Bath Room Electrical?

[grsthegreat]

That's being generous. When I moved into my 60 year old house I had four circuits with 30 amp screw in breakers each. I now have 35 circuits spread accross a panel and two subpanels. It worked fine before, but now the lights don't dim when I start the blender.

hehe....ya well, guess blenders wernt around 60 years ago :laughing: :laughing: :licking:

 

[dstig1]

Mike described it nicely. I knew there were some new wrinkles about what else could be on that 20A bath circuit, but it looks like he described it well. Like so many things with the code it is just minimum. For the expense, especially if you are doing the work yourself, it only makes sense to put the outlets in one bath on a dedicated 20A circuit. Hair dryers and curling irons will never trip a breaker again... Put the lights on a separate circuit, such as the lighting circuit from an adjacent BR or hallway. Lights and fans draw so little that you can stack a lot of them on one 15A circuit. Then if by some act of randomness you do trip the outlets, the lights stay on. Outlets are usually where the overload trips occur, not fixed lighting. ...Though we did have a pendant fixture in our house rub through the insulation and short to ground, tripping the breaker a few years back. It was a real cheap fixture (and no, I hadn't done the original wiring on it...

...That's my philosophy on circuit layout, FWIW...

 

[JB4310]

That's being generous. When I moved into my 60 year old house I had four circuits with 30 amp screw in breakers each. I now have 35 circuits spread accross a panel and two subpanels. It worked fine before, but now the lights don't dim when I start the blender.

I don't know if I'd call that "working fine before"

You had 30amp fuses on what was most likely 15amp wired circuits, because they must of been blowing the 15amp fuses constantly from being overloaded

I know what you mean though, I upgraded to 200A service, I only have 3 slots left free out of 40. The kitchen alone has 8 circuits.

JB

 

[RadarTech]

I don't know if I'd call that "working fine before"

You had 30amp fuses on what was most likely 15amp wired circuits, because they must of been blowing the 15amp fuses constantly from being overloaded

I know what you mean though, I upgraded to 200A service, I only have 3 slots left free out of 40. The kitchen alone has 8 circuits.

JB

um... When we built the house, the electrician told us to put in TWO 200 amp panels!!!

So we have 320 amp service.. that is what the Duke engineer told us.
But it is set with two 200 amp breakers.. Basically they said that the service would not give me a full 400 amps as there is not a residental meter base that can handle that much... or at least that is how I remember it....


EVERYTHING is electric..
one panel is full and the other has about 15 circuits..

BUT-- I should state that the house is wired so that from the power input, it branches to a generator panel for 1 leg (200 amp) then to the house breaker panel. then the other leg from the power company goes straight to a house panel.

 

[grsthegreat]

um... When we built the house, the electrician told us to put in TWO 200 amp panels!!!

So we have 320 amp service.. that is what the Duke engineer told us.
But it is set with two 200 amp breakers.. Basically they said that the service would not give me a full 400 amps as there is not a residental meter base that can handle that much... or at least that is how I remember it....


EVERYTHING is electric..
one panel is full and the other has about 15 circuits..

BUT-- I should state that the house is wired so that from the power input, it branches to a generator panel for 1 leg (200 amp) then to the house breaker panel. then the other leg from the power company goes straight to a house panel.

technically, all residential 400 amp panels are actually 320 amps (according to the labels), but they can handle two (2) 200 amp breakers.
odd, aint iot

 

[LarryD]

technically, all residential 400 amp panels are actually 320 amps (according to the labels), but they can handle two (2) 200 amp breakers.
odd, aint iot

I'd bet there aren't to many family's that could pull enough current to ruin a 320A service, unless it was a grow operation.

 

[RadarTech]

I'd bet there aren't to many family's that could pull enough current to ruin a 320A service, unless it was a grow operation.

Yea... About 40% of ours is just code requirements..
We had to put outlets in places I never imagined.
And most of those had to be dedicated circuits!

There are 6 circuits in the attic alone!
3 are for lights since it is not one big area.
And 2 are outlets th then a doorbell circuit.

 

[mjncad]

I'd bet there aren't to many family's that could pull enough current to ruin a 320A service, unless it was a grow operation.

Give it time with all the added electrical gizmos of modern life and a 320 panel may seem small in the future.

 

[JB4310]

I'm in alot of homes and have maybe seen 1 or 2 services larger than 200 Amp, see more 60's. Most people are upgrading from 100 to 200.

If you had an electric heated mcmansion, with hot tubes, pool heaters etc. I could definitely see the need for more than 200 though.

JB.

 

[grsthegreat]

I'm in alot of homes and have maybe seen 1 or 2 services larger than 200 Amp, see more 60's. Most people are upgrading from 100 to 200.

If you had an electric heated mcmansion, with hot tubes, pool heaters etc. I could definitely see the need for more than 200 though.

JB.

its the McMansions that i wire mostly...them rich *&&^%......i wish i was one :laughing:

I put in mainly 400 amp systems, with the occasional 600 and 800 to keep things interesting. You know, everyone needs a 200 amp panel to power their waterfeatures.