Installing sub-panel for fish room. Need electrician's help

[george1098]

Hi all

I'm doing a fish room build, and I want to install a sub panel in the room itself as I do not have enough room in my main breaker box for additional circuits.

I would like to install a breaker box with four 15 amp circuits to supply power to the fish room. My questions are:

1) what size breaker do I need to run from the main panel to power 4 15 am circuits in the sub-panel? I was thinking 50 ams @ 240 volts.

2) What gauge wire do I need to run from the main breaker box to the sub-panel? In total the run will be about 40 feet.

Help would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[sleepydoc]

- The size of the wire depends on the current you will be running.
- For 50 amp I believe you need 6 gauge wire. Not positive on this.
- 50 amps at 240 volts is a ton of power. Do you really need that much?
- This is really not something you should be doing if you have to ask

 

[iced98lx]

1) what size breaker do I need to run from the main panel to power 4 15 am circuits in the sub-panel? I was thinking 50 ams @ 240 volts.

Depends on your load calculations...

2) What gauge wire do I need to run from the main breaker box to the sub-panel? In total the run will be about 40 feet.

as you probably know, depends on what you end up with above. You also need to ensure you have the room (based on another load calculation) within your current service to power the sub-panel.

 

[fishgate]

You can get 1/2 width (thin) breakers. Remove one of your existing breakers and replace it with 2 thin style breakers. This should allow you to put in all the circuits you need.

All electrical work like you suggest requires a permit and inspection. If you don't pull one, especially with what you are proposing, that could really come back to bite you later. I'd advise against it.

 

[SGT_York]

Second that your questions are very basic, leading me to think the other subtleties in the NEC won't be done right. Save yourself possible litigation and death, hire an electrician.

You can easily place the gang boxes where you want them, but leave the wire run and breakers to a certified individual.

 

[george1098]

No guts no glory!

Thanks for your advice, I'll get an electrician.