My memory may not be serving me correctly this morning but the electrician said something about an 80% load on the breaker panel and had a calculation worksheet to make that determination. There are online calculators that do that same thing. I don't know if its an NEC requirement or recommendation but the electrician said the when permitting they will be looking at the 80% rule.
My goal is to have an electrician run wire to the shop either from the garage or from the house. At least from the garage it gets me started. I did get to thinking, from the garage would be ideal. Its closer to the house and would be easier to increase the feeder wire from the house than running a new one all the way out to the shop. For permit reasons the electrician would install the panel, one light and one outlet. After that I have no problems wiring, I was an electrician in the Navy and wires never scared me.
I agree with the comments that resale value would be higher with a bigger more versatile shop. But I have to keep it heated all winter so I'm building it to the size that works for me, not for what someone else in the future would want. Since I'm retired I'm confident that this will be the last house I live in, I don't care what the resale value is for whomever inherits the house. As a 100% disabled veteran I have a property tax exemption on the house and the taxable value of the house is frozen. If I build a shop that makes a significant change in value of the property I the taxable value increases and I lose my property tax exemption for one year, and then after reapplying my 60% exemption will be off the new value, in the end it costs me more money and being on a fixed income that is never a good thing. So there are many reasons for keep it appropriately sized for me.
Tim, I've planned for good cross ventilation and where the shop would be located there is always a breeze. I did put feelers out to get another estimate but I think I'm going to proceed with the 16x24. I just have to muster up the courage to spend the money
My goal is to have an electrician run wire to the shop either from the garage or from the house. At least from the garage it gets me started. I did get to thinking, from the garage would be ideal. Its closer to the house and would be easier to increase the feeder wire from the house than running a new one all the way out to the shop. For permit reasons the electrician would install the panel, one light and one outlet. After that I have no problems wiring, I was an electrician in the Navy and wires never scared me.
I agree with the comments that resale value would be higher with a bigger more versatile shop. But I have to keep it heated all winter so I'm building it to the size that works for me, not for what someone else in the future would want. Since I'm retired I'm confident that this will be the last house I live in, I don't care what the resale value is for whomever inherits the house. As a 100% disabled veteran I have a property tax exemption on the house and the taxable value of the house is frozen. If I build a shop that makes a significant change in value of the property I the taxable value increases and I lose my property tax exemption for one year, and then after reapplying my 60% exemption will be off the new value, in the end it costs me more money and being on a fixed income that is never a good thing. So there are many reasons for keep it appropriately sized for me.
Tim, I've planned for good cross ventilation and where the shop would be located there is always a breeze. I did put feelers out to get another estimate but I think I'm going to proceed with the 16x24. I just have to muster up the courage to spend the money
