So I have an underground 12g 3 wire with ground to the garage. At the moment there is only one 20A circuit (one hot not in use) to the garage. I'd like 2 20A circuits in the garage but am unsure as to the best way. Any electricians in the house? TIA
I don't have my NEC with me, but the CEC does not allow the use of 2 separate breakers to supply feeders consisting of multi-phase hot conductors with shared neutral.Most 2-pole breakers are actually two breakers in one module, and both are linked. So when one "pops", BOTH circuits get shut off, You may be quite ready to accept that and "make do" with no working circuit in the garage until the problem with the ONE circuit is fixed. BUT if you want to have two breakers completely separate so one keeps working, then you need a different arrangement.
CEC said:14-302 Construction of circuit breakers (see Appendix B)
Where circuit breakers are provided for the protection of apparatus or ungrounded conductors, or both, they
shall open the circuit in all ungrounded conductors by the manual operation of a single handle and by the action
of overcurrent, except
(b) in branch circuits derived from a 3-wire grounded neutral system, two single-pole manually operable circuit
breakers shall be permitted to be used instead of a 2-pole circuit breaker, provided that
(i) their handles are interlocked with a device as provided by the manufacturer so that all ungrounded
conductors will be opened by the manual operation of any handle;
I don't have my NEC with me, but the CEC does not allow the use of 2 separate breakers to supply feeders consisting of multi-phase hot conductors with shared neutral.
you missed information when you said 3 wires, it means black, white, ground? How far is the garage from the main box? How deep is the UF wire in the ground? I will get a subpanel there, you never know maybe in the future you will use heavy machines who might draw a lot of power. I did my Shed with a UF 10g 4 wires, 100 meters from the box with a subpanel and I followed the code for inspection.So I have an underground 12g 3 wire with ground to the garage. At the moment there is only one 20A circuit (one hot not in use) to the garage. I'd like 2 20A circuits in the garage but am unsure as to the best way. Any electricians in the house? TIA
Three wire in residential generally means black, red, white, the ground isn't counted as a conductor. Wire designation reflects that. The wire you used in your shed would be referred to as 10/3.you missed information when you said 3 wires, it means black, white, ground? How far is the garage from the main box? How deep is the UF wire in the ground? I will get a subpanel there, you never know maybe in the future you will use heavy machines who might draw a lot of power. I did my Shed with a UF 10g 4 wires, 100 meters from the box with a subpanel and I followed the code for inspection.