Put the 20 amp breaker back before you burn your house down. Put the electricians name on your list of "idiots I'll never use again". Breaker amperage and wire size have to be matched.

I've seen 40 amp breakers on 14gauge wire that had been in service for years without a problem, but that's because the circuit never hit the breaker capacity.

 

That’s a complete hack job.

Take that 30A out NOW.

Why it started tripping I have no idea, but the solution is a dedicated 20A circuit for the treadmill.

There is no such thing as “breaker wire”. 😳There is a conductor from the breaker to the receptacles.

Those receptacles are not rated for 30A either.

Hire a real electrician please next time, before some a$$#ole kills you and your family 👍

 

Tripping out of the blue...

Breakers get old and may get tempermental.

You could have a problem with devices plugged into to curcuit causing an increase in needed amperage.

Change 20 to 30, not without rewiring.

Your fire ins paid up????

 

His office is out til wednesday. If i pull the plugs and dont use anything for the next 4 days, will I be safe from a fire ?
also, what is the wire that should be 10 guage? Does that mean re wiring the whole wall?

 

Putting 10 gauge in won’t solve your problem, because then you would need 30A receptacles, and those are completely different and none of your stuff would plug in.

As I said, a dedicated circuit for your high amperage equipment is the solution. 👍

 

Just go flip the 30A breaker to off. 👍

 

So you actually paid this "local guy"? I can't believe an actual electrician would do this.

 

If he did that, he ain’t an electrician. 👍🤣

 

Treadmill motors can be anywhere from roughly 2.5 HP to 5 HP. It depends on the treadmill. There is electronic speed control on them, so a problem with the controller can be a real problem.

If it's just a weak breaker, a 20A new one will solve the issue. The sparky should have tried that, and if it still popped, it's a wiring or load issue. Pull the breaker so you can't energize the circuit. A 30A breaker on a 20A circuit is a no no.

Just my opinion.

 

You can't get much more than 1.5HP out of a standard outlet. Theoretical 1800 watts at 100% efficiency will get you 2.4HP, but that's not happening in reality. 2HP I can see in a slow start motor on a controller. Peak HP is a different story.

 

ok, his office just called me back; an elderly lady. she said he upgraded a 15 amp to 20 not 30..
i just checked the breaker and it says 20.. my bad..
do the same rules apply though?

 

Depends on the wiring. The safe bet is that the circuit was run with 14 gauge wire, and that gets a 15 amp breaker. It's possible that the the wiring is 12 gauge and the breaker was down graded, but I'd still guess that there was a reason for that.
The fellow is probably going to tell you that he "does it all the time without any issues", and that could well be true. But he's playing Russian roulette with the gun pointed at your head.

 

so going from 15 to 20 is just as dangerous as going from 20 to 30?
why dont builders just make all the breakers 20 amp?

 

I find myself running very few if any 15A circuits.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with them though

 

What pounder said. 👍


Unlikely that the wire gauge is suitable for a 20A.

Swapping breakers is just hack work.

The fact that it was only a 15A makes a lot more sense. That’s a little small for treadmills and other equipment.

Uou should still get another circuit installed for the treadmill. 👍

 

Money.

 

That, and 14 is so much easier to work with and fit into boxes.

I never run 15A receptacle circuits. I might use them for lighting only circuits though.

 

X2. 15A barely handles a vacuum cleaner.

 

The house I live in is wired crazy. 2 bedrooms, a hallway and the bathrooms all share circuit #19, a 15A breaker. Probably fine back before home offices. Well the lights would always dim when we printed to the laser printer. Finally, one day I had enough. I thought I would help my wife with the vacuuming by tag teaming with my shop vac while she used the Dyson. We have a wonderful dog who feels the need to share his dog hair everywhere with us, but that’s a diff topic.

Anyways, the breaker tripped as soon as I powered on my shop vac in the hallway while she was vacuuming her office. (And another sidenote, have you noticed that vacuum cleaners come with very underrated power cords more concerned about being coiled up than carrying load because they seem to always get warm/hot).

I contacted a highly reputable electrical contractor nearby, and their sales guy was amazing. He had grown up in the business so he knew exactly what he was talking about. I told him I wanted a dedicated 20 amp circuit to each office as well as one upstairs to the modem, router, gaming room and 2 more circuits in my garage, and they had to be each on their own 20A breaker. I also wanted an interrupt system so I could plug my generator in and provide power to my house, legally, that would disconnect me from commercial power while the generator is creating power.

