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Cost effective way to run electricity to a shed?
Posted on 4/20/25 at 6:16 pm
Posted on 4/20/25 at 6:16 pm
Curious if I have to hire this out. I have a shed at this home we may buy 20’ behind the house. Currently there’s no power but would love to get it out there.
Google shows this to be a job worth a few grand at least. Is there a cost effective way to do this myself?
Google shows this to be a job worth a few grand at least. Is there a cost effective way to do this myself?
8
Posted on 4/20/25 at 6:20 pm to jlovel7
Run the line yourself. You can buy direct bury romex that you don’t need conduit for. Rent a machine to dig the trench and drop it in and re cover. Have an electrician hook up to the box at the house. Running romex in the shed for lights and receptacles is easy peazy. Watch some YouTube videos.
Posted on 4/20/25 at 7:01 pm to jlovel7
Cheapest way?. Place three heavy duty surge protectors on 3 walls. Run heavy gage extension cords to them and run two large LED strip lights from ceiling. Connest them in a circuit and power with a Honda 1100 generator or Harbor Freight version. We've done this on several metal buildings and sheds that are unfinished inside. It's an option.
Posted on 4/20/25 at 7:06 pm to jlovel7
Depends on how much power you need and how it’s done. If you don’t mind digging down deep and/or thrifting supplies, and only need a single 20a circuit, it might be a $2-500 DIY. Buying supplies retail and hiring it out with permits will be at least $2k even for a single circuit.
Posted on 4/20/25 at 7:13 pm to jlovel7
quote:
Google shows this to be a job worth a few grand at least.
This is stupid. Run the line yourself inside pvc pipe and bury it
Posted on 4/20/25 at 7:23 pm to jlovel7
Details matter. Is this just a simple shed that you want to run a 20 amp line to for a light and a couple of outlets? If so, you can likely do the job yourself, assuming you’re comfortable/capable working with electricity. If not and you hire an electrician, it’s still not a few grand job. You can also tell the electrician you’ll dig and run the conduit yourself to save some money.
Posted on 4/21/25 at 8:23 am to GeauxldMember
quote:
Details matter. Is this just a simple shed that you want to run a 20 amp line to for a light and a couple of outlets? If so, you can likely do the job yourself, assuming you’re comfortable/capable working with electricity. If not and you hire an electrician, it’s still not a few grand job. You can also tell the electrician you’ll dig and run the conduit yourself to save some money.
Yeah it’s a 5x7ish shed (a little room to walk around in and mostly store tools). I may do some work inside but generally will pull tools out to the patio next to it to work. I would think I’d generally be running a small dust collection system and one tool at a time, plus battery charging and then LES shed lighting.
I’d hope that one 20amp circuit could handle that. Tell me if I’m sounding too ambitious though.
Posted on 4/21/25 at 8:38 am to Ponchy Tiger
There is still a matter of getting inside the house and to the breaker box.
Posted on 4/21/25 at 11:34 am to jlovel7
quote:
Yeah it’s a 5x7ish shed (a little room to walk around in and mostly store tools). I may do some work inside but generally will pull tools out to the patio next to it to work. I would think I’d generally be running a small dust collection system and one tool at a time, plus battery charging and then LES shed lighting. I’d hope that one 20amp circuit could handle that. Tell me if I’m sounding too ambitious though.
With such limited space, if you want dust collection, you might want to look at an extractor vac with an onboard outlet to cycle on the vacuum when the tool powers up.
If you’re just running one tool and the dust collection on the 20 amp circuit, you’ll be okay (as long as said tool is not a serious amperage hog). If you’re running a compressor, you might have some issues if it kicks on while the other two are running. Still, you could just get a heavy gage extension cord or long air hose and run that on another circuit from the house (assuming you have exterior outlets).
In short, anything more than 20a to a small shed would be overkill.
Posted on 4/21/25 at 11:38 am to GeauxldMember
quote:
With such limited space, if you want dust collection, you might want to look at a shop vac
Posted on 4/21/25 at 12:42 pm to jlovel7
Being only 20' , could overhead be a viable option?
Posted on 4/21/25 at 12:49 pm to jlovel7
quote:Commercial contractor here. Not an electrician.
Yeah it’s a 5x7ish shed (a little room to walk around in and mostly store tools). I may do some work inside but generally will pull tools out to the patio next to it to work. I would think I’d generally be running a small dust collection system and one tool at a time, plus battery charging and then LES shed lighting.
I’d hope that one 20amp circuit could handle that. Tell me if I’m sounding too ambitious though.
Depending on your home's service and availability in your panel, I would throw in (2) single pole 20a breakers. Pull (2) lengths of 12-2 Romex to your shed. That'll get you lights and a few outlets on one circuit and whatever else you want on the other.
The cost of that material (if you're going to DIY - which you absolutely can) is nothing compared to trenching out in a few months if you want more juice.
Of course, if you don't like the shed you can take that one goober's advice and use extension cords.
Also, if there's nothing in the shed that will require permanent power (small beer fridge or exhaust fan), I'd add a non-fusible disconnect where the power leaves your house or where it enters the shed. Small investment for some peace of mind and safety.
