[giansean]

Hi All,

Thank you for all the help and advice I have received here thus far. I'm happy to say I wired in a few more rooms and they all worked flawlessly.

I'm down to a couple circuits left to wire and I think because of the way they were kind of piecemeal-ed together that there is opportunity to make it a bit better before buttoning up.

I have a single dimmer on a 15a circuit (not installed by me but by the licensed electrician who upgraded my service to 200 amp) which runs a single center chandelier light. I think the only reason it exists was because a plastic box was installed to support additional switches (previous wiring was AC). It shares said box with a four-way switch setup that powers recessed lights in the same room. However that four-way is powered from another circuit. As it seems a waste of a whole circuit, I thought it would make sense to do one of the following:

1) Tie this circuit into another existing one (eliminating a breaker in the process). There are ample j-boxes in the cellar to do this, and several appropriate 15a circuits. This would also help fix another possible mistake (more on that below)

2) Rewire the entire 4-way setup to take power from this existing dimmer circuit (more work but I isolate all the lights in this room to one circuit, vs shared w/ another room, plus it would eliminate 2 circuits sharing this one box)

Incidentally, this dimmer circuit appears to my eyes to be wired incorrectly. These circuits feed back to a subpanel that correctly has neutral and ground bus bars de-bonded. It appears that this electrician or his helper wired ground to the neutral bus bar. These guys are usually really good so not sure if it is just an omission, or whether there is some design/code reason whereby this is appropriate. Knowing the answer to this may help me decide which option to take.

Sorry for the load of info and appreciate any advice. Either of the above options (or even leaving it as it is) will WORK and neither will create an overload, it's just a matter of best practices and common conventions. Thanks very much!

 

[MrElectricianTV]

Hi All,

Thank you for all the help and advice I have received here thus far. I'm happy to say I wired in a few more rooms and they all worked flawlessly.

I'm down to a couple circuits left to wire and I think because of the way they were kind of piecemeal-ed together that there is opportunity to make it a bit better before buttoning up.

I have a single dimmer on a 15a circuit (not installed by me but by the licensed electrician who upgraded my service to 200 amp) which runs a single center chandelier light. I think the only reason it exists was because a plastic box was installed to support additional switches (previous wiring was AC). It shares said box with a four-way switch setup that powers recessed lights in the same room. However that four-way is powered from another circuit. As it seems a waste of a whole circuit, I thought it would make sense to do one of the following:

1) Tie this circuit into another existing one (eliminating a breaker in the process). There are ample j-boxes in the cellar to do this, and several appropriate 15a circuits. This would also help fix another possible mistake (more on that below)

2) Rewire the entire 4-way setup to take power from this existing dimmer circuit (more work but I isolate all the lights in this room to one circuit, vs shared w/ another room, plus it would eliminate 2 circuits sharing this one box)

Incidentally, this dimmer circuit appears to my eyes to be wired incorrectly. These circuits feed back to a subpanel that correctly has neutral and ground bus bars de-bonded. It appears that this electrician or his helper wired ground to the neutral bus bar. These guys are usually really good so not sure if it is just an omission, or whether there is some design/code reason whereby this is appropriate. Knowing the answer to this may help me decide which option to take.

Sorry for the load of info and appreciate any advice. Either of the above options (or even leaving it as it is) will WORK and neither will create an overload, it's just a matter of best practices and common conventions. Thanks very much!

What is your anticipated load for the chandelier? Several years I installed a 15 amp circuit for a chandelier over the stairs in a McMansion. The homeowner wanted an electrical outlet nearby so I tapped into the chandelier circuit. Big mistake. The chandelier was massive and took a boatload of light bulbs. The circuit breaker held with the lighting load, but whenever something like a vacuum got plugged in that outlet, the breaker tripped.

You are correct. The ground wires should be on the ground bar in a subpanel.

 

[giansean]

What is your anticipated load for the chandelier? Several years I installed a 15 amp circuit for a chandelier over the stairs in a McMansion. The homeowner wanted an electrical outlet nearby so I tapped into the chandelier circuit. Big mistake. The chandelier was massive and took a boatload of light bulbs. The circuit breaker held with the lighting load, but whenever something like a vacuum got plugged in that outlet, the breaker tripped.

You are correct. The ground wires should be on the ground bar in a subpanel.

Thanks, We like LED's vs other means and it's no McMansion by far. The circuit I am thinking of latching on to is an original MC run which carries three receptacles, which see almost no use. It's kind of fitting actually as the light was originally part of this circuit. I'll keep the loading in mind though and run some what-ifs before deciding.

How about modern fans? As much as I hate spanning circuits across rooms, Plan C was to use the kitchen center light/fan circuit instead of the above as it is also an orphan right now. Is 15a enough for an LED chandelier and a current spec fan/light? I know it really depends on the equipment, but just in general. It's wired with 14-3 so in worst case I guess I could add a dedicated circuit for the fan if I have problems down the road.

Thanks also for confirming on the ground. I'll address it once I figure out what the heck I'm doing