electrical detached garage ?

Posted by on February 23, 2009, 7:41 am

Any electricians in the group? Building a detacted garage about 12
feet from the house. Want to put in a 70amp subpanel. From what I've
read the garage need's to have it's own grounding rod. And I need to
run both hots, a neutral, and a ground from the main panel. And the
ground and neutral need to NOT be connected together in the sub panel.

Have I got this right???

Posted by John Grabowski on February 23, 2009, 8:44 am

> Any electricians in the group? Building a detacted garage about 12
> feet from the house. Want to put in a 70amp subpanel. From what I've
> read the garage need's to have it's own grounding rod. And I need to
> run both hots, a neutral, and a ground from the main panel. And the
> ground and neutral need to NOT be connected together in the sub panel.
> Have I got this right???

*You are correct. You need four conductors to the subpanel and the ground
and neutral are kept separate whereas in the main panel they are bonded
together. The grounding electrode conductor from the ground rod at the
garage gets connected to the ground bar in the subpanel. You may have to
buy the ground bar separately from the circuit breaker panel.

Do a search in alt.home.repair. This topic has been answered many times in
that group.

Posted by Steve Barker on February 23, 2009, 9:29 am

jamesgangnc@gmail.com wrote:

You got it. But you don't need 70A in a detached garage. 30 would be
more than ample. (no pun intended)

steve

Posted by jamesgangnc on February 23, 2009, 10:11 am

> jamesgangnc@gmail.com wrote:

>> Any electricians in the group? Building a detacted garage about 12
>> feet from the house. Want to put in a 70amp subpanel. From what I've
>> read the garage need's to have it's own grounding rod. And I need to
>> run both hots, a neutral, and a ground from the main panel. And the
>> ground and neutral need to NOT be connected together in the sub panel.
>> Have I got this right???

> You got it. But you don't need 70A in a detached garage. 30 would be
> more than ample. (no pun intended)
> steve

Thanks :-)

Sorry my bad, detached 28x30 garage with finished space above. I need to
run a 1 1/2 ton heat pump (too big but the smallest they make in a
conventional split) and a 20 gallon hot water heater. Plus the usual
lights/outlets. Garage will be a bit of a workshop as well. Got a 6 space
panel. 2 for the heat pump, 2 for the hot water. One 20amp for outlets in
the garage on 12/2. One 15 amp for lights and outlets in the space above on
14/2. Was figuring on putting one upstairs outlet on the 20amp circuit for
a microwave. Will be a "bar" style kitchenette at one end, little fridge
and microwave. Also a 3/4 bath in a dormer.

I did see that the question had been answered a lot but like everything else
on the internet there were a lot of different answers :-) Wanted to make
sure I had picked the best answer.

Posted by John Grabowski on February 23, 2009, 11:48 am

>> jamesgangnc@gmail.com wrote:

>>> Any electricians in the group? Building a detacted garage about 12
>>> feet from the house. Want to put in a 70amp subpanel. From what I've
>>> read the garage need's to have it's own grounding rod. And I need to
>>> run both hots, a neutral, and a ground from the main panel. And the
>>> ground and neutral need to NOT be connected together in the sub panel.
>>> Have I got this right???

>> You got it. But you don't need 70A in a detached garage. 30 would be
>> more than ample. (no pun intended)
>> steve

> Thanks :-)
> Sorry my bad, detached 28x30 garage with finished space above. I need to
> run a 1 1/2 ton heat pump (too big but the smallest they make in a
> conventional split) and a 20 gallon hot water heater. Plus the usual
> lights/outlets. Garage will be a bit of a workshop as well. Got a 6
> space panel. 2 for the heat pump, 2 for the hot water. One 20amp for
> outlets in the garage on 12/2. One 15 amp for lights and outlets in the
> space above on 14/2. Was figuring on putting one upstairs outlet on the
> 20amp circuit for a microwave. Will be a "bar" style kitchenette at one
> end, little fridge and microwave. Also a 3/4 bath in a dormer.
> I did see that the question had been answered a lot but like everything
> else on the internet there were a lot of different answers :-) Wanted to
> make sure I had picked the best answer.

*I would put in a 20 space panel to allow for future expansion. A kitchen
requires two 20 amp circuits and a bathroom one 20 amp circuit. Check out
these small package units from Friedrich. They are great for apartments and
condos and you don't need a technician to install them:
http://www.friedrich.com/products/LineOverview.php?line=A

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