Question for electricians

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by banditpowdercoat

And yes, each outlet, or light socket counts as 1 amp. You can only wire 12 outlets or lights, or any combination thereof on a 15A circuit. Your correct on the averaging thing. but each plug can handle 15 amps, just not all at the same time

thats a little misleading, that is asuming normal household lamps. for this case he needs to figure out what he is putting on the circut to size them properly.. would be more akin to running and industreal circut for a work shop that will have a few high amp loads. at anyrate figure out what you need than throw in a couple extra outlets.

[banditpowdercoat]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

thats a little misleading, that is asuming normal household lamps. for this case he needs to figure out what he is putting on the circut to size them properly.. would be more akin to running and industreal circut for a work shop that will have a few high amp loads. at anyrate figure out what you need than throw in a couple extra outlets.

Whenever I wired up a new home installation, you don't know what lamp, or whats going to be used on what plug. The generalization of 12 total items per 15 amp breaker is norm. And, in reality, you usually have far less than that on each circuit anyways. Like even 2 bedrooms on one circuit, 6 plugs and 2 lights?? thats what I was trying to convey. This can also hold true in a fish room. Because what loads you have now, may not be the loads you have in the future. As long as you don't exceed the maximum 12 for 15a breaker, you should be fine with any inspector

[Delphinus]

Ugh, I was afraid of this. Steve, did you find the info online somewhere about the 12 gage in Calgary? If so can you point me to the URL. I did some google searches at the time I posted this question but didn't find much. I looked up at Chapters for code books but they all look like national things not regional things and .. well they're all in the $120 and up price category to boot.

I might just have to do as you say, pay city hall a visit and go from there.

Sigh ... this will be the 3rd or 4th time I've ripped the electrical boxes out of the framing. The first few times were more just vanity, I didn't like how I did them in the end. Now I finally have a setup I like and it only now occurs to me that what I was doing might be stretching it.

I think not inspecting it is not an option for the tank room. The basement was never developed when I moved in and had no power down there except for the pullstring lights so I had a buddy (who was apprentencing at the time) do two temporary circuits for the tanks. I just took those temporary circuits out, 4.5 years later. I found something really disturbing when I took them out:

.. ok never mind I can't seem to find a #@$#@$#!!! USB cable anywhere in the house. Why can't digital camera's be wireless ?! There's easily 4 or 5 of them but not a one to be found. So I can't take a picture of my GFCI at the moment. Anyhow, one of my GFCI receptacles had melted, the white wire was fused in place and the insulation of the wire itself had charred black. This is was servicing my tank until Wednesday !!! I have no idea how long it had been like that. But, clearly, not good. So I definitely need things to be done right this time and I was thinking that, yeah, just for preventing things like that, I should get the permit and the inspection done.

BTW I hate the way the word "Gauge" is spelled. I totally agree it should be spelled Gage. "Gauge" looks like it should be pronounced "gog".

Man I wish I could just pay someone to take over this tank build. Financially it's just not an option. I guess it's, um, "interesting" to learn all this new stuff and it's a challenge and blah blah blah it will all work out in the end blah blah blah personal growth grumble grumble comfort zone blah blah challenge yackity yack yay.

[StirCrazy]

um.. did you draw a home owners permit befor you started? If you didn't don't tell them you have started already. I know when I did my last one they wanted to inspect after the rough in then on compleation. I know I had to take a real rudamentry drawing showing what I was going to do. but that wasn`t a fishroom.

12 gauge isn't that expensive anyways, I just got 100 feet for 45 bucks at HD so I can get my damn air compressor wired up so I can start building crap in my new shop. Its amazing how much you miss your compressed air when it isn't working

this is the basic book you want for your own info and to show you the AB rules
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/...2339-item.html

ok I found it, you can use 14 in cowtown. here is everything you need to know about homeowners permits and has a bunch of how to stuff in it allso.

http://www.calgary.ca/DocGallery/BU/...ring_guide.pdf

Steve

[Delphinus]

Man am I losing it. I haven't used a USB cable in years to download photos off the camera. I don't know why I totally forgot about the card reader. Man this crap is making me lose my mind!!!!

Anyhow, this is what I found this week on the temporary circuits:





Anyhow, I'm NOT happy about this. Faulty GFCI? More likely, faulty wiring or overloaded. It's making me re-evaluate everything. I thought when I went to buy the copper that I had priced out 12 guage .. I forget why now but I remember being shocked at the cost differential between what I wanted to do with 12 gauge and what 14 gauge cost me in the end. Was it the breakers maybe? Maybe it was the breakers. I remember feeling it was a HUGE difference and I thought, well, 2 circuits at 14AWG worked fine for so many years, why woudln't it work again especially if I double up? (I have 4 circuits coming in the fish room whereas before I made do with two).

Now this is causing me to really re-evaluate. I guess if the answer is start over then the answer is start over. It's just so darned frustrating. This is the slowest build in the world as it is anyhow. It's like everything I do along the way, I regret how it ends up and I end up redoing it. I rebuilt the stand 3 times, I redid the framing a few times, I ended up puncturing the pipes at one point and had to fix that, I ended up putting in my pressure regulator backwards so I had to redo that, the overhead light fixture didn't fit with the HRV ducts and had to be redesigned, the overhead fixtures squeek when someone walks in the living room so they have to be redone ... if it weren't me I would find this pretty damn funny. All I want is a tank, a nice reef tank! Why does it have to be like this !!! It's unreal, just unreal.

[Delphinus]

Does code allow you to install 15A receptacles on a 20A circuit? The 20A plugs all have the one prong as a "T".

I can see the argument for ripping out the 14AWG wire and putting in 12AWG instead but the cost of all the incidentals: the breakers, the plugs, the GFCI that would have to replaced with their 20A counterparts (and then I'm sitting on all these 15A components that I can't return anymore to boot) alone makes the swap out proposition cost well into the hundreds of dollars. I have 4 circuits planned each with a GFCI then a 4-gang box with the plugs (although one plug is a duplex with a shutoff switch). I really want to find a way I can make this tank room workable but using 15A breakers and 14AWG.

[StirCrazy]

is that solid or stranded going into that?

I like and hate back stabs, they are good if you use the ones you have to physicly tighten, but bad if they are normal ones that seem to get loose over time.

Steve

[Delphinus]

It was solid, and it was the kind you have to tighten. The wire is physically melted into the backing, I can't pull it out for anything. I honestly don't know why it did this. I'm thinking I must have overloaded the circuit but even still, I've reduced what I have for tanks in the last year by a LOT and the box was still physically hot to the touch lately. .. I've been wanting to "decommission" these "temporary" circuits for a while. I'm glad it's off, I had no idea it was THIS bad inside of the box..