Question about power...

[MikeP]

Thanks for the replies! Sitting here at work and adding up everything in my head (with the help of the internet for some items) I'm running at about 1300 watts if everything is on at once. The heater is off & on throughout the day. The lights and all pumps are on for about 11hrs. When the lights are off two of the three powerheads turn off as well. I will find the breaker that the tank runs on and find out if anything else is on the same breaker. If I have no options for gettting power from another receptical will it help to put a larger breaker in? Is the breaker the limiting factor? And just to be clear, when we say one receptical does that mean the two plugs in the wall ie when I add up my total wattage is is 1440 between the two or each? Also I own the home so I can do whatever is needed.

[Scythanith]

You can't just add a larger breaker and walk away unless the wiring in-wall is the proper gauge. You probably have 14g wire in your regular house wiring, which should only carry max ~1800 watts of electricity, and 1440 watts safely. It's mostly due to if you try and shove too many electrons down the wiring, it will overheat and cause potential fire issues. That's why you have a breaker in place, to prevent you from taking too much electricity down a certain gauge wire, by throwing in a 20A breaker, you're only endangering yourself.

A 'receptacle' constitues one plug-in, that you can plug one cord into. A typical wall box has two receptacles.

If you were worried about overloading the circuit, then just run a new dedicated 20A 12gauge line to the tank. If you plan on upgrading in the future run 2 x 20A breakers. You can split those into as many receptacles as you choose.

Cheers,

Scott

[mark]

Nice thing about 2 separate circuits with specially with GFIs, is you're able to split the load so if one GFI was to trip, whole system doesn't crash. If the total load is okay on a single 15a cct, still can run separate GFI receptacles.

Another thing to consider is on a single 15A cct, you can have something like 12 devices (lights, plugs, etc). Depending on how things were wired, you might have your fridge on the same cct as your tank, them you plug in the vacuum down the hall, also possibly on the same cct. Sort of just plugging in a extension cord might not be any further ahead.

[fkshiu]

Running new dedicated 20A GFI-protected circuits is the best solution. Talk to an electrician about how much this would cost.

I have 3 dedicated circuits for my system: lights, pumps (on a battery backup), and everything else.

[scuglass]

Im sure your fine with what you have. Im running my lights power heads pumps heaters fans ect as well as 2 computers tv large stereo more and more lights.

I also moved the treadmill over one day and the breaker only tripped when I was maxing out the treadmill with the stero pounding.

As others have said its prolly a good idea to get some sort of gfci protection in there.
*installing a gfci recepticle will protect everything else down the line from it.
*good idea to have it on 2 different circuits so if one trips youll still have some motion and or heat getting to the tank.

[spreerider]

with your demand of 1440W you will be fine but are slightly pushing it and in even a small fault like a pump getting jammed it will draw larger than its highest current and could cause nusance trips,
a single duplex recepticle is both plugins they are usually on one circuit but in kitchens each plug on the duplex recepticle should be on a different circuit so you can plug the toaster 1400W and the kettle 1500W at the same time and not trip the breaker,
If you are worried contact a local electrician and have them quote a new run from the panel to your tank and install a GFCI for both circuits it could save your life in the event of a fault.

[mike31154]

Some good advice here, but be careful, not all is necessarily according to code. Might be a good idea to go to your local renovation center and invest in a book called the "Electrical Code Simplified" for your province. I have the BC edition and it cost all of $11.95 but I consider that money wisely spent since I'm doing a fair amount of rewiring in my older home. I used to maintain electrical systems on aircraft, so I'm comfortable working on my house wiring.

"you might have your fridge on the same cct as your tank"... not legal according to code in BC. A fridge has to be on it's own circuit and the only other load that may be plugged into that receptacle is a "clock" of all things... I'm sure the Alberta code requirement is similar.

"just run a new dedicated 20A 12gauge line to the tank."... 20A circuits require special receptacles (T-Slot) and you're still working with only one circuit. If the breaker goes, everything is down. While a normal plug will fit into a T-Slot receptacle, you may be better off running a single 3 wire cable which will allow you to run two separate 15 amp circuits for a total load of 30 amps, vice 20. This will provide redundancy and you'll be able to use 14 guage wire instead of 12.

While you're still safe with the total of 1300 watts on that circuit, I'll wager that some of the wiring on it will be pretty warm at times. Better safe than sorry. As heat increases in wiring, resistance increases, causing more heat, more resistance.... hopefully the circuit breaker will do its job, but no need to push your luck when it comes to electrons. If you're thinking of adding another tank with it's equipment to that room, I don't think you have any choice but to run another circuit or two.

[mark]

Originally Posted by mike31154

"you might have your fridge on the same cct as your tank"... not legal according to code in BC. A fridge has to be on it's own circuit and the only other load that may be plugged into that receptacle is a "clock" of all things... I'm sure the Alberta code requirement is similar.

okay maybe a bad example assuming wired to code, but point I was trying to get across is bet there's more on that breaker than just the receptacle the fish tank is plugged into.

If you don't know what else is on the cct you can't just say I've got a 200W pump, couple of 400W lights and 300w heater, I'm good to go.

[mike31154]

Originally Posted by mark

okay maybe a bad example assuming wired to code, but point I was trying to get across is bet there's more on that breaker than just the receptacle the fish tank is plugged into.

If you don't know what else is on the cct you can't just say I've got a 200W pump, couple of 400W lights and 300w heater, I'm good to go.

Yes, sorry and very good point. I kind of grabbed that quote out of context trying to encourage the poster to ensure that whatever he decides, that it's done correctly, which looks to be the case since he started the thread.

[MikeP]

Wow, lots of good info here guys. Yes everything is fine at the moment and I'm not having any problems but I got thinking about all that power needed from those two plugs and figured I'd educate myself. I looked at the circuit breaker panel last night and everything is labeled (by the home builder) but it's pretty vague. I will have to flip some breakers to figure out what's what. I'll start looking into a dedicated circuit and GFCI. Any electrician reefers in Calgary want to help out