a1foxes Posted September 28, 2006 Report Share Posted September 28, 2006 I need someone who knows something about home electical- breakers specifically. My fishroom is drawing some heavy power and I need some adjustments - the cheaper the better. PM me if you, or anyone you know is interested. carol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wibber Posted September 28, 2006 Report Share Posted September 28, 2006 I'd love to help out that many Plecos, but unfortunately, wrong area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trooper Posted October 1, 2006 Report Share Posted October 1, 2006 Spill the beans.... What is happening with your room? How many circuits in the room? Are the lights on the same breaker? Is it constantly tripping? What are ya running? Details... all about the details! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a1foxes Posted October 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2006 Spill the beans.... What is happening with your room? How many circuits in the room? Are the lights on the same breaker? Is it constantly tripping? What are ya running?Details... all about the details! Theres 5 outlets, maybe a 6th somewhere. 2 busiest are on one breaker, along with the room lights and not sure what else. 2 more that I also use, are on separate breakers from the first, and separate from each other , but each tied into some lighting in different parts of the house it seems. The other1-2 plug ins I'm not sure what they are tied to... So, it seems 4 outlets to 3 different breakers. The heaviest loaded one only blew when everything, including a plug in room heater, was turned on. I got rid of it, hasnt tripped since. i'm making a point of using other plugs when possible. I have about 30 tanks going, each with heaters, about 20 powerfilters, a few powerheads, a few small air pumps and one large airpump running undergravels on about a dozen tanks. Sorry, cant give much more right now, my little boy is in hospital and i need to get back Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon71 Posted October 1, 2006 Report Share Posted October 1, 2006 Ok, I am not sure of your set-up. It sounds like you have a "fish room". If that is the case, then maybe you could put in a sub box just for your fish stuff. I would need to know the available power in the house. Does the house have 50, 100, or 200 amp service? Is there any available space left in the main breaker panel? How far from the breaker panel is your fish room? I'm not an electrician, but I have done lots of projects that involve wiring. Hope this helps. Leon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trooper Posted October 2, 2006 Report Share Posted October 2, 2006 You more than likely have a 100 amp service. A sub panel would be the best solution providing the room was on one or two breakers. But it sounds as though they really out did themselves when they wired up that particular room. Is this room in the basement? or a common area in the upstairs part of your residence? It just got a lot more complicated to fix your problem. Talking about cutting holes in walls and running more wire to at least bring that room in to some sort of series of circuits. Not gonna be cheap to do it properly. Heaters are bad for tripping breakers period. Any GFCI protected circuit will trip with most heaters. ( A heater is basically a short, 2 hots.. and this is what creates the element to produce heat. ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronrca Posted October 2, 2006 Report Share Posted October 2, 2006 Spill the beans.... What is happening with your room? How many circuits in the room? Are the lights on the same breaker? Is it constantly tripping? What are ya running? Details... all about the details! Theres 5 outlets, maybe a 6th somewhere. 2 busiest are on one breaker, along with the room lights and not sure what else. 2 more that I also use, are on separate breakers from the first, and separate from each other , but each tied into some lighting in different parts of the house it seems. The other1-2 plug ins I'm not sure what they are tied to... So, it seems 4 outlets to 3 different breakers. The heaviest loaded one only blew when everything, including a plug in room heater, was turned on. I got rid of it, hasnt tripped since. i'm making a point of using other plugs when possible. I have about 30 tanks going, each with heaters, about 20 powerfilters, a few powerheads, a few small air pumps and one large airpump running undergravels on about a dozen tanks. Sorry, cant give much more right now, my little boy is in hospital and i need to get back First, take care of your little one. I do hope that he will be alright. Second, wow! Your overloaded or very near overloaded. By code, 12Amps is max on a 15A breaker. After that its tripping. Best thing to do is turn a breaker off and count everything thats on it making sure to include other rooms in the house. Find out the wattage or amp rating for each equipment. This way you can determine how to balance your circuits if possible. Btw, how old is your main panel and the breakers? Third, evaluate the possiblity of pulling a wire from your main panel to a location near your fishroom for a subpanel. Thats going to be the hard part perhaps. Installing it is the easy part imo. A subpanel will save you a lot of headaches. If you dont want to perhaps spend that much money, you can always pull a 2cct 3wire into the fishroom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon71 Posted October 2, 2006 Report Share Posted October 2, 2006 Carol, Is this room in your basement? Are all the walls and ceilings finished? If not, the rest is cake. Add a subpanel to the fishroom. Put plugs were ever you like. This way you will keep each circuit from being overloaded. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GBP Posted February 15, 2007 Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 Hello A1foxes. Before you get too carried away changing things you need to determine the load of your fish room. Most household wiring is 14 gauge wire which carries power through a 15 amp breaker. The breaker is max rated at 15 amps with a normal draw amperage of 13 amps or less, this difference allows for things like motors which have a high draw while starting up but draw much less when running at full speed. Every 120 watts draws 1 amp so add all your heater watts, power filter watts and light watts along with anything else you have that uses power and divide your total wattage by 120 and this will give you your amperage draw. Try to keep this total amperage draw under 13 amps and you shouldn't have breakers popping. 2 things to keep in mind is that if your load is close to 15 amps, flourescent lights draw more power to start up then to run once lit up so if you have a lot of fixtures wired together or plugged into one timer it draws a lot of power to start them. Second if you have old breakers that have popped numerous times they can become weak and pop prematurely even if your load is less than 15 amps. Hope this helps. GBP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluewater Posted February 16, 2007 Report Share Posted February 16, 2007 For a proper evaluation of your situation why don't you call a electrical contractor(QUALIFIED electrician) that does free estimates. This way a qualified electrician will give advice on how to properly install new outlets. You will really need some to look at it before proper advice can be given. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dunl Posted February 16, 2007 Report Share Posted February 16, 2007 Guys, the post is five months old. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluewater Posted February 16, 2007 Report Share Posted February 16, 2007 :bang1: -roll- -roll- :drunk: you should still get a qualified electrician and/or inspector for electrical projects Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Posted February 16, 2007 Report Share Posted February 16, 2007 I did not read it the first time and I found the new input very informative - thanks guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snaggle Posted February 16, 2007 Report Share Posted February 16, 2007 Carol, Since this post was revied how did you make out with you fish room. Brad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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