I am thinking about sawmill shed about 30 feet from my barn/shop. The barn/shop has a sub panel fed from the house.
I could run power from the shop to the sawmill (230V) - and one more line for lights and one more line for outlets - but would not it make more sense to install another sub panel in the sawmill shed?
Not sure if it is a good idea to daisy chain them like this, what do you think? How is your power distributed to the sawmill shed?
Glad you've asked this question. I'm kind of in the same boat. I ran a sub panel from my house out to the shop I built and I'm thinking of building a larger wood working shop. I've been debating if I should just run another sub panel from the house to the new shop also.
I did some searching. Seems like best way would be to run a sub panel in each out building connected directly to the main source (aka house).
In my case the house is too far for that. I will probably add a not grounded panel to the sawmill shed and connect it with 4 wires to the shop/barn (L1, L2, Green and ground wire).
In my situation nobody will be using the shop when the (electrical) sawmill is running and vice versa nobody will run the sawmill when the jointer or planer or table saw is used. It is more matter of convenience - I use 10g extension cord now - than a real need of power supply.
How far away is it. I ran mine 300 feet out to my shop. My buddies an electrician and said it'd be fine. No problems for the last year. I assumed running a new sub panel for the wood shop from the house would be the best. I hadn't asked my buddy about that, but I'm sure he'd probably say the same thing.
With that short of a run I would consider an under ground separate supply to at least an 100 amp panel, having a close separate dicconnect is safe and handy.
Quote from: drobertson on September 12, 2016, 06:47:34 PM
With that short of a run I would consider an under ground separate supply to at least an 100 amp panel, having a close separate dicconnect is safe and handy.
That's what I did. Maybe I didn't say it right.
I have a large building with a 200 amp service. My mill has a 100 amp service on it to power it and hydrous. I use 5 light switches in a row, one power main saw, then hydros,sawdust blower , lights, then a switch that powers a receptacle bank. For battery chargers etc.alot of wiring but handy. To have service on mill mounted. All I have to do is remove the 3 wires feeding the mill and undo sawdust blower and mill ready to move.
it makes no difference at all if the second panel is fed from the main panel in house or the sub feed panel in the shop UNLESS you over load the amperage of sub feed panel and the resistance is so small with copper wire voltage drop doesnt even calculate until you are several hundred feet long aluminum wire is slightly higher. we have mounted as many as 7 sub fed panels off of on service with the last on being 100 amp single phase that was over 600 ft away with voltage drop of only 3 volts BUT if you were going to run all of the panels at one time you would have a pretty good voltage drop unless you planned for it. but if only using 1 panel at the time and less than 3-400 ft away form main service you will have no problem. we mostly encounter this in campgrounds and farm equipment such as grain bins and dryers :)
Thank you, gents, very helpful.
The sawmill will be 30 - 40 feet from the shop, negligible distance but I want it to be more permanent than to drag 240V extension cord on wet ground and in snow.
if it was mine i would just get me some #4 copper and some conduit, run from the shop to the mill ,install 100 amp breaker in sub feed panel run to another 100 amp panel then wire the shed as needed :) any approved electrical splice (such as a panel board) has no effect on the electrical current from one end of the wire to the other whether it be 50ft long or 5000ft long. if you use aluminum wire you will need to use noalox or some other dielectric grease on connections to prevent oxidation but dont need it on copper :) i have done this well over 100 times in at least 4 different states over the last 20 yrs or so and have had no problems ;)