Can I run (7) 75W ceiling lights and (8) 20 amp plugs off of a 30 amp double pole breaker in a basement? Thank
Question:
Answers:
The answer is ABSOLUTELY NOT. You need to run a separate single pole circuit to serve these items. I suggest you call and electrician before you burn your house down.
120v or 220?
7 Times 75 = 525 W divide that by 240 gives you 2.5 Amps. You have 27.5 amps to play with.
You can run the plugs but what are you plugging in??? Add up the watts on each item and divide by your voltage
The answer to your question is NO. Get an electrician to do the job for you or you are going to overload the circuit and cause a fire.
Why would you use a double pole breaker? (unless you are running 230V circuits). For 120V this is not good.
Need to look at your wire sizes as well. The wire must be rated for the 30 amps or the circuit breaker will not protect you from burning your wires up.
Wattage = Amps X Voltage. the max you would want to run is 75% on a breaker. Assuming you are running 230V on purpose, your lights themselves will run 4.38Amps. (75W X 7 bulbs) / 230Volts = 4.38Amps.
No. You can't have 30a lighting circuit in a dwelling.
The double pole 30 amp breaker is doubtless a 240-volt circuit, when you put them together.
One side or the other of the breaker, together with a neutral wire (white) is necessary to have a 120-volt circuit, but when they are tied together, as with a double pole breaker, they will trip together. This is not a practical or recommended way to set up lights and receptacle circuits, not to mention the relevant codes preventing the practice.
Replacing the double pole breaker with two single pole breakers will solve your problem.
Size the two new breakers so that they protect the wire connected to them. A breaker larger than the wire it feeds does not protect the wire, which is the breakers main job. A #12 AWG wire, rated at 20 amps, will burn up before tripping the 30-amp breaker.
With your seven ceiling lights and eight receptacles, you need two single pole 20 amp breakers to replace the 30-amp double pole breaker.
When determining the wire size, you are allowed to use 1.5 amps per receptacle for the receptacle circuit, and the actual wattage of a light fixture for the lighting circuit.
No circuit wire should have to carry more than 80% of the maximum continuous load. Therefore, the seven ceiling lights would operate easily on a 20-amp breaker and 12 AWG wire feeding all of them.
The eight receptacles, unless you already know what you intend to plug into them, calculated at 1.5 amps each, will also easily work on the other 20 amp breaker fed by #12 AWG.
Utilizing separate breakers for lights and receptacles will ensure you have power to one or the other, in the event one trips.
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