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#1
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Electrical Breaker 'cheat'?
Hi all,
This is a code question more than anything, but I thought it might be worth looking at. I recently had a 240V electrical heating circuit added. #12 wire, 20A breaker. Max load is 3840W, but I want to drive 4500W. Unfortunately, 25A breakers aren't available for my panel (this would fix the problem) and I have no additional circuits left in my panel. One other solution is to use 30A breakers and switch to #10 wire. Problem is that one heater was already in-place (and on a different floor) so I'd have to demolish the house to re-wire it. Is it acceptable to run #10 wire from the panel to the first thermostat (3000W), and keep the existing #12 wire for the remaining 1500W (which is branched from the first thermostat)? Under normal conditions, current will never exceed wire maximums. However, if the 1500W heater had a fault, current through that section could potentially exceed the #12 capacity (30A) before tripping. Doesn't sound safe to me, but I wonder if there is anything in the code that would allow it. FWIW, I have an alternate solution that will balance loads between heating circuits..it just isn't pretty because I need to create (and maintain access to) a junction in an existing circuit. |
#2
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Electrical Breaker 'cheat'?
Borrall Wonnell wrote:
.... I recently had a 240V electrical heating circuit added. #12 wire, 20A breaker. ... .... ... Is it acceptable to run #10 wire from the panel to the first thermostat (3000W), and keep the existing #12 wire for the remaining 1500W (which is branched from the first thermostat)? .... In a word, "No" (assuming you're intending to switch to a 30A breaker which your posting doesn't explicitly state but I infer is the reason for posing the question). -- |
#3
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Electrical Breaker 'cheat'?
wrote in message ... On Thu, 9 Dec 2010 10:27:58 -0800 (PST), Borrall Wonnell What you suggest is probably safe (#10 to the stat #12 to a 1500w heater) but it is not legal. Arguing on the safety side I can say the 1500w load is well within the ampacity of the 12ga wire and a short will still safely be cleared by a 30a breaker. A short circuit will trip breakes with much smaller wire than the code requires. That is only part of the problem. If there is a wiring problem that causes the smaller wire to draw more current, but not enough to trip the larger breaker, the wire can over heat and causes a fire. |
#4
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Electrical Breaker 'cheat'?
On Dec 9, 1:27*pm, Borrall Wonnell wrote:
Hi all, This is a code question more than anything, but I thought it might be worth looking at. I recently had a 240V electrical heating circuit added. *#12 wire, 20A breaker. *Max load is 3840W, but I want to drive 4500W. Unfortunately, 25A breakers aren't available for my panel (this would fix the problem) and I have no additional circuits left in my panel. One other solution is to use 30A breakers and switch to #10 wire. Problem is that one heater was already in-place (and on a different floor) so I'd have to demolish the house to re-wire it. *Is it acceptable to run #10 wire from the panel to the first thermostat (3000W), and keep the existing #12 wire for the remaining 1500W (which is branched from the first thermostat)? Under normal conditions, current will never exceed wire maximums. However, if the 1500W heater had a fault, current through that section could potentially exceed the #12 capacity (30A) before tripping. Doesn't sound safe to me, but I wonder if there is anything in the code that would allow it. FWIW, I have an alternate solution that will balance loads between heating circuits..it just isn't pretty because I need to create (and maintain access to) a junction in an existing circuit. Have you looked at possibly swapping out some of your other breakers with a few of those single slot, double breakers to create some more room in your box. http://cdn.oneprojectcloser.com/wp-c...aker-panel.jpg |
#5
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Electrical Breaker 'cheat'?
On Dec 13, 1:29*am, wrote:
On Thu, 9 Dec 2010 10:27:58 -0800 (PST), Borrall Wonnell I recently had a 240V electrical heating circuit added. *#12 wire, 20A breaker. *Max load is 3840W, but I want to drive 4500W. Unfortunately, 25A breakers aren't available for my panel (this would fix the problem) and I have no additional circuits left in my panel. According to the code, this is NOT legal. *It's also a fire hazzard. Update: I went with the cheapest solution. I swapped two of my 500W heaters for 300W units and transferred one of them to another heating circuit. Both circuits are now loaded at 3800W, just below the 80% limit. This required one extra junction box and 30' of wire, but the heaters were a couple of bucks cheaper. On the downside, I have absolutely no headroom for future expansion. If the next owner wants to put in that hottub (or whatever), he'll have to pay dearly for it |
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