Most of your questions are answered in the owner's manual. To run off a cold water supply, you'll need a Y adapter, like this one, with standard (preferably braided burst-resistant) washing machine hoses attached from the Y adapter to the two inlets on the washer. Alternatively, you can get a Y adapter with short hoses already attached, though I'd like it better if they included burst-resistant hoses. There may be some that do, I haven't checked. Cold water prevents some types of stains from "setting" that may become permanent if immediately doused with hot water. But cold water doesn't clean very well, and some other types of stains will only come loose in warm or hot water, including stubborn shirt-collar discoloring. So the best way to make sure anything gets as clean and stain-free as possible is to fill the washer with cold water and detergent, and heat up the water as it washes to a relatively high temperature. 240v front-load washers are uniquely well suited for this, as they use only a small amount of water at a time, and have 2500-watt internal heaters that quickly bring cold water to high temperatures. And Miele made it very easy to know what temperature that is - no vague "warm" or "hot" labelling, much less "work clothes" or "bedding and blankets" or other descriptions that don't leave a clue as to what the machine will do with your clothes. On your Meile, set the dial to "120F" and your clothes will be washed at said temperature. Want something else? The dial adjusts from 85F to an on-the-verge-of-boiling 205F. And thanks to that 240v internal heater, it will reach your selected temperature quickly. Starting with cold water rather than mixed hot/cold will slow things down only slightly, maybe a few minutes. On 120v/15a washers with internal heaters, heating water is *slow* since there's only about 1000 watts allocated to the water heater. But with 240v/15a power, about 2500 watts are available for heating, which means it warms up fast and doesn't add much time if the water starts cold instead of lukewarm, as it would with a 120v washer. Your electrician is confused because the big NEMA 14-30P plugs and matching 14-30R recepticles are normally used with 208 or 240V/30 amp equipment, but the Miele washer and dryer, though equipped with "30 amp" plugs, each only draw less than 15 amps and are designed to be protected by a 240v/15a circuit breaker, not 240/30a. Show your electriction p.37 in the manual for a more detailed explanation. Note also the electrical requirements shown on placard on the machine itself, either the inner door frame or back panel near where the water and electrical connections are made. So yes, despite the 30A plug, both Miele machines are 240 volt/15 amp devices and each machine should be connected to a 240 volt/15 amp circuit with a 15 amp circuit breaker protecting it. There's no need for the Miele adapter box if you have room for two double-pole 15A breakers (the kind that take up two adjacent slots) in your electrical panel. I have a Miele W1926 which is a larger version of the 1918 (about 4" deeper inside and out) with the same requirements. It's a great machine. I can't help much with the dryer issues as I've never had a Miele dryer.

As the proud owner of a ca. 1825 farmhouse, I understand a lot of the challenges and adventures that come with playing "this old house", and it sounds like you have your share too! That said, I have no idea what it might take to rework your plan to take power from the main panel instead of that unused two-wire ungrounded circuit. Any chance you could pull a new cable there with an equipment ground and maybe a bit more ampacity? The lack of a ground at the point of hookup is definitely a problem and it all but guarantees that any "solution" you try will violate modern electrical codes. I think I understand the ground rods providing some protection against lightning and other surges but not being conductive enough to create overcurrents that will trip a breaker (though surely strong enough currents to trip the GFCI I plan to place on the barn branch circuit). Actually, equipment grounds have little or nothing to do with the operation of a GFCI. Because a GFCI works by monitoring the hot and neutral and only trips when they are out of balance, a GFCI doesn't even need a ground wire to function properly. But you should also keep in mind that, while a GFCI protects against ground faults, it doesn't provide overcurrent protection. Thus, in the case of a short circuit, the heat can start a fire while a GFCI continues to feed power! "Actually, as a side note, I once measured an impedance of about 10 ohms in a ground rod circuit. Indeed not low enough to generate the 20amp overcurrent to trip a breaker at 120V." Yep, you're spot on there and, actually, 10 ohms is better than average! With this in mind, you may have wondered why I recommended two ground rods. It's because recent code editions allow a single ground rod where the impedance is 25 ohms or less. If a single rod flunks this test, a second rod is required and many single rods do, in fact, flunk. Don't ask me why (practicality, I'd assume), but the two ground rods together don't have to pass the test--they're just presumed to be OK. So it ain't all pure science, if you catch my drift. :-) "I am starting to get the feeling that unless I establish a (green) equipment-ground wire in the house circuit and connect it to the main panel, there is no way to take electricity to the barn and still meet code." That's my take too. "I assume that by equipment-ground you mean the wire that is normally green in color but sometimes grey or bare copper. Yep. (While gray is technically designated as an alternate color for neutrals, those old green ground wires do sometimes look gray.) 1. Maintain separate neutral and ground bars in that panel. (You may have to buy a small ground bar for a couple of bucks or, if there are two bars and they are connected, they need to be disconnected.) There is only one bar in the small barn subpanel. But no problem, say I buy a small separate ground bar. If you still have the packaging materials, they'll probably say somewhere the correct part number with the notation "sold separately." (Thanks, folks.) It's best to use the designated part although, in truth, those short ground bars are fairly interchangeable. 2. In your house, connect the equipment ground wire to the ground bar. In a main panel, there is often only one bar, serving both neutrals and equipment grounds. (That's fine in a main panel. In a subpanel, however, they should be separated.) There are no equipment-ground wires in any of my house wiring. That is, there are no green, gray or bare copper conductors anywhere. All wires in my house are 2 conductor wires, just one white and one black (hot+neutral). The only ground (bar) is inside the main panel where the neutral from the utility pole attaches. See, for now, I was planning to feed the barn circuit from an existing, unused, 20amp two conductor (black+white) house circuit. This house circuit was originally used to feed an old radiant space heater in one of my bathrooms (that bathroom is the closest room to the barn anyway so tapping into that circuit for the barn is most convenient). I disconnected the old radiant heater a long time ago for safety reasons and since that was the only appliance on that circuit, this circuit is now unused and available, I assume, to feed the barn. But it is strictly a 2-conductor wire (black+white only). Sigh, I feel your pain. (Really! No sarcasm intended.) 3. At the barn, connect the equipment ground feeder to the subpanel ground bar and land your branch circuit ground wires there too. In other words, all the (green) equipment-ground wires go to the subpanel ground bar. However, there is no existing (green) equipment ground wire coming from the house. If one is needed I would have to install one on a separate route and run it all the way to my houses main panel. True, true and true. (Not to get too picky here, but technically speaking, the EG is supposed to run in the same cable or raceway, btw.) 4. Drive two 8' grounding electrodes (ground rods) at least 6' apart and connect them to the panel ground bar with #6 copper wire. Again, from what I understand, unless I install that (green) equipment-ground conductor from the house main panel to the barn, then I should probably not ground/earth the barn subpanel at all. IMO, earthing the barn panel is a good thing in any event. What is to be avoided is a "false equipment ground". (That's a made-for-purpose term meaning that if the EG's are connected only to a grounding electrode, it may create a false confidence in addition to a code violation.) Somewhat better (although not fully code compliant!) would be to bond the neutral and the grounding electrode at the barn's ground bar. (That is what is done with a so-called three-wire 120/240V outbuilding service--the neutral effectively serves to feed both grounded conductor and grounding conductor.) But note that, as ronnatalie has correctly pointed out above, this approach is not strictly applicable in your case because there are other metallic connections (e.g., the phone wire) between buildings. Now that would take another long-winded discussion, but suffice it to say that the code only permits a neutral-EG bond when the house and outbuilding have no other connections. That may be a technical glitch, but it's a potential violation nonetheless. If I do run the (green) equipment-ground wire from the barn to the houses main panel then I should probably ground/earth the main panel only using rods implanted somewhere close to the main panel. If your house really has no earthing system, that would be a wise improvement in any case. It might also be useful to evaluate your plumbing as a potential source of earthing. If your water service is metalic when it enters the house, and runs at least 10 feet in the ground, you should also connect the water supply at the point of entry to your main electrical panel. With an old house, seemingly simple projects do tend to mushroom, don't they?

