery says "enough". It is a great "around the house" general purpose drill, but I don't believe it is a heavy duty construction job site drill. I got to a point that on Easter Sunday (4/20), I mailed my application and check for my permit. Currently, I am almost done running all the electrical for the interior and exterior. I am on the last large run, all holes drilled and just have some short runs to do. But those short runs are bringing the circuit to the breaker box. I want to wait to get my main feeder wire installed first, then get the rest of those short runs in.

 

Are they making you draw up an electrical plan / diagram? Curious how you did it if you needed one.

I need one for my permit and am torn between getting Adobe Pro again for a month to do a nice professional drawing based on one of my structure permit drawing views vs a quick 'back of the napkin' hand sketch to just barely check the box.

Agreed, that sounds very reasonable!

Are you putting it in conduit or going deep enough to use underground wire alone?

I cant wait to see how many Ridgid tools I go through doing that on mine! I think Ive broken almost every other tool at least once besides my two original drills, but I suspect thats because Ive never used them more than a few minutes straight any time I use them. My impact driver has a few case cracks appearing around the front / top (I suspect from heat of the impact part up front, its never been dropped) but is still functional.

What are you doing for lights? Cans / pucks, old school hanging fluorescent, etc?

Doing anything special for targeted lighting (detailing work / work bench / etc)?

 

My county only required a drawing if I was doing service that was 200amp or more. I am working with 100amp sub-panel (which has 100amp main breaker), I am in the clear of drawings. If I did need drawings, I was going to ask the county what they required. Such as does it have to be showing just the drops for the outlets and circuits or full drawings of the wire routing. No matter what I needed, I would have looked to use something basic (maybe just the program SnagIT on my computer or get something like Visio).

Jury is out on this. My father feels I should have it in conduit for added protection. A friend of mine who is an electrician suggests just use underground burial wire. He said if I do that, I ONLY need conduit for wear it goes out of the house and intro the ground, then out of the ground into the garage (very basic, I am guessing to protect from UV, other elements and protection from things like weed trimmers and other hazards is probably the reason that code requires that small bit of conduit on the end points),


A couple of years before this garage actually happened, I bought a bunch of these 2-pack LED shop lights from Menards on a Black Friday deal (something like $10 or $20 a pack). They have been in my basement with some old kitchen cabinets I got for free that I plan to use in the garage. For now, I will stage these high against the wall pointing inward to the garage. When I build my mezzanine I want, it will be easy to stage them for the ground floor and mezzanine floor. My "fun" challenge is, how to stage them where the mezzanine is not at (as that is 16ft floor to ceiling). My concern is not the initial getting them up there, it is future replacement (as these stuff may last long, but not forever). I have had some interesting ideas.
1. - Abandon these and use a BR50 screw in bulbs. Use the long extension to change the bulbs.
2. - (and this was an idea @ChibiBlackSheep suggested). Use some type of rails that I can slide the lights back and forth on from the mezzanine. Use extension cords so the outlets can also be accessed from the mezzanine.
3. - Rig a pulley system to lower them.
4. - Build it out so the non mezzanine lights hang lower where they can be reached. Such as 2x4 boxes to hold them to a level I can actually get to. And for the lift, I don't need full 16ft ceiling height, I just happen to have it.
5. - Use a pole system with S-hooks, chain and Eye bolts that can help hang them. Plugging them in or out is still a challenge.

Lots of thoughts.
Back on April 3rd, I did a test that perhaps I could have posted here. I was curious how the light looked from the ceiling down. Using an extension cord, two ropes, I made the test. Tied something to the ropes and got on the ladder and threw it over a roof truss/rafter. Tied the light and pulled it up. In my book, one of these lights did VERY well. Really light up close to a quarter of the garage! I want to have 6 per bay, plus when the walls are covered with OSB and painted white, I think that will REALLY work out well! The final switches will be staged to have three switches. One for the bay with the lift. One over the mezzanine and one below the mezzanine.

 

Just curious, is this running off a 200 amp house service? If so, that sounds like exactly what I'm hoping to do also.

Thats really smart.

Ive not perosnally had great luck with LEDs. I remember when they came out, one of the big features was supposed to be extreme longevity compared to incadescent, but we've been very hit or miss with them. When we moved into this house, we converted everything to LED as they had a random mix of everything. In some locations, especially outside and unconditioned spaces, it feels like I replace them every bit as much as the old incandescent bulbs. So I'm right there with you on serviceabiltiy being a top priority.

Those seem to be a great match for your garage - great light output and perfect spread of light at that height.