Safety Questions

eppcheck

New Member
If you have a two plug outlet how many electrical plug ins would be safe to use? I currently only need to plug in fluorecent UVB bulbs and 50 watt halogent bulbs.

Questions is, how many heat lamps and fluorescent light fixtures could I use for one outlet and it not be an electrical hazard?

I google searched, but the answers are vague. It depends on what is plugged in and none of them address light fixtures or provide an exact wattage amount. Maybe it is varies between houses.
 
The technical answer is:

In a typical US house, code regulations require the use of 15A and 20A circuit breakers. This means that all the plugs linked to one given certain breaker have a combined maximum draw of 15A before the breaker blows.

You can experiment with outlets by purposefully disabling the breaker and seeing which outlets stop working; therefore you know those outlets are linked.

Wattage is not given because it is an incorrect unit of measurement here. The unit we want is measured in amperes or microamperes (1000mA= 1A) Watts=Volts x Amps....but since the voltage of different products varies, using wattage would give inconsistent values (for example, a computer fan uses a 12V adapter, whereas your heat bulb plugs straight into the 120V wall outlet)


The simple answer:

1) Add up the AMPERAGE of all the things you are plugging into that given outlet.

2) Add up the AMPERAGE of all the things that are plugged into any outlet that shares a ROOM or WALL with the outlet you are overloading.

3) Add up all this Amperage. If it is 10A or less, you are safe. If it is between 10-15A, you may want to do further testing to find exactly which outlet is connected together. Over 15A and you will blow the breaker.
 
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