Palum
what Suineg set it to
- 26,510
- 41,249
Home Improvement
- Thread starter Picasso3
- Start date
-
Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
Go here and give us your nominations!Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
Erronius
<WoW Guild Officer>
- 17,227
- 44,552
The main panel on the outside of my house is running out of 2” knockouts.. I need two more but this panel only has one left on it. I’d like to pass inspection but also don’t want this to look like a dude off Craigslist did the job. Even if creating a new 2” knockout (not sure that’s allowed?), piping the 2” up from the ground would go over a window.
Im wondering if maybe installing a subpanel on the same wall some 6 ft away with plenty of 2” knockouts would be a better idea and also pass inspection. I’d run 240v to it from the main of course.
Thoughts?Erronius
Depends on what you're trying to do.
You can punch more KOs, but generally speaking when it's residential you shouldn't need to unless you're remodeling or something
I probably wouldn't use 2" just for a subpanel, especially if it's a 100A subpanel or less.
Depending on what you're wanting to do, not sure what inspection you'd be looking at.
The_Black_Log Foler
PalsCo CEO - Stock Pals | Pantheon Pals
- 47,633
- 42,870
Welllll bud. I kinda done sorta fucked up maybe. Got tired of waiting around for people to do work, electricians wanting to charge insane prices, and so my neighbor recommended be a good ole boy who does work for him to help me run electrical to my chicken coop.
Mind you the initial project scope was just for a few outlets and two lights. But as many know on this forum I can be a bit impulsive and somehow the scope is now 240v to a subpanel on my chicken coop. The load is still the same for now.. A few lights, a wireless AP, maybe an exhaust fan and some outlets.
So I rented an excavator and excavated 180’ 2-2.5 ft deep. We dropped 2” conduit for the 240v and 1” for Cat5E. We ran copper 6 awg for both hot lines, 8 awg for neutral and 10 awg for ground. I’ve now buried it.
This morning I started having second thoughts that skipping permitting was a bad idea. I find that I can pull my own permit BUT inspector must see trench before backfill. There’s no fucking way I’m digging that shit up.
So I feel like I’m at the point of no return.. I don’t think a legit electrician would pick it up and I don’t think inspector would pass it without digging up.
Note I have zero concern about the effect this might have on property resale, my only concern is liability.
Should I just say fuck it and finish it with good ole boy? He seems to know his shit. At this point we’re just planning on stepping down the 2” into 1” to fit into main panel KO. Then at chicken coop I probably only need 20amp circuits. Do GFCI breakers at that subpanel.. Make sure to separate ground and neutral. I “think” we may need ground rods as well(?)
Lanx
<Prior Amod>
- 65,225
- 147,062
i only have this
tbh i should do a better install, it's just hanging outside the panel, lulz
- 1
Kobayashi
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
- 783
- 1,952
That looks like a good retrofit solution, but I hate their business model. Sell me the thing, don't make me subscribe to your stupid service. For the price, and recurring cost, I'd just start swapping out my breakers at my panel for afci ones. Then I'm better protected anyway since I'll trip rather than get notified there's a problem.
- 1
Erronius
<WoW Guild Officer>
- 17,227
- 44,552
I'd just go with what this dude started. It's a little late to worry about inspectors now, LOL
2" PVC underground is standard and gives you room to grow. 6/6/8/10 isn't bad.
Do keep grounds and neutrals separate in that subpanel. Do put in a ground rod (maybe 2) and land it to the ground bar, I used to run a #4 for ground rods. Do not install the main bonding jumper if the subpanel comes with one. Someone would view that setup as being feeders to a subpanel in a separate building requiring ground rods instead of that being just a branch wiring circuit (IMHO). I wouldn't go much more that a couple of 20A circuits out of that subpanel if at all possible, and of course on opposite legs.
Not sure what the plan is to go from 2" to 1" before entering the panel. My first impulse would be to mount something like a NEMA3 4x4x12 to transition through but /shrug. Curious what your dude would want to do.
Drunk Erronius Wednesdays YOLO!!
Penetrating the top of a outdoor NEMA 3R Gutter/Through?
After I did this thought of a bit cheaper way. Twas a long time ago, before this stuff and convenient shopping. But would have went out the back with 1 and LB out the side with the other one instead of this raceway.
forums.mikeholt.com
- 2
The_Black_Log Foler
PalsCo CEO - Stock Pals | Pantheon Pals
- 47,633
- 42,870
Ohh the NEMA3 4x4x12 is interesting. It looks like a trough that mounts on the bottom of your main.. I considered running ANOTHER sub panel by the breaker to pipe 2” into - not because the main panel doesn’t have room, far from it, but because it’s crowded in a corner in between window and meter so not much real estate. I like this trough and will investigate. Thank you!
