# How to wire up barn



## richmond1273 (Oct 4, 2011)

i am getting ready to move out to my grandfathers farm and i am looking to upgrade the electric. it currently has a 100 amp panel and has a 30 amp breaker going to the garage and a 30 amp breaker going to the barn. right now there is a single pole in the yard with the wire coming in overhead and because of another project i need the service to come in underground so i figured i would go ahead and upgrade to 200amp. my question i guess is how best to wire everything up. 30 amps would be fine in the garage because it will be used mainly as storage, the barn has a 1,200 sq ft work shop in it that will be running wielding equip, air compressor, wood working tools etc....should i run 200 to the house then a 100 sub panel to the barn from the house? some people around here have the panel and meter on the pole in the yard then run separate services from there to the house and the barn. what do you guys do?


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## Jim S. (Apr 22, 2004)

I have a house and three outbuildings. Panel and meter on the service pole will not pass inspection here. 

From the service pole, I used a "switchable meter" that has a load sensor so it can meter the load no matter where it goes downstream (check with your power company). I then ran an overhead to one shop and put a 100-amp panel in it, an underground to another shop and put a 200-amp panel in it, and an overhead to my house with a 200-amp panel there. The barn is then subfed off the house with a 10 AWG underground line on a single 20-amp circuit. The barn is just flourescent lights and two outlets, hardly anything of a load out there. 

In your case, probably the neatest and easiest way would be to go underground to your house and install a 200 amp service there, then subfeed to the garage and barn, installing a 100 amp panel in the garage and a 125 amp panel in the barn. You need 125 for all the stuff going on in the barn! It will provide capacity to expand. (It is permissable to use two subfed panels totalling more amps than the main because not all of the amps will be used at any one time.)

You will have to see if this is acceptable to your local inspector. In my area, the smallest service panel you can use is 100 amps. The only way I got away with a single 20 amp panel in my barn was that I installed it later and did not have it inspected. 

The drawback to this arrangement is that if you have a fire in your house, you will not have power to any other building on your place. For that reason, I would consider underground feeding to a central distribution point where the meter is located, and then running service wire underground to your house and your barn. With this arrangement, in the barn, I would go 200 amp service panel and subfeed the garage off it at 100 amps. Even more ideal would be separate service to each building from the meter. In the house, I would go no smaller than 200 amp service panel. 

This way, if your barn or shop burns, you still have lights in the house. If the house burns, you still have lights in the barn and shop. If all three are separate and one burns, the other two still have lights. 

If you have a well for your water, I would seriously consider wiring it to the barn or shop rather than the house. If your house catches fire, you will still have water to fight it while the FD is coming, even after the electricity is off to the house.

I did this with my well, which is wired to one of my shops.

The key is to make your plans and then immediately talk to the man who will be your electrical inspector about what he wants to see and what will pass in your area. This is very important, and will save you a lot of extra work and costs. I actually drew out my buildings and the lines the way I wanted to do it.

Just be sure you do exactly what he tells you he wants to see, even if you think your way is better. There are tons of local preferences and codes, and you want to comply with what they like to see. Hard to buck them, since they will not turn on your juice til you do what they say!

Last get a book like the great "Wiring Simplified" (http://www.amazon.com/Wiring-Simplified-Based-National-Electrical/dp/0971977933) and study up on the national codes and how things are done. But always remember, what the inspector says will be the rule of law on your job.


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## farminghandyman (Mar 4, 2005)

on most farms, there is the meter pole (and usually the transformer is on the same pole, not always tho),that is the power company's, and usually a beaker or fuse box under that, so the system is protected, and from there it is distributed, to the farm, usually on most farms there is a central pole that power to out buildings are feed, ever building is treated as having it's own main panel, usually 3 wire service, the are not considered sub panels, they are main panels, 

the code has been updated requiring a 4 wire ( 2 hots {if 240 volts}, ground and neutral), to the barn from the meter pole, if the barn is for animals, 

(I personally would not use the term barn unless it is an animal barn, call it a shed or shop other wise, it may save some headaches on the NEC rules), and there are strict rules on bonding and grounding at the barn to help in the elimination of stray voltages, most of it includes the concrete to have ground grid in it and any metal in the barn to be bonded, ( a lot of this has come from the dairy industry and losses on milk production and animal health, with stray voltages, animals can sense voltage in the single digit's I have heard as small are 1 to 2 volts), 

but if you feed a second building or panel from another building they are considered sub panels, so if your feeding the garage from the house that is a sub panel that requires the ground and the neutrals to be separated.

but if off the distribution pole they can be treated as main panels, the run can be over head or under ground if the rules are followed,

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If you choose to go under ground, I suggest you use conduit to run the wires in, I may self would over size the conduit than the minimum, 
(at our Home depot the 2" is nearly the cheapest they carry, by that statement the savings for 1.5" is with cents a foot of the 2"), 
if there are changes in the future it will save you much headache and it may keep moles and other ground animals from chewing the insulation off the wires and having those type of problems,


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

Jim S. said:


> I have a house and three outbuildings. Panel and meter on the service pole will not pass inspection here.


And in this county of TN, it's just fine. I had a separate meter on the shop, and paid commercial rate, even though often I wouldn't even turn the lights on some months.....still a minimum $30 bill.

So, when I decided to put in my solar power, I put in a new 400amp service 1/2 way between the shop and house ( 200' each way ), and ran 200amp to each....and got rid of the shop meter. Was a short run from the solar equipment to the new meter bases....one for the "buy" meter, one for the solar sell meter.



















And here's 10,000 kw/hrs of solar after 2 1/2 years !


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## Elevenpoint (Nov 17, 2009)

200 Amp service to the house, seperate 200 amp service to the shop/outbuilding. Small shed with well, water pressure tank, outlets, and lights running directly off of meter base with another seperate panel.


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

We have a utility pole with a 200 amp running down to the meter box. From there we ran a 100 amp to the house and a 100 amp to another meter box inside the barn. In the barn meter box we placed several breakers to take care of lighting inside the barn as well as run some underground wire out to the tool shed and across another acre for an outside spot light covering the back pasture (The turn on/off switch for this is in the tool shed.).

What I learned was that all wiring inside the out buildings need to be run through conduit to keep the mice/rats from chewing on it.


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## richmond1273 (Oct 4, 2011)

thanks for all the responses. i believe i will try to go with the switchable meter so i don't limit myself on what i can do in the shop area. i just need to make a visit with he local inspector with some drawings and talk to the electric company to see what they will do for me. obviously i want to do this the cheapest way but the right way so i need to figure out which way i am running less underground wire.

i was planning on using conduit since the space between the house and the barn in a big gravel drive that trucks and tractors will use. i was thinking about getting it larger than needed and put a few pull strings in it for future uses.

that is a good idea about running wire in the livestock part of the barn in conduit for the mice. i should inspect that to see it this has been a problem in the past.


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