Posted on 4/22/25 at 9:02 am to jlovel7
quote:
Curious if I have to hire this out. I have a shed at this home we may buy 20’ behind the house. Currently there’s no power but would love to get it out there.
Google shows this to be a job worth a few grand at least. Is there a cost effective way to do this myself?
20 feet? All you want is probably one outlet and a light, maybe one light outside? It would cost about $500 in material if that. 250 feet of 12/2 UF cable is $187 at HD right now, breaker will probably cost you about $50 and a couple of boxes, devices and fixtures would be about $100 or so bucks.
Where is the nearest power to the shed though???? Is there an AC unit on the house close to it? You can, if there is a neutral at the AC, and there probably is, pick up one leg of the feeder to the AC and extend it to the shed. I have done it hundreds of times for people. 25 foot tap rule of the NEC allows for this but the conductor must be terminated in a overcurrent device at the end now (used to be ir it was 25 feet or less and had 33% of the ampacity you did not need any further overcurrent protection). If you go this route either terminate the #12 in a fused disconnect at the shed and feed everything from there OR run #10 UF cable from the AC to the shed...no overcurrent required for that.
You may also be able to catch an outlet or a light fixture on the outside of the house. The light will most likely be switched so you would have to turn the light on to have power at the shed but you could switch the fixture at the fixture and have a constant hot at the shed.....many ways to make it work
Posted on 4/22/25 at 9:15 am to GeauxldMember
quote:
Details matter. Is this just a simple shed that you want to run a 20 amp line to for a light and a couple of outlets? If so, you can likely do the job yourself, assuming you’re comfortable/capable working with electricity. If not and you hire an electrician, it’s still not a few grand job. You can also tell the electrician you’ll dig and run the conduit yourself to save some money.
If its only 20 feet I would bury a 16 gauge, 50' drop cord about 6 inches under the grass and plug it in an outlet when I needed power in the shed. Or just lay it on the ground and roll it up when not in use. A drop cord would last about 50 years buried. I have a piece of 12/2 romex about 150 feet long buried about 12 inches deep on my grandparents place that I ran close to 45 years ago and those lights still operate just like I installed them yesterday.....these were incandescent lights up until a few years ago so the load on that circuit was probably 12 amps or so when they were on....they're LED now so the load is about an amp.....
I have buried and have found buried romex....not UF cable but regular romex.....more times than I can count and it lasts forever and does not cause any issues. Unless of course someone hits it with a shovel or something but if it ain't in conduit any conductor is going to be a problem if you hit it with a shovel....even if it is in PVC it might be if you hit it hard enough LOL....
I have also strung romex and even single THHN solid wire over head and it would last for years. THHN will eventually break down in the sun but it takes 10-15 years....if that is a concern use XHHW......all kinds of ways to skin a cat if a skinned is what one needs....
Posted on 4/22/25 at 9:18 am to jlovel7
quote:
quote:
Details matter. Is this just a simple shed that you want to run a 20 amp line to for a light and a couple of outlets? If so, you can likely do the job yourself, assuming you’re comfortable/capable working with electricity. If not and you hire an electrician, it’s still not a few grand job. You can also tell the electrician you’ll dig and run the conduit yourself to save some money.
Yeah it’s a 5x7ish shed (a little room to walk around in and mostly store tools). I may do some work inside but generally will pull tools out to the patio next to it to work. I would think I’d generally be running a small dust collection system and one tool at a time, plus battery charging and then LES shed lighting.
I’d hope that one 20amp circuit could handle that. Tell me if I’m sounding too ambitious though.
20 amps is more than enough. Probably 15 is sufficient. Is there an outlet on the adjacent patio? If so I would run a drop cord and plug the shed in when needed. If you have to have something more permanent get an extension box, open up that outlet, run a piece of PVC from the extension box to the ground, open up a small trench to the shed and toss some UF cable and bury....its the same principle as a drop cord but more permanent.
Posted on 4/22/25 at 10:27 pm to AwgustaDawg
Be careful. Abraham might call you a goober for using extension cords....
Posted on 4/23/25 at 5:50 am to done dancing
You might consider a Jackery / Anker or some other power station. It wouldn't be the perfect solution but at least you would have a dual use tool, you know for when hurricanes hit etc.!
Posted on 4/23/25 at 2:12 pm to jlovel7
If you are going to run a line, my personal preference to give some flexibility down the road is to run a 30A 220v from the home panel to the shed, install a small 30A breaker box in the shed. Then you can run a couple 100v circuits. If you are going to run an air compressor and a few other things this will be helpful and wont increase the cost much. For a 30-amp circuit using 10-gauge, 3-wire cable, a run of approximately 100 feet is generally considered safe. If you run a single 110v 20A you will have to run 12/3 wire. Its about $40 more in wire and the breaker box will prob run $75.
Posted on 4/23/25 at 2:20 pm to Boston911
there is a bunch of very good electrical advice in this thread. I would be surprised if any of it were required for a single outlet in a 5x7 shed 20’ from the house
OP just run an extension cord from the house until you build a bigger shed (and you will build a bigger shed)
OP just run an extension cord from the house until you build a bigger shed (and you will build a bigger shed)
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