How many watts can a normal household circuit handle?

[trilinearmipmap]

I am in the planning stages. When I look at 2 x 250 Watts of MH lighting, plus ~220W of VHO, plus ~250W of heater, plus a pump, plus powerheads, plus Ca reactor pump, plus refugium lighting, plus skimmer pump, it adds up to something like 2000 Watts.

Can a normal household circuit handle this? I need to know ahead of time, I don't want to buy all my equipment and then find it blows my circuit breaker.

[Skimmerking]

It goes by AMPS in the breakers .Look at the box if you have a 200 amp box see what breakers can handle the equiptment

.you may have two split up the breakers thats all. i hope this help . maybe do we have a electrical boy or girl in the house... :roll:

Some Switches can handle 30 amps so tha might be the way to go .Mine did and i had
over 900 watts going with mine and i had it on 1 30 amp with a GFI breaker NP PROBLEMS

[StirCrazy]

a normal house hold circut is 15 amps which equates to aprox 1800 watts, now this is not to say you can run 1800 watts all the time, but a safe range would be 1500 watts and less.

Steve

[ed99]

Power (watts) = volts * amps so on a 125V system with 2000 watts power consumption you're using 16 amps. As asmodeus pointed out, you'll have to look at your box to see what each individual circuit is rated for.

A hairdryer uses ~1500 watts so what you're doing does not sound extreme, but considering that your system will be on continuously for hours per day it is probably best to leave some margin. Otherwise you can use two outlets on separate circuits.

[Aquattro]

I run 2x 400w MH, 2 x 110w VHO, 2 x250w heaters, a MAG 18, 12, and 3, 6 maxijet 1200 powerheads, a fan, a 44w Tunze stream, a 18w NO lamp, a small pump for reactor feed and a 19" color tv on a single 15A breaker. If I turn on my lamps in the living room, the breaker trips, so what i have is very near maximum. You should be OK. Ideally you would like to split things over 2 circuits.

And for all you technical types, yes, I'm aware that my house is going to burn down!! :roll: I'm working on it....

[Bob I]

Let us see if we can bring some reason into this post. There is no theory necessary. The Canadian Electrical code allows 15 amps on a normal household circuit, BUT also states that one in not allowed to exceed 80% of that, which is about 12 amps. When we as electricians wire a house we allow 12 outlets on a circuit, which is a mixture of lights and plugs. Thus in reality the ENTIRE circuit should have no more than 1440 watts on it. You can use that as a rough guideline, as it allows some leeway. If you really overload a circuit, the breaker will trip, but then again some breakers trip high, and some low. We are concerned about constant load. Unless you go really wild, you are usually fine.

[ed99]

Won't argue with practical knowledge over theory. We're all saying the same thing, but it helps to know the codes!

[StirCrazy]

Thus in reality the ENTIRE circuit should have no more than 1440 watts on it. You can use that as a rough guideline, as it allows some leeway. If you really overload a circuit, the breaker will trip, but then again some breakers trip high, and some low. We are concerned about constant load. Unless you go really wild, you are usually fine.

So my recomendation of no more than 1500 watts was good then :wink:

I just went throught this and had to add a second breaker to handel my tank, as the first breaker was also for my front room, which ran a second tank, a big screen tv, 2 computers, a dvd, vcr, digital cable box, 3 lights.. ect.. I was tripping once a day when my heater came on..... so remember to look at what else is run by that breaker as well and count there power also.

Steve

[C&C]

I know with my tank-
2 X 250 watt heaters
4 X VHO
2 X NO
6 X Maxijet 1200
Berlin turbo protien skimmer

My breaker trips once in a while for no apparent reason (15 Amp) I think it has to do when the heaters are on in the morning and if my lights come on at the same time it may cause a momentary surge, enough to trip it?

If i try to run my stereo at a high volume then I have to make sure my heaters are not on.

Using the vacuum is near impossible (not thats its a bad thing) If the heaters are on.

When I build my next house I will definately have 2 dedicated 15 Amp outlets wired to my tank location.

Chris.

[DJ88]

Power (watts) = volts * amps so on a 125V system

Sorry but no it isn't. In a DC system that holds true. But due to the reactive nature of things like ballasts and pumps(as well as capacitances) in an AC circuit you can't use that formulae for AC circuit theory.

This is a myth-truth that people seem to think is real. It isn't...

When you multiply Volts x Amps in an AC circuit you get VA or Volt Amps. To find Watts you need to know the phase angle of the circuit. Current either leads or lags behind voltage(depending on if the circuit is inductive or capacitive). Changing what the Real Power(Watts) actually is. If you have done any work in high school math you will come across Sine waves. If the two sine waves are 100% in phase with each other you can multiply them to get Watts. But if one wave is following another you don't get the actual real power. You need to factor in the angle difference between the two waves to find the actual Wattage consumed by a piece of equipment. There is all kinds of math that goes along with this. But I won't go into that here. All you need to remember is that you AREN'T getting Watts when you multiply Volts x Amps in an AC circuit.

As well as it was pointed out it doesn't really matter how many watts you consume. the breakers don't monitor that. All they do look at is current. And how much is being consumed(passed through it). On our 120/240 home systems most breakers are designed to handle up to 110% of rated amperage for a specific period of time before tripping(if I remember the code right). I think that time is about an hour or so. Most trip much sooner than this depending on how high the current draw is above rated(Higher current faster it trips). I think the service factor for a home breaker is 1.2 or 1.15. Don't quote me tho. To be safe try to not max out your circuits for current draw. Aim a bit low. that way when you start up large consumers of current(ballasts etc) you can be sure that you aren't maxing out your breaker all the time.

Another reason for this is that breakers aren't just an electrical device. They are mechanical as well. And we all know that with overuse mechanical devices do break. So if you are regularly tripping and resetting your breakers, seriously consider re-thinking your wiring to lessen the load. In time with repeated cycling open and closed of that breaker you are wearing parts inside of it out. As well increasing the chance of it breaking and you not being able to re-set the circuit or it locking in an closed position and you drawing too much current though it. With possibilities of more dire consequences.

Chris,

I'd serioulsy take a look at running a second line now. Tripping your breaker when you turn your stereo on if the heaters happen to be on isn't a good thing. Your breakers are telling you that you are running too close to max recommended ratings. Possibly even over. IMO very unsafe.

[ed99]

[quote]Power (watts) = volts * amps so on a 125V system

Sorry but no it isn't. In a DC system that holds true. But due to the reactive nature of things like ballasts and pumps(as well as capacitances) in an AC circuit you can't use that formulae for AC circuit theory.


Yeah, you're right. From memory I thought that the VA was within about 10% of power in most cases, depending on the actual circuit design. I steered well clear of this stuff in university so from now on I'll stick with the 1400-1500W rule- once I'm ready to upgrade the lighting...

[trilinearmipmap]

Thanks for all the input.

As a rough estimate I figure most tanks in the 75-120 gallon range with MH lighting probably consume about the same amount of power as each other on average. So the question is, for people with this size of tank, but not running anything else on the circuit (dedicated circuit for the tank only and not letting the wife run the vaccum cleaner on that circuit) is it causing the breaker to trip?