# of items on a breaker - Residential

Status
Not open for further replies.
O

olly

Senior Member
Location
Berthoud, Colorado
Occupation
Master Electrician
I was taught when wiring general use receptacles and lights to only put 10-12 on a 15A circuit. With houses now having all LED lights how do y'all calculate how many items go one a breaker. I'm guessing you would not want to load the breaker more than 70% and that calculation would be easy to do for lighting but I dont know what wattage value to give a general use outlet like in a bedroom or a living room.

Any advice is appreciated
 
olly said:
I was taught when wiring general use receptacles and lights to only put 10-12 on a 15A circuit. With houses now having all LED lights how do y'all calculate how many items go one a breaker. I'm guessing you would not want to load the breaker more than 70% and that calculation would be easy to do for lighting but I dont know what wattage value to give a general use outlet like in a bedroom or a living room.

Any advice is appreciated
Click to expand...
10 comes from a load calculating article that says to count each receptacle as 180va, or 1.5 amps. Some guys I've known would stretch to 12

In essence, 1,500 - 1,800 watts on a circuit

With LED lighting, you can just add up the wattage to 80% of the breaker - 1440 watts

Only problem comes when using standard recessed lighting, which are rated for 65-100 watts. What's to keep somebody from screwing in 6,000 watts worth of incandescent?

I typically don't worry about lighting too much. I put up to about 8 receptacles on a circuit, and I'll add whatever lighting feels comfortable
 
olly said:
I was taught when wiring general use receptacles and lights to only put 10-12 on a 15A circuit. With houses now having all LED lights how do y'all calculate how many items go one a breaker. I'm guessing you would not want to load the breaker more than 70% and that calculation would be easy to do for lighting but I dont know what wattage value to give a general use outlet like in a bedroom or a living room.

Any advice is appreciated
Click to expand...
A 100 watt equivalent LED light consumes 13 watts, more or less. You could put 100 of them on a single circuit without breaking a sweat. So if you had nothing but overhead lighting and all LED, you could rope the whole house on a single lighting circuit. Not, in my opinion, a good idea, but you could. Otherwise, I wouldn't worry about how much someone might load up a bedroom or living room outlet. If they overload it, that's what the circuit breaker is for. Again, my own opinion is that each room should be served by 2 general circuits, that way you only lose half the room if a circuit breaker pops, or you can still have a work light from one circuit if you are modifying the other.
 
I figure an average 1500 to 3000 sq ft home has at least ten lighting circuits, most have more. I challenge anyone to find a general purpose lighting circuit in a house that has more than two amps on it.

Point being I could put 75 recpts on a 15A circuit and never have the breaker trip.
 
I would use my common sense and use 3 watts/sq.ft.... With lighting you are supposed to use the max wattage of the can but with LED that is ridiculous.
 
ActionDave said:
I figure an average 1500 to 3000 sq ft home has at least ten lighting circuits, most have more. I challenge anyone to find a general purpose lighting circuit in a house that has more than two amps on it.

Point being I could put 75 recpts on a 15A circuit and never have the breaker trip.
Click to expand...


LED at 10 watts or so means you could put over 150 lights on a 15 amp circuit
 
Dennis Alwon said:
I would use my common sense and use 3 watts/sq.ft.... With lighting you are supposed to use the max wattage of the can but with LED that is ridiculous.
Click to expand...
What about general use outlets? What value do you use per outlet. I think the, tell me what you're using each outlet for is lame in a residential application when you are talking general use.
 
olly said:
What about general use outlets? What value do you use per outlet. I think the, tell me what you're using each outlet for is lame in a residential application when you are talking general use.
Click to expand...
There is no value required per general use outlet in residential. A 4000 sq ft house would calculate out to 7 15 amp circuits. Does my house have more, absolutely. Did it need more than 7, nope.
 
And in a non-dwelling unit the limit of 12 receptacles for a 20 amp circuit is widely believed, but that's not what the NEC says (according to Mod Charlie B, and he is to be believed)
 
FWIW.

Residential, I run all my lighting in #14. I usually end up with 4 -5 circuits for a 2500 sq ft house.

All receptacles, general use and required are run in #12.

I don't like making up #12 in switch boxes, no reason to.

10/12 receps per 20 A circuit.

Have never had a call back for overloaded circuitry.
 
olly said:
What about general use outlets? What value do you use per outlet. I think the, tell me what you're using each outlet for is lame in a residential application when you are talking general use.
Click to expand...
I get what you're saying, but there is a place for having some use-specific circuiting.

If the house I'm wiring has a big entry, with a curved staircase and such, and I think it might have a big light fixture, I may run a dedicated circuit to that switch box. Even in the world of LED, some people like those throwback Edison bulbs. I put one in about a year ago, it had 16 light bulbs and they were 60 watts each. It amounted to a 1000 watt space heater hanging from the ceiling.
 
olly said:
What about general use outlets? What value do you use per outlet. I think the, tell me what you're using each outlet for is lame in a residential application when you are talking general use.
Click to expand...
Think about where you live, your parents live, your friends live. Think about how many things are plugged in to the recpts in the bedrooms and living rooms. What have you got, a clock radio, a cell phone charger, a lamp, a television, a computer......

Again I defy you to find more than one lighting circuit (read a general use circuit) that draws more than two amps. In the winter time you will likely find a space heater plugged in somewhere and in the summer time you will likely find a portable air conditioner plugged in somewhere but that's one out of ten.
 
I could put 100 receptacles on a single circuit in one room of my house and the load would be the same as if I only had code minimum. IOW's, the loads that are there now would not change but my life would be made easier when my wife wanted to change furniture lay out.

Roger
 
olly said:
What about general use outlets? What value do you use per outlet. I think the, tell me what you're using each outlet for is lame in a residential application when you are talking general use.
Click to expand...
Here's another way to think about it...
Back in the last decade of the twentieth century there was a huge boom in custom housing where I lived. SOP was to set up a temp power pole with two twenty amp 120V circuits and one 240V circuit for the occasional nut that had a compressor that needed it.

Those two circuits were enough for every trade involved to build the entire house. Air compressors, table saws, skill saws, sanders, chop saws, incandescent lights action camera.... you get the picture. I can't imagine a time when the folks that moved into that house used more watts per sq foot in the living room and bedrooms than the guys that built it did on most days of the week.
 
James L said:
If the house I'm wiring has a big entry, with a curved staircase and such, and I think it might have a big light fixture, I may run a dedicated circuit to that switch box.
Click to expand...

Big entry with a curved staircase means it's a custom home.

Does the GC or homeowner wish to pay for a dedicated circuit for this "Big Light Fixture" (sometimes referred to as a chandelier )?

When you go into a restaurant do they try to figure out how hungry you are or do they bring what you order and are willing to pay for?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top