Busbar Engineering Journal

I’ll be honest; this project looked simple in my head.

I wanted power in a small backyard workshop corner and a reliable wired connection for a smart controller/camera setup. In my mind, it was “just dig a trench, drop some conduit, pull wire, done.” In real life, it turned into one of those DIY jobs that teaches you respect—respect for planning, respect for code, and respect for how much time small mistakes can steal.

This is the real story of my conduit & wiring installation project: the wrong assumptions I made, the tools I wish I had from the start, and the moment I finally understood why underground work is less about speed and more about discipline.

I’m sharing it as a practical, first-person journey—not as a replacement for your local electrical code, permit process, or a licensed electrician for final connections. But if you’re planning an underground run, this should help you avoid the mistakes I made.

I started this project after one too many power outages turned my “I’ll deal with it later” attitude into a very practical problem.

The final straw was a winter outage that lasted almost 11 hours. My refrigerator was warming up, my boiler controls were down, the Wi-Fi was dead, and I was walking around with a flashlight trying to remember where I had put the extension cords. I had a small portable generator, but it was nowhere near enough for what I actually needed.

So, I decided to do it properly; plan a whole-house generator setup (or at least a smart version of one), understand the generator sizing, and learn the wiring details before spending money.

This was not a one-day success story. I made sizing mistakes, misunderstood service amperage, underestimated startup loads, and almost chose the wrong cable size. But by the end, I had a much clearer understanding of how to choose a generator for 100A, 125A, 150A, and 200A service, how to think about wire sizing for a 100A generator, and how to answer simple but important questions like:

“How much current is 700 watts on single-phase?”
“How do I know if my house is single-phase or three-phase?”
“How much copper is actually in a generator?”

I’ll walk you through the project in the same order I lived it—mistakes included.

I’ve built a lot of small electrical control setups over the years—some for workshop machines, some for testing, and a few just because I wanted to understand why certain panels behave well while others become a never-ending troubleshooting project.

This story is about one of my most educational DIY builds: a compact workshop distribution and control panel upgrade for a small metalworking corner with a VFD-driven motor, sensitive measuring instruments, and a few inductive loads. On paper, it looked simple. In reality, it forced me to learn (the hard way) how protection engineering works in practice—especially overcurrent protection, surge protection and insulation coordination, harmonics and harmonic filters, and even the skin effect in conductors.

I made mistakes. I misread settings. I chased nuisance trips that turned out to be harmonics. I underestimated how much conductor layout affects heat. And I learned that “DIY” does not mean “guess and hope.”

If you work with electrical panels, control cabinets, or even serious workshop power systems, this journey will feel familiar.

Important safety note: I’m sharing a practical learning story, not replacing formal design verification or licensed electrical work. For mains-connected systems, local electrical codes and qualified professionals are non-negotiable.