We have a son that is going to school for auto-deisel repair and has since purchased quite a few new tools. Included is an air compressor. It is 120 volt compressor but to run it everything else in the garage needs to be shut off including the lights. Also the garage shares a common wall with the kitchen which is wired to one outlet in the garage. My question is, how difficult or expensive will it be to rewire the garage so we can get more power out there to run things without tripping breakers? Can it be done at the breaker box or does it have to have new wires run? Would it be better to run a seperate power line to the garage only? I'm going to leave this job to a professional but was just wondering if anyone has dealt with it before and how much was involved.
2007-10-08 13:00:21 · 8 answers · asked by rsimons56 4 in Home & Garden ➔ Maintenance & Repairs
I always hesitate to answer electrical questions. Electricity is best left to a professional. Doing things wrong can have dire consequences including death. I will give you a little generic information. A new circuit with new wires will have to be ran from the breaker box out to the garage. The wire has to be large enough to carry the desired load. All this assumes you have enough electricity available in the first place. You may need a panel upgrade. If you have any specific questions I can be reached at jamesboyer_1958@Yahoo.com. If you live in or near Saint Louis I may be able to assist you in person.
2007-10-08 13:18:36 · answer #1 · answered by dont_call_me_sweet_pea 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If your son is going to be running a lot of tools/equipment in the garage; instead of paying an electrician to run one 20A curcuit, why not have him run a larger wire for 240 volts and connect to a small sub panel in the garage (say 6 - 8 breakers). I think the labor part would be about the same. Run your air compressor to this panel with a dedicated curcuit, and hook up at least one other circuit for outlets. This would leave some room for expansion in case he wants an arc welder, or other 240 volt equipment.
The cost will depend on how difficult it is to get the wire from your existing panel to the garage (it will run a lot more if there is a lot of snaking through or cutting into and repairing finished walls).
2007-10-08 23:30:06 · answer #2 · answered by Flying Dragon 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You should probably run a new dedicated circuit just for the air compressor in a 12 gauge wire, 20 amp circuit. Most electrical codes require a circuit to carry no more than 80 percent of a working load for any appliance or combination so if you have a 110 volt 20 amp circuit, the total watts for the circuit would be 2200 of which you can safely use 80 percent or 1760 watts. Check the existing amp rating for the garage wiring and circuit breaker---may need to upgrade them as well if your son intends on working in the garage a lot using power tools....should have 12 gauge wiring and 20 amp breakers.
2007-10-08 20:54:27 · answer #3 · answered by paul h 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Hi,
The standard outlet is usually a 15 amp circuit which would handle a 1875 W (max) load before tripping the breaker. Check the specs on the compressor and see what they recommend. I would run a dedicated line taking into account the starting load as rated by the manufacturer.
You may find that a 20 amp circuit using #12 wiring will meet your need.
Courtlh
2007-10-08 20:31:27 · answer #4 · answered by Courtlh 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You will need a dedicated circuit since the load in your garage has reached it's limit. If you have a switch box in the garage odds are you can run it from there. Without knowing all of the details I agree with you and let the pros do it.
2007-10-08 20:11:04 · answer #5 · answered by engineer_retired 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It really all depends on your circuit box where the power comes into your house.
From there you really should run a new line to the garage for the equipment.
Assuming your circuit box can handle an additional brakers it shouldn't be that big of a thing.
2007-10-08 20:10:23 · answer #6 · answered by mstrobert 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The answer is yes and no.
The good news is that if your house is of
recent construction, your kitchen will have multiple
20A. appliance circuits., and it would be physically
easy to extend one or more of them to the garage.
The bad news is that the Electrical Code forbids
doing this.
The Code also requires that all garage circuits be
GFI protected. - If it's for a student mechanic, I would
strongly recommend you do it right - New circuits
from the panel to GFI outlets.
2007-10-08 22:42:05 · answer #7 · answered by Irv S 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
hey sweet p did you live in walnut park, st. louis
2007-10-08 21:01:08 · answer #8 · answered by frfiter 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