Let there be light!

The barn now has electricity!!!

After 3 years of running the door opener and a few other things off of an extension cord running from the house, the barn now is fully wired for electricity!

Cathy talked her sister's husband who is an electrician into coming to visit this weekend and helping out by wiring up the barn. I helped out and learned some tips and tricks that I will probably never use again. We were able to get it done in right at 8 hours and it would have probably taken me at least 4 or 5 times that long doing it by myself. He was super fast at bending the conduit and even faster at figuring out the circuits and running the wire. I hung the light fixtures which took me about the same time it took him to run all the conduit for the outlets and the lights.

I had already got the panel up and hot last Friday with the help of the local electric cooperative. Here's the 100 amp panel and the first run of conduit running out of it.

It never seems like you plan for enough outlets so I probably went overboard. I have 10 boxes around the barn perimeter and each of them has 2 outlets in them for a total of 20 outlets. I have another outlet on the ceiling for the door opener as well. The outlets are on 5 separate circuits as well so I shouldn't be tripping many breakers. This corner is where I plan on having some type of shop area eventually and these outlets are setup on 3 different 20 amp circuits.
I bought a used 12' stepladder thinking I could use it to hang the light fixtures and then it would be useful in the future to change light bulbs, etc., but as you can see in the picture I think it is too tall. It was useful in hanging the fixtures but it is actually too tall to move around easily and the 8' ladder that my brother in law is on will be plenty tall to change light bulbs and things like that. I'm either going to donate the ladder to our church since someone borrowed theirs and hasn't returned it (I was planning on borrowing theirs instead of buying one) or a co-worker said he would buy it from me if I give him a good enough deal on it.

Here's my brother in law running conduit to the light fixtures.

I got the light fixtures for free when we remodeled our office. I wasn't sure whether they would all work or not as they've been sitting in the barn for 2 years and have been moved around a couple times. I ended up with way too many and sold a few on craigslist, and I still have some left if anyone wants some! Thankfully they all worked other than 1 bad light bulb and 1 poor connection on one of the fixtures that I wired up!

Here's the same corner later with everything up and running!
I still need to put one cabinet up and plumb up a sink. Hopefully I won't wait 3 years before getting that part done!

I didn't take many pictures, but I'm very happy with the end result! It is amazing how bright it is in there with 7 - 4 foot light fixtures with 4 - 40 watt bulbs in each one. A total of 1,120 watts of fluorescent lighting with decent reflectors in the fixtures. I hung 2 fixtures over the future shop area and it is really bright there.

I also now have a hookup for my welder that I've had for a couple years now and never used. Of course I've never even attempted to weld anything and really have no idea where to start, but I now have everything I need to try it other than some welding rods. Now I just need something to practice on!

That's it for now.

Nathan