The_Black_Log Foler
PalsCo CEO - Stock Pals | Pantheon Pals
- 47,633
- 42,870
Sorry just to clarify - I am feeding the sub panel on the coop with 240v, putting ground rods in and running branch circuits with overcurrent protection (gfci breakers) in that sub panel. When you refer to not installing the main bonding jumper in the sub panel, are you referring to someone thinking I am running a feeder from that sub panel to another sub panel? Just trying to clarify because the two sentences about ground rods seem to contradict unless what you’re referring to is the same setup I am.
thanks!
- 12,704
- 49,337
Great googily moogily....
To give some perspective. I'm in North Texas. And this year for $40k total I had a complete 450 sq ft fully enclosed patio room built (I believe pics are already in here). That's framing, walls, roofing, electrical, windows around the whole thing, and 4 sliding doors (two from house to patio, one from patio to yard and one from patio to driveway.) If you want to go to $4300 then that would also include the raised wood flooring and TV on the wall. And with the technical skill level needed to do good deck work that puts those quotes well into "Looks like I'm going to do this myself" territory personally.
Yeah, I certainly didn't accept those quotes. A contractor friend refused to let me get ripped off and did the full bathroom remodel himself, stripping the room down to studs, squaring the floor and walls, blowing out the exterior wall and reframing the window, insulation, stucco, plumbing, electric, curbless shower pan, drywall, tile, and finishing. It took six months but it "only" cost me about $25k in labor, maybe slightly more. Big fucking project but the house is in a much better state for it.
Before. Everything leaked. Picture looks better than reality:
After:
Fully finished except paint and cabinet on the laundry area visible in the mirror. Shower plumbing is exposed because there's shit in the wall that prevented it from being centered in the space, plus we got to add a few personalized touches like a diverter valve for the low profile spigot on the bottom for filling buckets and a dog dishes. Towel hangers are just suction cups, a little ugly but we're hesitant to put more holes in the tile than necessary.
Last edited:
- 5
- 12,704
- 49,337
Bathrooms are one of the rooms with the best return on upgrade/remodel investment IIRC, and that does look great!Yeah, I certainly didn't accept those quotes. A contractor friend refused to let me get ripped off and did the full bathroom remodel himself, stripping the room down to studs, squaring the floor and walls, blowing out the exterior wall and reframing the window, insulation, stucco, plumbing, electric, curbless shower pan, drywall, tile, and finishing. It took six months but it "only" cost me about $25k in labor, maybe slightly more. Big fucking project but the house is in a much better state for it.
Before:
View attachment 496104
After, fully finished except paint and cabinet on the laundry area visible in the mirror:
Koushirou
Log Wizard
- 5,164
- 13,051
I have a dumb/naive question: how do folks finance these larger house expenses? Like I have enough that I could throw a couple K out of my savings to pay for a fence or something, but some of these larger projects would take me a decade to save for. Do many places do financing? Other avenues to pay? Do most people just have this much cash on hand?
Equity loans and renovation loans exist but the rates are shit right now. Personally, I'd rather DIY something or live without rather than go in debt for it. When we bought the house earlier this year we bargained and budgeted accordingly knowing that we were going to have to redo the bathroom, half the windows (going on right now during a 95 degree heat wave, whee!), municipal water feed, and eventually the electric panel and wiring.
Last edited:
- 4
On a different note, does anyone have an app-driven/wifi thermostat they like? I just want basic wifi control and programming, bonus points for NOT being connected to any cloud services. Willing to self-host software if necessary.
Last edited:
Lanx
<Prior Amod>
- 65,225
- 147,062
sorry i have ecobee which i give control to alexa which is cloud, all my shit must be alexa compatible
i mean you want no cloud, i'm pretty sure most call home
The_Black_Log Foler
PalsCo CEO - Stock Pals | Pantheon Pals
- 47,633
- 42,870
I had some dumb fuck electrician try to quote me 18k to run new wire to stove top, oven and he ”generously” added surge protectors for a bunch of shit like coax I don’t need.
The irony? This was right after I told him about the electrician who came the week before and wanted to charge me 3.3k to replace a subpanek with one fucking breaker on it. Was cracking jokes out how ridiculous it was.
Guess he wanted a “hold my beer moment”
- 1
The_Black_Log Foler
PalsCo CEO - Stock Pals | Pantheon Pals
- 47,633
- 42,870
Nest. It’s mediocre hardware. Expect it to break every 2 years.
As in that is one to maybe avoid
- 1
The_Black_Log Foler
PalsCo CEO - Stock Pals | Pantheon Pals
- 47,633
- 42,870
It’s unrealistic tbh. Everyone already carries a tracking device with them. Amazon, at least AWS is surprisingly pretty good about respecting customer data. You have to remember they aren’t an advert big tech company like Meta or google.
I don't care about my data, that horse left the barn 10 years ago. I just don't want to be hung out to dry with useless hardware if the vendor goes out of business or Google cancels the product line.