What size wire would I need to get 150 amps

[DaveO]

As a follow-on to Geezer's point about fire insurance, does your lease or rental agreement allow you to make this kind of modification to the building?

[hooda]

Thanks, Geezer for the idea I googled "wire size calculator" and got this link.
http://www.paigewire.com/pumpWireCalc.htm
All I had to do was type in 45 ft, 240 volts, 45 feet, And for copper I need 2/0 and for aluminum I need 3/0. If you were to take a look at the prices for copper these days, It only makes sense to run aluminum on a circuit this size, especially in light of the fact that I'm a renter, not an owner. I think what I'll do is follow geezer'sidea and do a stalk-down of a few commercial job-sites around here and try to score the appropriate sized wire fron a sub. Too bad Tony Soprano's crew isn't sittin' around lookin' to make a few ez bucks. Either way, I look at the cost to actually get the wire, and the pvc conduit, with connectors and junctions to total under $5.00 a foot, so I think I can pull that off. With this big of a service draw, I think I'll install a separate circuit breaker box in the shop area. The way I look at it, The MTS 400 MIG machine pulls 55 amps in 240/single phase, and the max inrush amps on the powerplasma 80 pulls 70 amps at 220 volts. With 150 amps, I have enough to run my current equipment, and MORE than enough to run what I hope to have as an all-EVERLAST equipped shop in the future. You see, I got into yet another argument about buying BIG red and BIG blue versus "that imported s*$&", and not only won the argument, but convinced the guy that, If I get in a 50 or 60 amp plasma cutter, and it'll do what I promised him it will do, he'll buy it, no questions asked. I'm now giving serious thought to the idea of becoming a dealer here in the Minneapolis area. But that's in the future. For now I'm sticking with repair, fab, and welding.

[Tritium]

hooda, my book says that that is way too big. My book states that #2 Aluminum should handle 150 A at 240 VAC over 45' with only a 1.76% voltage drop. My electrical cooperative confirms this would be correct.

Thurmond