calling all electricans

[Lampshade]

All good points, biggest thing is that small wire size = heat buildup. Some poeple put in 20A breakers on 15A circuits without problems, mainly because they have a hair dryer kicking the circuit out or something. It's still bad.. but not a huge fire hazard. The deal with the fish tank is that you'll be puling a big draw for hours at a time, allowing the wires to heat up, creating more voltage drop, causeing more heat... until it gets bad. I'm pulling a second circuit for my tank this weekend for the same reason, i'm not tripping the breaker, but i'm running VERY close(i've tripped it with a 250W heater added). I just want extra room for security.

As for GFCI breakers, the wall plugs are defintily cheaper, but check out craigslist for GFCI breakers. Sadly they're probably stolen from worksites, but they're often on there.

[mike31154]

Originally Posted by Lampshade

All good points, biggest thing is that small wire size = heat buildup. Some poeple put in 20A breakers on 15A circuits without problems, mainly because they have a hair dryer kicking the circuit out or something. It's still bad.. but not a huge fire hazard. The deal with the fish tank is that you'll be puling a big draw for hours at a time, allowing the wires to heat up, creating more voltage drop, causeing more heat... until it gets bad. I'm pulling a second circuit for my tank this weekend for the same reason, i'm not tripping the breaker, but i'm running VERY close(i've tripped it with a 250W heater added). I just want extra room for security.

As for GFCI breakers, the wall plugs are defintily cheaper, but check out craigslist for GFCI breakers. Sadly they're probably stolen from worksites, but they're often on there.

Yes, smaller wire will build up excess heat when too much current is applied and that's exactly why it's against code to install a 20 amp breaker on a circuit wired with 14 guage wire! As long as you stick to the code requirements, 14 guage wire is just fine. Maybe it's not a huge fire hazard in some folks' eyes to switch to a 20 amp breaker for their hair dryer without upping to 12 guage wire, but I wouldn't advise doing this and aside from the safety hazard, your home insurance is now null and void with respect to potential electrical fires.