15 and 20amp Circuit Breaker

16 years ago

I'm in the middle of cleaning up the wiring in my house. I have a 20 slot 100amp panel. All the wiring and panel is new.

How many things can you put on a 15amp and 20amp breaker?

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Comments (3)

stinkytiger
16 years ago
Hi,

I guess it depends on the things. You could have many lights, or you could have one big heater. I think you can load up each circuit untill you hit the current limit.

Obviously you can draw more current on a 20 amp circuit than on a 15 amp circuit.

Best, Mike.
hexus
16 years ago
On a 15 amp circuit running just normal outlets and lights, say for bedrooms, I don't put more than 10 things on it. For a 20 I try to stay at about 12-13. It just depends what's all going to be on the circuit.
Keep in mind though that by code you can not load the circuit up more than 80% of the rated amperage. Meaning for a 15 amp circuit you can't go over 12 amps, and for 20 you can't go over 16.
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Sorry "bus driver" don't know what the hell you were talking about but David was saying to take a temporary lighting socket that comes with wires and to take the White wire on his light to the ground/neutral bar and then take the Black lead to phase A of his breaker and the light bulb will light( if there is power). Then take the black lead to phase B(the other terminal on the breaker) and if there is power there the light bulb will light. And no the 20A breaker is not to much juice to blow the bulb. Don't know what the hell you were talking about but the other post were telling him to buy a cheap VOLTAGE tester to check if he had 120v to ground per phase then check phase to phase to see if he had 240v. That means the breaker is good and its hooked up to 2 differnt phases. Now if he bought a tester with a setting for continuity and set it to that and touched it to 120v-240v either it would blow an internal fuse in the tester itself or blow up the tester. ***Highly agree with "petey", If you don't even have a decent VOLTAGE tester you shouldn't be in a panel.***
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kingsmurf
16 years ago
...SAFETY SAFETY SAEFTY

10 THINGS...12 THINGS..irrelevant

home in on the no continous loads over 80% . .and of
seldom do we turn on everything at one time . .but
modern era homes DO run a much higher loads

everything you can buy has an rating on it that will tell you either amps or wattage . . .Google for a Ohms chart for the conversions

if you're experience level is low . .arm your self with one of the Color..residential wiring books at the Big Box Store they are a wealth of knowledge

good luck . .let us know what you work out ?

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15 and 20amp Circuit Breaker

Comments (3)

stinkytiger

hexus

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kingsmurf

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