I am planning on installing central heat and air in my home. I was
doing some research and noticed gas furnaces need a 120v outlet. Can I
just tap this outlet into an existing circuit on a 15 amp breaker? Of
course I know it depends on the furnace, but is there a standard on the
amperage?

Usually it is a required code for a furnace or boiler to be on their
own circuit with some kind of emergency shut off switch closeby like at
the top of basement stairs.
But for the record, a gas furnace with the blower motor usually does
not pull more than 3-4 amps, depending on the size of the unit.

Mikepier wrote:

Usually it is a required code for a furnace or boiler to be on their
own circuit with some kind of emergency shut off switch closeby like at
the top of basement stairs.
But for the record, a gas furnace with the blower motor usually does
not pull more than 3-4 amps, depending on the size of the unit.

I don't think mine is unusual, and it takes about 5 1/4 amps.

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I stand corrected. I was looking at the specs for my Trane XR80
furnace.According to the specs, at full load it uses 10.2 amps. This
includes the combustion motor (FLA rated at 1 amp), the hot surface
ignitor ( 2 amps), and the blower, gas valve, and other circuitry. The
blower is 1/3 HP, but I could not find the current rating on it, and I
do not have an amprobe to measure the current, but I'm guessing just
the blower running it uses about 6 amps.

This is Turtle.

the Amp draw you will have on any given furnace would be very much
different. a small 2 ton 65K BTU heat would take about 5 amps. . Then
you take 5 ton cooling and 125K BTU heat with electronic filter, 3/4
horse Power Blower Motor, and humidifier would take about 12 amps.

1] Gas furnaces should have a single circuit to it for amp ability to
the furnace. i like to have a #12 -2 with groud and a 20 amp breaker
for the larger units and the 12-2 with ground with a 15 amp breaker for
the small units.

2] All gas furnaces should have it's own circuit ! You can rob a
circuit but it is your call. now it might come to this one day. You
plug in your computor and when the gas furnaces comes on it throws the
breaker. Then you can start running another circuit then when it is
knee deep in snow.

TURTLE

TURTLE

"Aaron" wrote in message
oups.com...
I am planning on installing central heat and air in my home. I was
doing some research and noticed gas furnaces need a 120v outlet. Can I
just tap this outlet into an existing circuit on a 15 amp breaker? Of
course I know it depends on the furnace, but is there a standard on the
amperage?


The min breaker rating will be listed on the units tag.