Blackie

I have a question concerning reciptical placement should I locate them 12" standard from the floor or should I place them up high on the wall. and on a 12' X 16' building how many should I put on each wall aside two per wall?

I was thinking one every three feet not sure if that would be an over kill or not. I do plan on installing an over head cable reel with an extension cord so I can reel the cord up out of the way when not in use.

I was planing on putting in a ceiling fan but a friend warned me of the dangers to the planes when working on them. *wack, wack*

Thanks
Blackie

Rforce1

I have a few at standard height off the floor, I also have one at each end of my building table 12 inches above my table top, very convienient.

I think that one every three feet would be a bit much, although no matter how many you have there will alway be the times when you need just one more.

DavidAgar

My Feedback: (108)

Put them at just 4 or 5 inches above the height of your work bench. You will not regret it at all. Just not having to bend over to unplug is a bonus and it is just down right convenient to have them at arms length away when the need arrives. As for how many, I have 3 with 2 plugs and 1 that has 6 in it. It is a little overkill but it is nice when I do use them. These all run along the wall which is about 20 ft in length. You will also want to put some on the other walls as well, for chargers while the planes are in storage, battery cyclers and maybe the freezer as well. Good Luck, Dave

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

I have mine all waist high. I also use 4 plugs per box instead of the usual 2.

greenboot

My Feedback: (1)

I have an outlet on the ceiling above the work table. I really like it and it keeps the cord out of the way. If you hang planes, having an outlet in the ceiling lets you plug in the charger for them.

Tom

pettit

My Feedback: (23)

When I did my shop, I put duplex outlets every 36 inches at 12" above the floor and 36" above the floor. This way you can wire them in a "serpentine", running the feeders up from the floor, over to the next row, then down. I also split them between 2 breakers. That electrical stuff is rather inexpensive, so don't let cost be a factor.

My overhead lights are also fed from switched outlets. This way I can add some more or switch part of the fixtures on or off, depending on how much light I want.

Whoever said that you'll never have enough, was right. My 12 by 24 shop has 24 outlets, and I always need more.

Don't forget the row of outlet strips on the front of each workbench too.

pinball-RCU

Save yourself some hassle later, and make sure you run enough power. I have two 20 amp circuits that don't do anything else, plus a couple of 15 amp circuits. The number and location of outlets is less important to me since outlet strips are cheap.

Deadeye

When I built my shop in November, I placed a receptacle 4-5 inches above my bench which occupies one 23' wall (it's 16' long). Those outlets are 3 feet away from eachother. On the opposing walls, I put the outlets at the same heighth, or about waist level. Same 3' spacing (actually it's 32"). With some up by the ceiling. You can never have enough outlets, hence the name 'convenience outlets'. It's a pain to cut the sheetrock out for them all, but you can't ever have enough outlets.

I stress, YOU CAN NEVER HAVE ENOUGH OUTLETS!

While your at it, run some COAX and CAT5 (for computer networking). You don't have to hook them up right now, but who knows what the future will bring? I've got CAT5 in 3 places in my walls.

If you opt for CAT5, remember if you have to cross electrical wire, do it perpindicular, not alongside.

Blackie

Great Ideas! thanks all and keep them coming.

Pinball, here is what my configuration will look like. From the main I have one 20amp and one 30 amp breaker non-coupled which feeds a 220 sub panel located in the workshop This panel has four 20 amp fuses already installed, the sub was a give me. I am feeding the workshop with 10-3 which is broke up between the breakers. Red from the 20 main feeds one side and the Black from the 30 main feeds the other side. What I plan on doing is using the 20amp solely for the AC unit and the 30amp for the receptacles and lightning. Unfortunately the sub panel is only equipped for four breakers two 20s on one side and the other 20s located on the other. I will have one breaker that I will not be able to use due to the fact its on the same circuit as the AC unit is.

Deadeye, thanks for those ideas, as far as the networking goes that is my profession by trade and to tell you the truth I had never really thought of running cat out there so thanks for that idea. I really had no intentions for putting a computer out there but as you said who knows. Coax, I have thought about a TV out there only thing is I would have no way of changing the channel as I am on satellite and the receiver is located on the far side of the house.

GIJon

My Feedback: (118)

Blackie,

I built my 22X30 shop with 2 circuits. It has outlets every 4 feet (3 studs). Some are low and some are higher depending on placement of cabinets and workbenches. There 4-gang outlets above counters and workbenches and even in the closets. Double outlets are the lower ones under the windows and along bare walls for power equipment. There are outlets in my work island and the ceiling. As Mr. Pettit said, we have the lights on switched outlets. It has 4 banks of lights, all switched.

Please look at the photos and description on my website as I am very proud of my shop...it is very comfortable.

www.kobeko.com/airplanes.htm
Scroll to near the bottom of the page

Good luck...Jon

SamD

Having plenty of outlets is a must; as was pointed out, most of this stuff is relatively inexpensive so there's no reason to go cheap.

As for running 15 amp circuits vs. 20, stick with 20. There's really no reason to play around with 15 amp receptacle circuits. If you run 15 amp circuits (using 14 gauge wiring) and later decide you need 20, you're in a bind because you're now forced to rewire with 12 gauge. I've come to the point where I no longer wire anything with 14 gauge (unless adding to an existing 14 gauge run) even if a 15 amp breaker is being used on the circuit.

