[Coco] Powering a computer room/ham shack?

[John E. Malmberg]

I am trying to set up a workshop where I may be able to play with my 
COCOs and other toys again, so this is not totally off topic.

Unfortunately the builder of my house, while putting in the plumbing for 
downstairs bathroom, only put one spare power cable, a 12 AWG with 3 
insulted wires and a ground.  That would be good for 2 20 A split 
neutral circuits.

This is in addition to the required single 20 A circuit in the basement 
that is currently active.  Combined that gives me a total of 60 A in the 
  basement.

The resulting 60 Amps is more than sufficient for powering the expected 
TVs, Ham Radios, and computers, and workbench tools.

I would prefer though to have a sub-panel with multiple circuits, where 
each circuit would just be 15 A, for the computers and the Ham Radios 
and TVs.

I have not been able to find a strong reference as to if this would pass 
   a housing inspection.

All the references on the Internet I have seen is using 30A dual 
breakers and 10 AWG feeders to a sub panel.  Putting in the 10 AWG 
feeder would be difficult as there is no good path from the main panel 
in the garage to the basement.  I would likely have to run visible 
conduit on the outside of the dry-wall.  As such, I would probably have 
to get a professional to install that.

The NEC does seem to have tables indicating that a 20 A feed is allowed, 
as long as 20 A ganged breakers are used to protect it.

The last time I had electrician's training was in 1975, and I just read 
the NEC code and a lot of stuff has changed.

I figured that there would be people here with more practical experience 
in this.

Regards,
-John
wb8tyw at qsl.net
Personal Opinion Only