I would like to use a 120 V 2K watt water heater element for anout an hour
from time to time as a boiler in my garage which also has a refrigerator in
it.The breakers in the house are 20 AMP.Will this circuit support this or
should I put the frig on another circuit?

--
Thanks,
Hank

The proper thing to do is run a dedicated circuit for the water heater. To
do it properly you need 10 awg cable
"hankB" wrote in message
news4dde.1862$cf5.387@lakeread07...
I would like to use a 120 V 2K watt water heater element for anout an hour
from time to time as a boiler in my garage which also has a refrigerator
in
it.The breakers in the house are 20 AMP.Will this circuit support this or
should I put the frig on another circuit?

--
Thanks,
Hank

hankB wrote:
I would like to use a 120 V 2K watt water heater element for anout an
hour from time to time as a boiler in my garage which also has a
refrigerator in it.The breakers in the house are 20 AMP.Will this
circuit support this or should I put the frig on another circuit?

I believe you are on the edge if not over with just the water heater. I
would want a new line just of it using 10 gauge wire and the breaker
recommended by the manufacture of the boiler.

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia duit

Without pulling my calculator out, the heater draws about 17a. The max you
are supposed to put on a 20a line when used continuously is 80% or 16a. So
just the heater is an overload. You can probably get away with it (my 23a
water heater was hooked up for 30 years with #12 wire until I happened to
notice and correct it) but I wouldn't recommend it.

My old refrigerator drew 23a to start and 3a to run. If yours is
comparable, it will trip the breaker everytime it and the heater run at the
same time. Even my new fridge draws 13a to start and 2a to run, so that
will probably trip it also.

I would be inclined to run a new 30a line for the heater and use the
existing line for the fridge.

Can the heater be run on 240? Then it would only draw 9a and would only
need a 15a (or 20a) circuit which would probably be more useful in the
futuere. 240v is a good idea for anything that heats electrically.

"hankB" wrote in message
news4dde.1862$cf5.387@lakeread07...
I would like to use a 120 V 2K watt water heater element for anout an hour
from time to time as a boiler in my garage which also has a refrigerator
in
it.The breakers in the house are 20 AMP.Will this circuit support this or
should I put the frig on another circuit?


Not adequate. Service should be no more than 80% or 16 A and the heater
will use 16.6, then you want to have a fridge on the same line?

I would be inclined to run a new 30a line for the heater and use the
existing line for the fridge.

I concur.

Without pulling my calculator out, the heater draws about 17a. The max you
are supposed to put on a 20a line when used continuously is 80% or 16a. So
just the heater is an overload. You can probably get away with it (my 23a
water heater was hooked up for 30 years with #12 wire until I happened to
notice and correct it) but I wouldn't recommend it.


120V, 20A = 2400 watts, x 80% = 1920Watts.
That's do-able, but not right. But
adding the fridge puts you over the top, so
you have to run a new line anyway.

Since this is a garage/workshop, it's not
possible to have too much power available,
so I'd spring for an extra $200 bucks,
and put in an 8-AWG 2-strand 240V cable
and a sub-panel, and a 50A 2-pole breaker.

Once you've gotten to needing to pull
wire, why screw around?

toller wrote:
Without pulling my calculator out, the heater draws about 17a. The
max you
are supposed to put on a 20a line when used continuously is 80% or
16a. So
just the heater is an overload. You can probably get away with it
(my 23a
water heater was hooked up for 30 years with #12 wire until I
happened to
notice and correct it) but I wouldn't recommend it.

My old refrigerator drew 23a to start and 3a to run. If yours is
comparable, it will trip the breaker everytime it and the heater run
at the
same time. Even my new fridge draws 13a to start and 2a to run, so
that
will probably trip it also.

I would be inclined to run a new 30a line for the heater and use the
existing line for the fridge.

Can the heater be run on 240? Then it would only draw 9a and would
only
need a 15a (or 20a) circuit which would probably be more useful in
the
futuere. 240v is a good idea for anything that heats electrically.

If the heater is a simple resistive element with the voltage connected
at the ends, plugging it into 240 will draw 33A and put out 8 kW. To
keep it at 2 kW at 240 V it would need to be rewired to use only 1/4 of
the element's length.

Chip C

Chip C wrote:
....

If the heater is a simple resistive element with the voltage connected
at the ends, plugging it into 240 will draw 33A and put out 8 kW. To
keep it at 2 kW at 240 V it would need to be rewired to use only 1/4
of the element's length.

Chip C

Don't you mean you want to INCREASE the length of the element, thereby
increasing the total resistance?
--
Joseph Meehan

Dia duit