I'm not an electrician, and I don't play one on TV...
 

...but I was sick and tired of waiting.

Three different electricians, three different quotes, three different promises of "We'll be out _______ to do the work." Three different disappointments. One of them actually took the effort to wire two of the breakers in the sub-panel, then fell off the face of the earth.

The task was simple: wire the sub-panel for my garage, and connect the wires from the sub-panel to the main panel. I'd bought all of the materials, ran the conduit, fished the wires through; I just wanted someone 'qualified' to do the actual hookup.

So I said fsck it, and did it myself. Using the existing breakers as a guide, and doing a little bit of research on google, I got the job done in about an hour.

The only excitement was when I turned the main power back on, the breaker (200A) immediately blew. Big flash, big ka-pow! and some smoke. This ended up happening because the HVAV, air compressor, fridge, etc all wanted to come on at the exact same time, and was too much of an initial load for the breaker. I turned all of the individual breakers off, turned on the main, then brought the rest of the circuits on slowly, one-by-one, and it was fine.

The first pic is the sub panel, the second is the main panel. The breaker for the garage sub-panel is the one on the lower-left.

http://66.34.72.138/gallery/image/2100301.JPG
http://66.34.72.138/gallery/image/2100301a.JPG

Ground & Neutral buss bars in sub-panel should be seperate. Neutrals in sub-panel should not be grounded!

http://members.tripod.com/~masterslic/FAQ-2/18.html

Thom,
Go buy a $3 ground bar kit for the panel and move the gound wires to it. It looks the same as the neutral bar but mounts seperately. Typically there is a screw that allows you to bond them together. Do not use the screw for the sub-panel.

John

But I bet you guys don't know how to change a plug with a tableknife;)
(see post on Why are most women car ignorant??)

And to think the purpose of my post was to preen!

I bought the ground bar kit and installed it:

http://66.34.72.138/gallery/image/2100302.JPG

sh+t! i would be the lamest electrician. it took me three looks to find the difference between the 1st and second pic. :)

Good job Thom,

The grounds and the neutrals were the only thing I could see that needed attention!:)

Thom,
I think you need some more toys to fill up those two open circuits.

John

Actually I'll be adding a window-mount air conditioner and a 1600CFM exhaust fan, but they weren't on the original plans, so they don't go in until after the final inspection. I'm supposed to be having a rough frame inspection today, we'll see how/if that goes.

Thanks again John!

Hey Thom,

I didn't notice it before but is that an EMT compression fitting on the 3/4" PVC pipe (Panel feed)? If so you might want to change it out to a PVC 3/4" male adapter before your inspection.

Keep on, keepin' on, Thom.
But make sure your life and fire insurance premiums are paid up.

I don't understand the problem/concern.

They were supposed to inspect yesterday, but the inspector didn't want to go anywhere near the electrical bits in the rain (can you blame him?) He's supposed to come out today.

The work looks great Thom, "If you gotta do it right, do it yourself" or something like that...

After moving back to the midwest, I'm kind of in the process of planning the same thing because it's not much fun working in an uninsulated garage with no light in 25deg weather.

Something to note was the entire garage box was run off one breaker in the house I believe, and adding more circuits would probably overload it so I'll try and get the garage box wired right off the street or add another seperate breakered box. Check the feed wire rating for total max amps.

Every outlet is planned to have it's own breaker to keep things tidy and safe and I'm planning on putting a couple 40 amp(more than the 25amp at least) outlets near the doors to run the compressor/welder/buffer outside for a drive-up repair.

Also, before the rock goes in, now is the time to put in a couple 240 outlets on opposite corners for flexability in the interior layout. They can always be switched off.

Thom,

I'm just pointing out that some inspectors may not look too kindly to using a connector designed for metal conduit and using it on PVC. Some may catch it and some won't. It's your call.

I'm still not clear on which exact piece you mean.

I was going to mention that.

Im pretty sure you need metal shielding around your wires going into a panel box.

Looks like he's just got BX cable going in there.

Hi Thom,

The fitting attatching the plastic pipe to the sub-panel. It is typically used for metal conduit, not plastic.