Plan for power
Before you buy a single stick of pipe or measure for your new bench or workspace, work out a plan. Will you be running power-hungry tools like circular saws, routers or table saws? Tap into an existing 20-amp circuit, or add one at your electrical panel.
For LED lamps or light-duty tools, a 15-amp circuit should suffice. Check the circuit breaker in the main electrical panel to determine your circuit sizes. If you’re uncertain, consult a licensed electrician.
For this project, we tapped in to a 15-amp garage outlet to power our light duty workbench area. This circuit will handle lights and other continuous loads, as well as tools and other temporarily running devices. For safety, limit the electrical load on a 15-amp circuit to 1,440 watts (12 amps), and 1,920 watts (16 amps) for a 20-amp circuit.
We’re using 14-gauge THHN electrical conductors. (For 20-amp circuits, go with 12-gauge wire.) You’ll need a hot, neutral and green ground wire, aka an equipment grounding conductor.
The EMT can serve as the equipment ground, but I recommend pulling a separate wire to be absolutely sure you have a continuous path back to the panel in the event of a short circuit or ground fault.
Article source here: How to Install Surface-Mounted Wiring and Conduit
No comments:
Post a Comment