How many watts can a normal household circuit handle?

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Originally Posted by DJ88

Sorry but no it isn't. In a DC system that holds true. But due to the reactive nature of things like ballasts and pumps(as well as capacitances) in an AC circuit you can't use that formulae for AC circuit theory.

Yeah, you're right. From memory I thought that the VA was within about 10% of power in most cases, depending on the actual circuit design. I steered well clear of this stuff in university so from now on I'll stick with the 1400-1500W rule- once I'm ready to upgrade the lighting...