Need outdoor electrical advice

Not my house I guess. Whole thing is 14/3

 

If it was wired under an old standard, that's fine - it's grand-fathered, but any new alterations or updates will have to conform to NEC & local codes.

 

Gotcha, thats fair enuff.

 

Too much crack on my part. Thanks for the correction. 14/3 is 15 amp.

 

My house is old af apparently.

 

@LivinOnEdge

@LivinOnEdge

Drop the sub panel at the main. Run 1 inch conduit from soup to nuts in a trench at depth and pull 12/3. Run the tape, backfill with sand and install a watertight gfi receptacle. Wire the sub panel near the main from the 50 and put a modern 20 breaker for this branch. Be careful not to introduce a floating neutral with the sub.

 

NEC is pretty clear.

 

You guys have given me so many options and I appreciate it. Wish I could afford a modern 200amp panel upgrade. Need to mul over my options.

 

Park your badass Taco in the yard, plug into the inverter and done. At least you can power a light on your truck so you can sit there and look at it.

 

Lmao

 

And, you'll only need 12/3 if you're running 220v; for 110v 12/2 is all that's required.

 

Unless you want two circuits...

 

Then you should be running two breakers. You can go eight outlets on one breaker.

 

Quick update. Was able to locate the 20 amp breaker I needed and bought of few of them because, why not. When they come in, I'm going to continue using the current wire that's already been run. $5 and about 20 minutes for the job.

 

Not quite that simple; you can't (safely or legally) connect 8 AWG to a regular two-pole outlet. You will need to (code permitting) add a box adjacent to the outlet and transition from 8 to 12 AWG.

 

Why can't you use larger wire on an outlet? I've been told that's fine.

 

Because it's too large; your local code may vary, but IIRC, 12 AWG is the largest you can use on a standard two-pole outlet. The problem is that the wire is so large in diameter that it would not sit properly on the mounting screws and give the correct contact area, and likely won't stay secured either. Regular outlets are only meant for single-conductor cable. You could run the 8 AWG into the box, and pig-tail 12/2 off of that, but if you're going to do that, check local code and if you do it, make sure you solder the conductors, do not just use a "wire nut".

 

Sounds like a PITA lol, might be easier to buy new 12g and just re-run it the right way then.

 

What you are saying is technically correct if the outlet is sized for 12g wire only. However, if the both devices have capacity and designed to fit each into component you’re ok. (In which case most 20a GFCI outlets are only sized to fit 12g max) It’s like sizing for voltage drop. The intent of the breaker is to limit current over the conductor so that it doesn’t heat up and cause a fire. If you oversize conductors you will have less voltage drop and your conductors will actually be cooler when running full amperage for the breaker size which is technically 80% of the rated amperage.

summary: @tirediron is correct you will need to have a junction where you transition from your existing 10g conductors to 12g that install to the 20a GFCI. This is because the device is not designed to fit larger than 12g wire.

 

Not a PITA, just simply get quick connectors and put the existing wire and add in 12g splice to the outlet, tuck it into the back of the junction box. Done