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extending electrical to the shed
ChadTower:
--- Quote from: shardian on April 01, 2009, 02:23:40 pm ---I thought you couldn't even replace a receptacle up in that state without an electrician?
--- End quote ---
I can run the wiring and such but can't do the terminations. I don't need an electrician to dig the trench or run the conduit and that's probably most of the manual work.
Ed_McCarron:
Make sure the electrician removes the neutral/ground bond screw at the subpanel. Bonding neutral to ground is verboten in subpanels, and most often that screw is installed from the factory.
shardian:
I liked the idea in one of those links to use 220 wire to run 2 circuits - with the circuits alternating each plug along the wall and sharing a neutral bus. I have to ask though - is that REALLY code kosher? If I pulled an outlet away from a wall and saw red wiring I would freak out! I had a bad enough problem with the horrible 3-way wiring jobs in my house.
Ed_McCarron:
--- Quote from: shardian on April 01, 2009, 04:17:24 pm ---I liked the idea in one of those links to use 220 wire to run 2 circuits - with the circuits alternating each plug along the wall and sharing a neutral bus. I have to ask though - is that REALLY code kosher?
--- End quote ---
Hm. I was set to say yes, as long as the hot wires weren't white or green. I've seen black, blue, red, all used as hot.
However, if you have 40A worth of feed (2 20A ckts) and 20A worth of neutral, I'd think thats cause for concern.
I'd avoid it. You'd be fine unless you started maxing out circuits, but I wouldn't want to have to explain it to the insurance inspector.
MonMotha:
Note that I'm not an electrician and not by any means an expert on the NEC or local electrical codes. Electrical codes often have little to do with electrical reality.
If you have a 240V split-phase setup (as is common in US residential installations), you can run "40A worth" of 120V receptacles using only "20A worth" of neutral quite easily. The neutral only has to carry the difference in current between the two split phases. So, worst case, you're drawing 20A off one line and zero off the other, so you end up with 20A on the neutral. If you load both phases evenly (resistive loads), you actually end up with the neutral carrying nothing: the current travels from one hot line, through the loads, to the other without ever needing to use the neutral.
You take advantage of this when running power into your home. There are three equal size lines running from the utility company transformer to your main panel. L1, L2, Neutral. Your panel then splits things up to that every other breaker is on the same phase. That's why 240V breakers are twice as big: it has to hit both phases.
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