Keep in mind when installing sub-panels that the neutral and ground busses need to be separated at the sub-panel, if you bond the neutral to the ground, you'll violate code and, worse, you won't have any ground protection. Done properly, you'll need to run xx-4 cable- not xx-3. This will provide (2) hots (for 220vac), a neutral and a ground. If you're only setting up a 110vac sub, xx-3 will work (one hot, a neutral and a ground). Also, if you're feeding a sub-panel from a main, you really ought to run the same amp breaker on both poles. In theory, you're setting up a situation that will create an imbalanced load on the panel which in turn, unnecessarly loads the neutral buss.

FLYBOY

My Feedback: (11)

I put them all in the wall above my bench. The next shop I build, hopefully this summer, I will put them on the face of the work benches as well. It is nice on the wall, but I ended up putting power strips on the faces of the bench because that is where I end up using the power the most and it would be really easy to put power build right in there. I have a 10 foot by three foot bench, with a 12 foot by two off one side of it, and a 30 inch by 8 foot off the side of that in a big U shape. It is huge and niece, when you are working on 2 at once. Unfortuantely, I usually have about 4 going so there is still no room.

Blackie

Sam, from what it seems you are describing it sounds like you are referring to two pair versus three pair. Three pair consist of the following,
Red, Black, white and bare copper ( Two hots a neutral and a ground). Two pair will consist of only Black, White and Bare ( One Hot a Neutral and a ground). Not sure if you were confusing 4 pair with 3 pair. In terms the ground is not counted as part of the pairs.

But I did not know of the grounding code I had just found out about that no more the a couple hours ago when one of our electrical maintenance person's told me. As far as the breakers go thanks I was also told the same thing along with the grounding and was handed a 30amp breaker to replace that 20amp. Thanks.

Teachu2

My Feedback: (133)

I tried for overkill on my current shop: 12 circuit subpanel, outlets 4' off the floor every 4' on all walls, 3 rows of ceiling outlets spaced 2' from the outside walls and 4' in between (switched seperately), dedicated circuit for compressor, another for Mig welder, and a third for room A/C, 220v 50A for arc welder. Guy who hung my sheetrock had a real good time doing cutouts!
Ended up just about right.

dmheil

My Feedback: (5)

As nearly everyone has said you can never have too many outlets. My shop was built into an existing room that I ran a seperate circut to power my bench. I litterally can stretch my ares out from any point in the room and touch 8 outlets. Yes this is a bit of overkill but I never search for an extension cord. The issue I must keep in mind is circuit loading and being careful of how much I use at once.

As for GIJon..now THAT'S a shop! Impressive!

shill

My Feedback: (22)

Well here is a picture from my shop excuse the mess. I put the outlets just above the backsplash that is on the prefab counter tops I got them cheap homedepot was closing them out. The cabinets i got cheap when payless cashways had them on clearence.
I have a 16 x 20 2 story workshop out back I have benches along 1 wall and turns the corner to the front wall and runs to the door and I have another setup short one under the stairs on the back wall. I put all of the outlets in my building at the same height and I put 1 on every other stud they are on 16 foot centers so outlets are about 32 inches apart. they run down both sides I ran a subpanel setup I ran everything underground from my main panel in the house to another breaker box in the building I have it set up with each wall on a seperate circuit and the same for outlets upstairs but not as many outlets it is mostly storage.
Then seperate circuits for lights up and down stairs and airconditioning circuits. and so on.

GrnBrt

My Feedback: (5)

My workbench down the one wall is made up of 3 doors laid end to end and it's quite a stretch to the wall so what I did was run the wiring under the workbench to a box mounted under the front edge. I then put in a 6 outlet at each one and this way all my power cords stay off of the workbench. It has worked great and hope I explained it well enough, could take a picture. Might want to think about this way.

daven

My Feedback: (1)

I put a couple outlet boxes in my workshop that are tied to my light switch. This works out great for lights and such, but don't try and charge a plane through one of these boxes.

It took me a while to find out why one of my chargers wasn't working. Evertime I hooked it up, and walked out of the garage, I would turn off the lights. No wonder it wasn't getting charged, I light switch was turning off the power to that box.

SamD

Blackie,

Funny thing happened on the way to work this morning: Started thinking about my comments and realized my error in the description of 10-2 vs 10-3. You caught that, thanks. The 2/3/4 etc. refers to insulated conductors and NOT the uninsulated, copper ground.

As an aside: Current NEC code requires any 220VAC device that also services a 110VAC device to have xx-3 cabling. In other words: a kitchen range- which has a timer and lights bulbs running on 110VAC- will require a xx-3 cable since the neutral will be current carrying. In older homes, xx-2 cabling was used with the ground acting as a current carrying conductor- thereby negating its function as a ground. An electric water heater, though, only requires xx-2 as it is a strictly 220VAC device.

Thanks, Blackie for catching my error in terminology.

Sam

Jim Finn

My Feedback: (2)

Regarding the cieling fan......I put mine on the WALL! I put a low table in front of it so I don't bump into it. Seriously...works great! Now I need to find someone to paint a corsair coming out of the wall using the fan as a prop.