Any electricians on board? Need advice...

[swingset]

I'm wondering about separate service possibilities for a garage.

This is my dilemna.

My detached workshop/garage is 100 feet from the service entrance at my house, and crosses a very rocky area and also my driveway....making burying cable difficult, and aerials are hard too because delivery trucks are normal (making the aerial succeptible to tall trucks).

Main service pole is close to the garage, it would be very easy to run from there to the garage, but I wonder what the addl. service cost will be.

Is it generally cheaper to add a sub-panel or would separate service in a case like this be more wise given the difficulty of getting cable to the garage? If it's going to be cheaper in the long run, I'll run subpanel service myself but I'm at a loss how to cross the distance without major excavation.

Any ideas or help greatly appreciated!

[Bloodhart]

If your meter is on the service pole and can handle another set of wires from it you would be better off by far by putting a main panel in your garage. If the meter is on your house then it would be a lot cheaper to run underground from your house to the garage than to install a new meter on the service pole and have to pay the monthly meter fee.
It all depends on where your meter is situated.

[swingset]

Originally posted by Bloodhart
It all depends on where your meter is situated.

That's the rub. The meter is on the house, making an underground run necessary.

I've never run cable through anything but soil, will a cable layer run through big #1 rocks and driveway stone??

[Bloodhart]

Well according to the NEC code, I believe UF or (URD depending on your amperage) is require to be buried at a depth of 24 inches and be in a bed of sand or soil. In other words you would need to dig about a 2 1\2 ft deep trench, line the bottom with sand, lay your cable, and cover it with a layer of sand or fill dirt and then cover it up with the trenched material.
In my opinion it's better to use URD in pvc conduit. In that case the trench needs to be 18 inches deep but doesn't need the fill dirt. Another advantage is if you ever need to replace the wiring you just yank out the old wiring and repull your new.
Just a suggestion. What I would do is buy a 100 amp main breaker panel with the amount of breaker spaces you need, get the required footage of 2-2-4 URD, enough 2 inch grey pvc to reach from the meter to the garage, and the fittings and bends you'll need to run the conduit from the meter to the main panel in your garage.
You can rent a trencher or hire somebody to trench it for you.
Don't forget to put a ground rod at the garage and run a ground wire to the panel.

[Rew]

me to it, the gray pvc conduit is the way to go. The hard part is going to be going across the driveway. Is it concreat, or assphult? That would really be a pain. ;)

[Phalanx]

Interesting and a little coincidental.

My main service (200amp) is to my barn which was built about 1 year before the house.

The house has a 100amp sub panel and the cabling is overhead on poles. Once the cable is across the gravel, it goes down the pole and is buried the rest of the way.

I have never liked this arrangement and when I had landscaping and walkways put in I also buried conduit under the whole shmear so that I can eventually run it all underground.

Having the main panel in the barn is unusual but actually a great benefit because I weld and use other power hungry tools out there.

I highly reccomend making the effort to bury the cable. As it is my poles are only 10 yrs old but will eventually rot. I also must keep the wires clear of trees. When you do run your cable run it in a LARGE conduit and drop in an extra conduit for com/low voltage. As it is now I have telephone, cable, and data wires all strung overhead. Hope the info helps.

[protector76239]

look in the phone book under boring or tunneling. a good irrigation company should have the equipment also to bore a conduit under the drivway.

[einnor1040x]

I had to run a new waterline to my house from the meter a few years ago. The old one was galvenized and it finally stopped up. I ran a copper one to replace it. I had to go under my drive way which was concrete. I dug the ditch with a trencher right up to the driveway and then I got a piece of 1.25 inch black pipe with a cap on one end of it and drove it under the driveway with a sledgehammer. I used this pipe for a sleave to run the copper thru. My yard didn't have any rocks in it though. Done the same thing under the side walk. It worked out good. The whole job only took about a half day.