"Jason" wrote in message
. ..

"Mikepier" wrote in message
oups.com...
If I'm reading your post correctly, you have a 20A breaker on 14 guage
wire. That is a fire hazard. First things first, change the breaker to
15A.
If you have ungrounded wire, you could just put in a 15A GFCI breaker
that will take care of the whole circuit. As far as the fluorescent
lights, I am not sure if it will present a problem. I have my
fluorescent lights on a GFCI breaker and it seems to be OK.
By the way, the washer, dryer and freezer should be on their own
circuits. AT the very least the washer since it uses up the most juice.


Thank you for the response. Yes the circuit breaker feeding the 4 outlets
is 20 amps. Since the wires are in conduit I cannot get to them easily
and I am doing a load of laundry right now. The ungrounded romex coming
from the junction box with the four outlets has no writing on it, but I am
pretty sure it is 14 gauge. This 14 gauge wire only feeds the 1 outlet in
the bathroom and the fluorescent light. The outlet in the bathroom powers
a hair dryer, sometimes a vacuum cleaner. That might be why the 14 gauge
is there and why the bathroom is powered by the washing machine circuit.
Whoever put in the wire figured there was not enough load in the bathroom
to run 12 gauge everywhere. The freezer is dead and we will be getting
rid of it soon and it will not be replaced, so do you still think the
washer and dryer each need there own circuit?

So to recap, if you have a 20 amp circuit breaker, you need 12 gauge wire
running everywhere on that circuit. Is this correct? What about a 15 amp
circuit breaker with 12 gauge wire, is that OK?

Yes, all wire on a 20a breaker has to be 12 or larger. In general there is
no problem having a 15a breaker with #12, it just has to be at least #14.

But you have a number of problems. If you do anything to change the circuit
you will have to bring it up to current code. You are very very far away
from current code. The bathroom has to have a 20a circuit, and it cannot
share with any other room; etc. You cannot legally do what you want.