Lots of field editors told us that their biggest garage mistake was not installing a sub-panel. Lots of others said including a sub-panel was the best move they made. The reasons are pretty simple: more power and more convenience.

If you want to use your garage for a shop or plan to install air conditioning or other power-hungry appliances or tools, you'll have all the power you need. And it's more convenient to have the circuit breakers in the garage. If you pop a breaker, you don't have to run to the main panel to reset it. Plus, you can easily add more circuits without having to run wires all the way to the main panel.

It'll cost you a few hundred dollars more for the load center, circuit breakers and heavy-gauge wire that runs to the main panel. But for convenience and future flexibility, it's hard to beat a separate panel in the garage.