On the install day, they sent two vans and the guys were in the crawlspace and up on the house, they were done in about 4 1/2 hours. When you go into the two bedrooms that we have converted into offices, you can’t even tell that they’ve done an install except that the receptacle has an orange piece on it and it’s more square inside of the face plate compared to the other ones which have that octagon looking shape compared to the other older ones. The one guy ran actual metal conduit and surface metal boxes in my garage/shop so it has a very commercial feel to it. Extremely professional finished product. The laser printer is plugged into the dedicated circuit as well as some mid range uninterrupted power supplies. Our electrical issues no longer exist.

Best $3000 I ever spent for electrical Work. I recommend them to everyone that I work for. I strongly recommend solving electrical problems by hiring a licensed electrical contractor. It’s nice going to sleep at night knowing that it was done correctly by someone who knows what they’re doing. Your price may vary because I’m on the “mama knows best“ West Coast so there are all kinds of extra expenses out here And I had more work done.

 

I color-coded the breakers so that if I’m not here and my wife has to turn on specific breakers to run from the generator, she will know which ones to activate and which ones to turn off. As a back up I told her any of the really big breakers that look like there’s two connected, they have to go off. If you look at the top that metal piece forces the main off in order to have power come in from the generator. Also at the very bottom they had to go with skinny 20 amp breaker‘s because they said my panel was full. Everything has worked perfectly since install.

It’s awesome and so easy to switch to gen power now. No extension cords through the house to the fridge.

Again, if you’re not an electrician or your buddy down the street who says he knows how to do it is not an electrician, make the conscious decision to hire a professional. Why chance something so serious and important?
Don't let dollars decide a bad decision for you.

 

You need one of these. 👍

 

Beautiful property. Looks like the coast to me. its that time of year, I need to get my line wet and put a few lings in my yak.... and the jenny looks nice too.

 

Not my property.

But it was a project up here in Humboldt.

Rivers are low right now. Gonna be a crappy steelhead and salmon season I think.

 

Not my property.

But it was a project up here in Humboldt.

Rivers are low right now. Gonna be a crappy steelhead and salmon season I think.

I thought that terrain looked familiar. Sitka spruce and huckleberry. Yeah salmon population is crashing. I love hitting the rockfish from my kayak. Shelter cove is my favorite place to go, trinidad is a small reef and over fished, but people still get some big lings, just not many of them

 

Interesting fridge and microwave on same 20A, here both are dedicated.
As for the garage fridge and freezer, I'd have to check the local code but I suspect it is the same.

D.

 

Here MWO is always on a dedicated, Washer is the same. Fridge doesnt have to be but is a good idea. And for god sake dont put it down stream of the gfi... Freezers dont pull much typically, but it can vary greatly. I have 2 that are the same cu ft one pulls .5 amp @ 120v the other 4.5 amp @ 120v. both energy star, but purchased 10 years apart

 

cottonwood. lived in mckinleyville a couple years when i went to hsu. But otherwise been over the hill, but still make a point to hit the coast at least a few times each summer. wife has family in annapolis so that is the most comfortable place to go. Nice cabin to stay in, excellent rockfishing in sea ranch. Nothing compares to the lost coast though.

 

I had cottonwood glass on a job a few years back. Timberline(??) HVAC also.

 

I did not a have a good experience with Ron. Never used timberline but i see them around alot. pretty big company. I use Dennis Hvac, punctual, fast, very competetive

 

Cerrowire Resources - Ampacity Charts

Ampacity is the maximum current that a conductor can carry continuously under the conditions of use without exceeding its temperature rating. Cerrowire's ampacity chart helps calculate the load requirement for a circuit.

www.cerrowire.com

I have a 500' roll of 10g thhn that I will be using for my generator back feed. Its a 150' run from the receptacle to the service panel. At first I was worried the wire would not be sufficient to carry a 30 amp 220v load that distance, but according to this chart the 10 gauge wire is rated to 40 amps. Though my concern is the distance, so voltage drop would be the issue, not amperage. Would it be wise to upsize the wire for this distance, or is it not long enough to be a concern?

 

Without doing a calculation I’d say you’re o.k. It takes three 100’ extension cords, 12 gauge before you feel the voltage drop with a skill saw. 150’ with 10 gauge I think you’ll be fine.

 

For anyone who is interested in the facts about this, the Code section is 240.4(D).

While the 15-20-30 rule for 14-12-10 gauge wires is correct in general, there are many situations, even in residential, where that is not the case.

Some examples are aluminum wire, taps, motor-control circuits, A/C units, refrigeration, fire pumps, etc.

The NEC is one of the more complex Codes in use, and while rules of thumb can be handy, you must remember that they don’t apply in a great deal of situations.

 

buck a foot

 

My closest HD has it back down to $140. 👍

And they actually have it in stock.

 

local big electrical companies keep them cleaned out. they buy it by the pallet. went there cuz it was close to the job, all they had was 100' rolls for 100 dollars, thought id get a better price at the supply house, at least they had what I needed