As wayne points out what you propose is far from correct for a number of reasons and in fact is QUITE dangerous. I would recommend you have an electrician install the subpanel at LEAST. First, NM is not allowed to be used in this situation. It's not rated for wet locations, use outside the house/building, not permitted for messenger supported use, and most likely not rated for sunlight exposure. As Wayne points out you must use either a cable that's allowed for aerial use or really consider running either rated cable or conductors in conduit underground. The messenger, if used also has to be appropriately supported and grounded. You have to use an approved lashing or messenger ring system to attach the cable, you can't just wire tie or tape the cable to the messenger. FYou also probably want to run 240V to your subpanel. That's going to take four conductors (two hots, the neutral, and the ground). If you install a subpanel in the outbuilding (i.e., there is more than one circuit there), you'll need a grounding system (rods) there. You don't technically need a main breaker out at the subpanel if you can kill all the power in less than six handle throws, but I'd recommend it. You might consider having an electrician put the feeder and subpanel in. It's a lot easier to install your own branch circuits in the subpanel than running the feeder.

Randy, Thank you, that's some good feedback you've offered. You are permitted to run up to 18 #12 wires in 3/4" conduit. 29 are permitted in 1" conduit. If there are bends, I'd go with the 1", though by using a couple common neutral circuits you can consolidate down to 11 wires. (You are permitted up to 4 quarter bends, or the equivalent, in any one run of conduit.) But the number of conductors allowed by conduit size speaks nothing about the derating issue. Am I correct about this? . . I'd also use EMT or rigid conduit for better appearance and durability. Nods. EMT may well be the better choice if I go with a conduit solution. Thanks for that. Will consider. . . Have you considered running #6 wires from the main panel to a sub panel in the kitchen/bath area? Yes, that was actually the first option I threw out. If I could go the subpanel route, I'd probably use #6-2 NM (plus ground) and not use conduit. The studs in this building are huge (actual dimension 2" x 6" rough-sawn Doug Fir) and Romex could be run through the studs about 10' above the floor level. (But not 5 independent circuits, for aesthetic reasons, by direction of the owner!) This is my sister's property (btw, her name is Randy!). She's held a California GC license for years and made her living building houses on hillside lots in the SF bay area, so her real specialty is engineered foundations in earthquake country and she admits that electrical stuff is not her strong suit. (She's pretty much just always subbed it, although she has more than her share of experiences arguing with inspectors at punchlist time.) Anyway, this building is in a remote rural area in Mendocino County that has some kind of quicky permit/inspection program for non-dwelling units meeting certain characteristics, one of which is single-panel electric (no subpanels). Apparently, when a building conforms to all the requirements of this program, the process is cheap, quick and usually hassle-free, or so I've been told. It consists of one inspection done at or near the end of construction. (Among other things, I was interested to learn that no rough-in inspection is required, and the inside walls can even be drywalled over wiring at the time of inspection!) Sooo...the reason for not using a subpanel may, in this case, be more a tactical or political decision on the part of the owner, if you catch my drift. The downside of the deal is that she's found the AHJ (a "generalist", apparently) to be "not helpful" in getting advice before work is performed. I have to take her word on that, groan. - Tom