If you have an outdoor shed where you store power tools, you may wish the shed had outlets so you can charge the tools so they are always ready to go. Electricity is handy in a shed since you'd have lights, power for a fan, and a place to charge equipment.
You could even add an outdoor outlet to the side of your shed so you can plug in Christmas lights or landscape lighting. Here's an overview of how an electrician can hook up electricity to your shed.
Plan The Installation
The electrician needs to determine how many outlets and how much power your shed needs, so they consider your future as well as present needs. That way, the power to the shed can handle your equipment, lights, and electric car charger if you decide you need one.
They also need to plan the placement of the trench that holds the buried electrical lines, and that requires having utility lines marked before digging. In addition, the electrician has to assess the electrical panel to see if it needs to be upgraded, if it has enough open circuits, or if they need to install a subpanel in the shed.
Dig The Trench
Electricians use trenching machines rather than dig by hand unless they only need a very short trench. A machine makes digging long trenches much easier and it digs to the proper depth required by building and electrical codes. The electrician digs the trench from a point near the side of your house to a point near the side of your shed.
Run Electrical Lines
The electrical lines will be buried in the trench, so your electrical contractor might place the lines in a conduit or wrap them in insulation. If your electrical panel is indoors, they need to run lines behind the wall from the panel to the point where the lines will exit the side of your house. Then the lines can be stretched out and placed in the ditch. The final step is to pull the lines inside the shed where they can be attached to a subpanel and then distributed to the outlets.
Having remote electricity on your property is handy, especially if you want security lights and charging stations too. Sometimes, solar power is a possibility, but if your shed is in the shade most of the day, running power from your house may be the only way to get the electricity you need. Talk to an electrician about installing electricity to your shed so you can get a price quote and advice on the best way to work with your electrical panel to add the circuits you need.
Contact a company like Haddad Electric LLC for more info.