Hi all,
Questions first, qualifiers at the end:
1. Any suggestions on how to determine wattage for appliances? I know about products like the Kill-A-Watt, but what about appliances that are hard wired (dishwasher, garbage disposal, sensor flood lights, etc.)?
2. I am wondering if how I am currently calculating wattage is correct:
3. If I have properly calculated wattage of all my appliances, what will happen if I go over the wattage limit for a particular circuit breaker. For example, if a 15amp circuit breaker (1800watts) has appliances all on at the same time and wattage goes over 1800 watts, will the breaker just trip?
4. Am I correct with this thinking - one of my 30amp double-pole switches delivers 240v because it has two 120v hot wires are feeding out of the breaker, as opposed to the 15 and 20 amp breakers, which only have one 120v wire feeding out of it...
5. Is there a rule of thumb for the wire gauge to use for a specific breaker? By this, I mean should 15amp breakers use a specific gauge wire, whereas a 20amp breaker use another (smaller gauge)?
6. I recently (see below) found that all of the following appliances are connected to one 20 amp circuit breaker:
OK, so the reason for all of these questions:
I bought a house about a year and a half ago and just last week got around to mapping out the electrical system. I know I should have done this much earlier, but my motivation was to determine if I could add more lighting to my backyard. I mapped out each outlet, light and appliance to a breaker and recently started to figure out the wattage on each breaker to see what is in danger of being over and where I still had some allowance to work with.
I have been doing research on my own, including almost all of Black and Decker's guide to wiring (hoping this is a reputable book), but have not been able to grasp the ideas that generated my questions above. I do have some additional questions, but those might be answered with responses to the ones above.
Any feedback is greatly appreciated!
Questions first, qualifiers at the end:
1. Any suggestions on how to determine wattage for appliances? I know about products like the Kill-A-Watt, but what about appliances that are hard wired (dishwasher, garbage disposal, sensor flood lights, etc.)?
2. I am wondering if how I am currently calculating wattage is correct:
- looking for the wattage on the label
- finding the amperage on the label and multiplying by the voltage (either 120v or 240v)
3. If I have properly calculated wattage of all my appliances, what will happen if I go over the wattage limit for a particular circuit breaker. For example, if a 15amp circuit breaker (1800watts) has appliances all on at the same time and wattage goes over 1800 watts, will the breaker just trip?
4. Am I correct with this thinking - one of my 30amp double-pole switches delivers 240v because it has two 120v hot wires are feeding out of the breaker, as opposed to the 15 and 20 amp breakers, which only have one 120v wire feeding out of it...
5. Is there a rule of thumb for the wire gauge to use for a specific breaker? By this, I mean should 15amp breakers use a specific gauge wire, whereas a 20amp breaker use another (smaller gauge)?
6. I recently (see below) found that all of the following appliances are connected to one 20 amp circuit breaker:
- furnace
- condenser
- washer
- microwave
- toaster oven
- two flood lights (sensor)
OK, so the reason for all of these questions:
I bought a house about a year and a half ago and just last week got around to mapping out the electrical system. I know I should have done this much earlier, but my motivation was to determine if I could add more lighting to my backyard. I mapped out each outlet, light and appliance to a breaker and recently started to figure out the wattage on each breaker to see what is in danger of being over and where I still had some allowance to work with.
I have been doing research on my own, including almost all of Black and Decker's guide to wiring (hoping this is a reputable book), but have not been able to grasp the ideas that generated my questions above. I do have some additional questions, but those might be answered with responses to the ones above.
Any feedback is greatly appreciated!