Electric to workshop ?

hunterdan

hunterdan

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2009
Location
Morganton,NC
Looking for a little help please... running power to workshop.
My home has a 200amp service. Neutral and ground are bonded at meter on outside of home. Main breaker box in house has neutral(white) and ground separated. I have a 100amp breaker installed in the main panel which ran to a sub panel 140 feet from the house. That's where I had a 30 amp breaker for a camper.
Camper is gone and now I have a workshop. Here's my plan and question's.
Wire from 100amp breaker in home is the aluminum 4 wire (2-2-4-6). I plan to remove outdoor sub panels internals and splice the four wires inside the panel... then continue the four wires to the workshop breaker panel.
Panel in workshop is a 100amp with a main 100amp breaker. I plan on green wire to ground bar, black with white stripe to neutral bar, 1 black wire to 100amp breaker.

What to do with final black wire?
Also, will I need ground rods or does house where feed comes from ground it?
Lengthy post but just trying to give as much info as possible.
Thanks for any insight.
Pic of wire I'm using attached
 

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That's mobile home service entry wire, you would use the two #2's for your hots, the 4 is the neutral and the green 6 is the ground. Tie them into your main panel just like that, then put the two hots on your main lugs or main breaker at the subpanel, the neutral on the neutral buss and the ground to the ground. Your main panel should have the ground and neutral bonded inside it, your subpanel should have the bonding screw or tiebar removed and the ground buss separate, also need to run ground rods into the ground for your workshop panel and tie them to the ground buss. I don't like the thought of splicing triplex but if you do, use the right split bolts to do it.
 
braxton357 said:
That's mobile home service entry wire, you would use the two #2's for your hots, the 4 is the neutral and the green 6 is the ground. Tie them into your main panel just like that, then put the two hots on your main lugs or main breaker at the subpanel, the neutral on the neutral buss and the ground to the ground. Your main panel should have the ground and neutral bonded inside it, your subpanel should have the bonding screw or tiebar removed and the ground buss separate, also need to run ground rods into the ground for your workshop panel and tie them to the ground buss. I don't like the thought of splicing triplex but if you do, use the right split bolts to do it.
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Thanks for the help.
My house has the ground and neutral bonded outside at meter box so main home panel has them separated. I was told it's the main...but truly is a sub panel.
I see you say I need to install ground rods for workshop panel. Is panel not grounded via house?
I bought some slice kits at Lowes with the shrinkwrap for 2-8awg. Should I use those to make splice inside the old sub panel or should I just connect to lugs and use box as a junction? If I use box lugs and bus's then wouldn't I need to ground that panel as well as workshop panel?
Thanks again
 
I'm no electrical engineer, or electrician, but I look at the ground thing this way: adding a ground rod to the workshop box seems like cheap insurance against the "what if's" that may seem outlandish, are sometimes the ones that come back to bit people in the nether parts.
 
fordwheelinman said:
I'm no electrical engineer, or electrician, but I look at the ground thing this way: adding a ground rod to the workshop box seems like cheap insurance against the "what if's" that may seem outlandish, are sometimes the ones that come back to bit people in the nether parts.
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As braxton says in this case it’s absolutely necessary.
But just because of the way you stated this I want to add something in case others read later. It’s critical to get grounding right . More isn’t necessarily better. Electricity always follows the easier path. If you give it multiple paths you may become the the easiest path.
 
Ron said:
As braxton says in this case it’s absolutely necessary.
But just because of the way you stated this I want to add something in case others read later. It’s critical to get grounding right . More isn’t necessarily better. Electricity always follows the easier path. If you give it multiple paths you may become the the easiest path.
Click to expand...
My point was, being 140 feet from the main panel seems like far enough away that a rod and some wire is well worth the trouble. If we were talking about a detached garage 15ft ballparked, I wouldn't have even mentioned it, that would seem within the "safe" tolerances of my feeble mind.

I re-worded my posy about three time because it kept sounding like I was saying "the more the merrier", which is not what I was eluding to. I was looking at a stance of, if lightning were to strike at 70 feet, and that juice traveled up that 70 feet to the workshop, I'd rather have a ground wire/rod there so I knew I had done what I could to keep my tools and equipment safe, as opposed to feeling like a cheapskate for not putting the rod in and loosing all my stuff. (This is entirely a hypothetical, cause let's face it, I'm kind of an idiot the really knows nothing)
 
Thanks for the info. all.
I'm going to do the splices with but connectors and shrink wrap inside the old camper/rv panel. I'm also going to go ahead and do the ground rods. As mentioned I believe that is code. If I was just running an outside plug or similar 15/20 circuit then it wouldn't need a separate ground. When adding the new panel it's required and as some have said cheap insurance for lightning..
Thanks again
 
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Already stated but to clarify, ground rod at detached building along with ground wire run all the way back to the outside panel where the N and G are bonded. Bonding only happens in one panel, the “main” panel. My house is like yours with a panel outside and a panel in the house. The panel outside has the bonded N&G.

Your camper 30a was 120v right. You need to do your shop as 240v and use the panel in the shop to split into 120v legs for outlets and such.

You may understand all of that but just clarifying for posterity and folks who may read it later.
 
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