How to Wire Your Pole Barn Garage to Add Lighting
Many people use pole barns as garages because they are relatively simple and inexpensive to build and offer valuable storage or work space. If you want to add lighting to your new pole barn garage so you can use it at night, the process is fairly straightforward. You may be able to hook up the lighting yourself if you have some background in wiring.
Make sure the feeders you use are connected to your main panel. The feeders will only go at the meter if they are downstream. This will work if you have a 200 amp main breaker. Make sure you know what size amp main breaker you have to figure out the correct sizes.
Most wires can be spliced easily. Underground splices require more attention and can be problematic because they can easily get damaged. Try to avoid underground splices if possible when hooking up lighting for your pole barn garage. This will make the process much easier.
Use all of your wire cables to feed all of the subpanels. Remember that there will be special connections for grounding and neutral subpanels.
You will need to dig a ditch from the breaker to the pole barn to run wires that connect them. The ditch should be about two feet deep. The width is less important since you will only be running wires through it.
The wire size will depend on the size of your feeder breaker in the main panel. If you feed your sub from a 50 amp breaker, you will need 2 #10 and 2 #8 copper conductors. If you have a 60 amp breaker, you will need 1 #8 and 2 #6 copper conductors.
When you are ready contact CHA Pole Barns to talk about your pole barn project.