dthornton

Matt, I agree with the big guys that you would be better off with a small subpanel, The panel and wire would cost less than $150 at Home Depot, and would meet all the needs you may encounter. As for what you did meeting code? You need to make a phone call to your local city hall building inspector to find out what may or may not be allowed in your locality. Also, the work you did/will do may or may not require a permit and possibly inspection by the local boys.

Jhilton

I ran into the same scenario here recently, I ended up running 6/3 NM from my main panel with a single 50amp double post through conduit 45 feet to my storage building. Then to a 125AMP 8 space panel ($19.00) from Lowe's. Now I have a 220V outlet for my heater and 12 total 110V outlets ad 4 fluorescent lights. All at a total cost of less than $350. My biggest 2 expenses were ditch witch rental $75 half day and $150 for the 6/3 wire. I ran 12/2 to all my 110v and 8/3 to my 220v. I did all the work myself so saved on all the labor costs. My own little opinion for what it's worth is spend the few extra $ now to save yourself a headache later down the road if you do decide you want anything extra.

Wuzzat?

Ray C. Mullin's book on resi wiring, Figure 4-8, suggests maximum voltage drops for deciding on using a subpanel or just adding on to your existing load center.
http://books.google.com/books?id=UvmE_6XsszcC&pg=PA110&lpg=PA110&dq=ray+mu llin+%22figure+4-7%22&source=bl&ots=4eJxhNeqau&sig=Z8KjDimfs09VTDRd lqpY9DhoVSU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=w4aaUND4GoW00QGopYCwAg&s qi=2&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=ray%20mullin%20%2 2figure%204-7%22&f=false

speedy petey

Well there's a big violation. Obviously this was not inspected.

CallMeVilla

Should have run strands, not NM, in conduit . . . Ooops. Maybe this was a mis-typed sentence.

speedy petey

The biggie is that NM is NOT to be used in a wet location. A conduit underground IS most definitely a WET location.

UF would be legal but not at all recommended due to it's size.
I also hope it was a typo.

ckelly10

Are you planning on doing this yourself? I tried to do some wiring myself in my garage once upon a time and thought I had done a good job until I started hearing cracking noises when I used the electrical equipment about 2 weeks later. Ended up calling a professional electrician in my local area who said that it was a good job I had called because my wiring was terrible and could have started a fire at any time. Think in future I will just stick to doing simple repair work from now on.