"steve" wrote in message
...
Planning on putting up a garage this fall, that I will use primarily for a
woodworking shop. size is 24x32. 2 car garage with separate smaller
"workshop" extension. will probably use it for storage and finishing.
question is approximatly how much electricity should I use for the shop,
will probably have to have a subpanel from the main house, or might need

My situation was similar, just a bit bigger (24'x36'). Due to the layout of
the house and location of the main panel there it would have been damn near
impossible to run a sub-panel off the main and thence underground to the
detached structure.

When I called the electric company to get a second line in they said, in
effect, "No problem. We'll trench in the second line and you'll be billed
at the commercial rate!" Argued that it was a garage with hobby shop and
nothing more. "Sorry, second meter on residential property is commercial.
Next?"

I solved this by having a neighbor who worked for the utility company and
was familiar with the whole routine. He disconnected my entire residence
from the grid, cracked open the meter pedestal at the rear of the house and
connected the appropriate underground cable to the lugs on MY side of the
meter (no attempt to shortchange the power company, I'm paying for every
wattg) and sealed the pedestal back up and "locked" it with one of their
seals.

I mention this only in the event that you may run into a similar line when
you ask for a second line drop at your place. There IS an alternative.

My UF runs to garage and connects to a 100AMP main panel there. I've got
more circuits than I need, including two 240v runs and still have a couple
of spare breaker slots left in spite of the fact that two of the breakers
are GFI breakers.

The breaker is in my shop which is insulated and finished. The only thing
that I didn't do (and, while not a major problem, it's certainly
inconvenient) was stub out the remaining circuits through the finished wall
and up into the overhead where I could easily tap into them to add
additional circuits. To do so now, I'll have to cut out a couple square
feet of drywall, do the wiring and then patch. Inasmuch as I've made do
quite well with what I have for the past 22 years, it probably is not that
muich of a problem but it's still one of those "why the hell didn't I's...?"