On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 07:36:09 GMT, "George E. Cawthon"
wrote:

Greg wrote:
I'm sure that if I came in and just threw a switch and had everything all
come on at the same time, the CB would just laugh at me and say "uh, NO!",


What happens when the power company "throws the switch"?

The real question is if you are running a NEW circuit, would you run 15 or 20.
Since the cost difference is negligible why wouldn't you run the 20?
The 15a breaker in your outlet/surge strip will give you that 15a protection
people wanted but you can still have some excess capacity at the wall for other
equipment.


I have no idea what the difference in cost would be if an electrician
did the work, but the cost difference between 14 and 12 gauge wire is
really minimal. I would never wire anything with less than 12 gauge
wire even if using a 15 A breaker. In fact, I would use 10 gauge for
any long runs or if I anticipated a large amperage motor being used;
the only problem is that 10 gauge tends to be a bitch to work with.
Newer vacuums draw at least 12 amps and can lower the voltage
sufficiently to dim lights. Compounding the voltage drop problem is
they have really long cords of fairly low gauge and that can't be good
for the motor. As a factual point, our Hoover is rated at 12 A but
the appliance cord is stamped 17/2. Hoover must know something
different, because the appliance cord should be a minimum of 14 gauge
for a 3 percent voltage drop at the motor.

IMHO:

Some very good points about preventing voltage drop, but having the
attitude of always going with a higher gauge wire is very costly and
not necessary. 14 awg wire is 'rated' for 20 amps(even higher
depending on what temp you calc for, I know I must use the 60C per
NEC), but being a small guage wire it falles under NEC 240.4(d) saying
I can only use 14 awg for a 15A circuit( 25% cut).

So, the breaker is the most limiting device in the circuit and now it
makes no sense to just spend money on the cable by going to a higher
size. Infact it's already built into the code, instead of using 14awg
for a 20a branch, you are forced to use 12awg, so why further restrict
your self to using 12 awg for a 15a if nothing else tells you to do
so?

What I woudl do if I had to money to burn, run an isolated ground, and
install tvss's to protect the computer equipment.

later,

tom @ URLBee.com