Any Electricians here i could pick your brain a bit

[Luke]

have a couple of electrical questions on my house that we just bought.
it has a nice small storage shed in the back yard that has a concrete floor its all insulated and looks to have power in it. Has a light fixture, switch and 2 outlets. its a small shed maybe 12x10 or so but i don't think power has ever been ran to it. i hooked up a light fixture and it wont come on. i didn't notice any separate breakers in the service for just the shed.so I'm assuming no one ever ran power from the house to it.
so im wanting to get power out there. but looking for the best way to do it. mainly wanting to put all of my reloading stuff out there and i need light and an outlet or two.
i had thought about running it from the house off of a junction box in one of the back rooms but wanted to ask some of you all the best way to do it.

also our house is on a concrete slab so no crawl space either. all of our electrical is ran through the attic of the house.
my thought was to come off of a junction box in the attic out of the roof in conduit to the shed. the distance from edge of roof to shed is about 15-20 feet give or take.

any thoughts

[BroWhoop]

You really need a dedicated circuit to a remote room. Not knowing some things here. If you can get from your existing house panel and run out and down the outside wall then under ground out to your building. Depending on your annual weather, for re-loading stuff, at a minimum you may need a dehumidifier, a/c or heat. You may take this into consideration.

[Luke]

Ill have to look in the service to see if there are any openings left but I do not think there are any open spots to add in a circuit. but I cant remember right off the top of my head.
if there is not room in the box then what would be my best option. I would prefer to have a dedicated circuit to it that is for sure.

[CatFan]

Ill have to look in the service to see if there are any openings left but I do not think there are any open spots to add in a circuit. but I cant remember right off the top of my head.
if there is not room in the box then what would be my best option. I would prefer to have a dedicated circuit to it that is for sure.

There are or may be specialty breakers you can use in your box to get more room.

[Luke]

So when I got home last night I looked in the breaker box and I have 2 spots open so I do have room. now its just figuring out how to get the wiring rand to the shed.
outside we have a concrete patio and I don't want to break it up to bury wire for the shed. so will have to look into that a little closer.

[milligjg]

If it's not too far, run it through your weather head on the house and put a weather head on your shed down to a junction box and go from there. Just a thought.

[brushsjigs]

Go outside and check to make sure someone has not jumped a side of the AC breaker. You should have a pull panel next to your AC unit. Code here in Indiana. Yeah I know its 220,, but only on one side

[Sunny Jim]

You could route conduit through the outside wall and run the conduit on the foundation past the patio. Then drop it down into the ground and trench to the shed. Keep in mind the code for buried electrical wiring. Usually 24" deep.

[Bass Junkie]

I'm not an electrician but I can tell you how my power is run from my house to my shop. I have 6-6-6 aluminum URD cable running underground from a tandem breaker on my breaker box inside my home. The line runs through the interior/attic down the wall of my laundry room then goes underground and comes up to a sub panel in my shop. You could do something very similar. The distance from your breaker panel to the building will determine what size URD you will need.

[mean_dean]

The wiring has to run somewhere, put a tone on it and trace to see where the existing wiring in the shed terminates.

[edw]

Dependent upon where your meter is at the exterior of your home vs the shed and vs the type of meter box you have...you may be able to tap power directly from the meter box if you have a newer version of a meter box. Mine allows for a "power company only side" where the glass jar is and a main breaker shut off and space for additional breakers to be added on the other non locked side. Hope this may help! and mean dean is correct as well on where to tap in at...You may also consider that the previous owner tapped into a GFCI circuit/outlet somewhere already at the exterior and skimped on the wire and buried wire that was not rated for it and the moisture has gotten to it over the years and it has tripped the reset button at the outlet that you may just by chance have never attempted to use. This would not show up at the panel...just at the button for reset at the outlet...I have run across this exact scenario before. If it were to have been my shed, I would have run the power to it before installing the outlets, lighting, and switching...just saying...

[Dave A]

When I built my detached garage I found it easier to run a separate line from the pole to the garage, I did have to install a meter and breaker box and of course it has it's own monthly bill, works for me.

[milligjg]

When I built my detached garage I found it easier to run a separate line from the pole to the garage, I did have to install a meter and breaker box and of course it has it's own monthly bill, works for me.

I have done this twice, but there is a way around the separate meter. You can install a six lug disconnect (below the meter) at the pole and run wire (underground or overhead) to your building and install a service panel. This disconnect also allows you to run 220 if you need it (welder, etc) and also keeps you from having a separate meter charge and bill.

[Jonestrollingmotor]

I was going to run power to my shop 30x40 off my main box of the house, even had a conduit run underground when the house was built and the slab poured. More I thought about though, house was a 200A service and I didn't want to tap into much of that 200A, then going with a 50A service to the shop wasn't enough for what I would be running in the shop. I just had another meter and panel put in the shop. Now I have 200A in the house and 200A in a 1200 sq ft shop with central heat and air.
Just an idea instead of trying to tap into the house.
John