What Do You Recommend?

tyler durden

how many total light watts for a 15 amp circuit.

what about kitchen appliances
should they all have there own breaker? fridge, garbage disposal, hood, wine fridge, outlets.

Speedy Petey

What does your electrician recommend?

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Speedy Petey

OK, a 15A circuit can have 1440 watts of lighting on constantly.

This is what I try to do:

Fridge - 15 or 20 dedicated, but this is not required by code.
Disp & DW - Share a 20A circuit.
Hood - On lighting circuit
OTR micro hood - Dedicated 20
Wine fridge - Depends. They are small so I would share it with another appliance.

Counter and wall receptacles - See NEC 210.52 . I generally try to stay at no more than 3-4 on a circuit

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A.W.Davis

1800 for a 15 amp circuit.


Dishwasher and Disposal need there own dedicated 20 amp circuit. I always just run a 12-3 for that purpose.

Check the specs on things such as the hood,wine refer and other appliances. Sometimes the larger hoods require a dedicated 15 amp circuit.

Sometimes the larger refrigerators require a dedicated circuit.....just read the appliance specs on everything.

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A.W.Davis

1440 for lighting......darnit, I have been off by 360 watts, good thing I never have that many lights on one circuit.


I was told by my electrician buddy that it's 1800 for 15 amps and 2400 for 20 amps.

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Speedy Petey

The 1800 watts is 15 amps @ 120v. So a load of 1800 watts would load a 15A circuit to FULL capacity.
This is not good to do for very long, and if it is "expected" for 3 hours or more it is a continuous load and must be kept to 80% of the circuit, which is ......anyone.......1440 watts.

A lighting load is one of the only things in a home that could really be considered a continuous load. You'd be hard pressed though to convince me that any ONE circuit or load would be a FULL load. Your typical house would not have 1800 watts of lighting switched at any one time.

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neolitic

Petey? Do you have kids?

Nice explanation BTW!

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(Sorry....it seems there really are dumb questions)

randomkiller

Originally Posted by Speedy Petey
.... Your typical house would not have 1800 watts of lighting switched at any one time.

When I get home at night, between my wife and kids every light in the house is on. I am the only one that turns them off when I leave an area.

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