I have 115v electrical service to my shed but I need 220v?

Question

I have 115v line buried in conduit to my shed from the house. The wire guage is #12. I need 220v, can I use the 12 gauge wire or do I need to pull in a 10 gauge or larger. My shed is about 90ft from the house.

Answer 1

Call an electrician.

Answer 2

The gage of the wire depends on how much current requirement you have.

for 220 and 110 to both be available to you at your shed, you need three wire with ground.

220v is present from one hot to the other hot. From either of the hots to your neutral, you have 110 available. The ground in the cable is protective and does not carry current unless a short to ground should occur.

12 gage is good for 20 amps total.

You may be able to simply attach your new three wire with ground to the existing wire and pull it on through. Or, you may have to pull a fish tape through when pulling out the old wire, then use the tape to pull the new wire through.

I would say call a electrician, but I am betting, you probably already knew that was a option for you.

j

Answer 3

You don't need bigger wire if you don't change the size of the breaker in the house that feeds this circuit. But for 220 you will need one more wire and a double breaker in the house. If you are lucky enough to have a spare wire in the cable that supplies the garage, the job is easy. If not, you will need to change that cable and at the same time you can think about increasing the wire size if you need more power.

Answer 4

How many wires are installed? You need 4 for a 120/240 circuit. If you want only a 240 volt 20 amp circuit with no neutral, you can use 3 #12 wires. So it depends what you are trying to do.

Answer 5

You actually need to know the total amount of amperes you are going to use to choose the correct wire size. The #12 you currently have will be good for roughly 18 amps. Hope this helps.

Answer 6

Pull some 6-3 out there. That will give you 220 50 amp service (assuming you put a 50 amp breaker in the house).