How many watts can a normal household circuit handle?

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by rcipema

Thus in reality the ENTIRE circuit should have no more than 1440 watts on it. You can use that as a rough guideline, as it allows some leeway. If you really overload a circuit, the breaker will trip, but then again some breakers trip high, and some low. We are concerned about constant load. Unless you go really wild, you are usually fine.

So my recomendation of no more than 1500 watts was good then

I just went throught this and had to add a second breaker to handel my tank, as the first breaker was also for my front room, which ran a second tank, a big screen tv, 2 computers, a dvd, vcr, digital cable box, 3 lights.. ect.. I was tripping once a day when my heater came on..... so remember to look at what else is run by that breaker as well and count there power also.

Steve