Amp / Electricity

Normally a house has a 100 amp main circuit breaker. You can go and look at your main service panel, where your meter is and look at the breaker to find out.
 
You can verify by looking on the side of your house were the PG&E meter is like jkreefer said, there should be a main breaker there. On your sub breaker in the house or garage should be the smaller ones. Some houses are left some extra slots to add more for future upgrades. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think if you add up the sub panels amps on the switches and that should tell you if you have extra if it does not exceed the main panels amps.
 
The reason why I ask is because I am afraid of any electrical fires etc etc. like the one that happen in Oakland with the Pot house.

I try to keep up with the Large Tank Forum and it seems like a lot of people are adding extra breakers to allow more electricity to be drawn.

I'll check tomorrow and see what I have.
 
Well fires from the pot growing places most likely happened for two reasons, 1) too much heat from their lamps, and/or 2) they pilled too much off a single breaker (maybe 15amp). If the breakers worked as they should they would have popped and not drawn the current. If they were older federal pacific breakers... then they would have failed horribly.

Most likely had them all off one circuit, you'd need 12000 watts of lighting to hit the capacity of a 100 amp main.
 
If you are woried about drawing too much off one circuit, list your devices and the wattage that they use for each circuit and if the add up to more than 1440watt for a 15 amp circuit(80% of 1800w) and 1920 watts for a 20 amp circuit(80% of 2400 watts).
 
Psionicdragon,

As other said - just look at your main breaker, and it will tell you want the maximum amount of amp your house can support. This is concurrent support. For example, my house main breaker supports 100 amps. However, all my breakers added together equals 265 amps. However, I cannot use more than 100 amps at any one time. If I exceed that, my main breaker will trip. If you look at the other breakers, they are rated for 15, 20, 30, 40 and 50 amps. The circuit that the 15 amps is on can only support a maximum of 15 amps.

I am thinking about adding a 50 amp subpanel in my garage for my power tools and sump system, and washer and dryer.

Last - I think the reason why pot house burn down is because they usually steal electricity. They probably don't have a breaker on the line, and exceed the rating of the wire. The wire will heat up and can catch on fire. Likewise, if you have 15 amp circuit, and switch out to a 30 amp breaker, but don't upgrade the wire, then you risk causing a fire. If you don't swap out your breaker for bigger breaker, you'll probably be ok.

Hope this helps.

Minh
 
It shows on a piece of paper that is attach to the door of the breaker: 100 amp.

So if I have a wall with two sets of outlets, are they are different breakers?

While we are on the topic of "home improvement" anyone ever get scared of potential termites?
 
Oh btw, thanks for everyone's input. This is very informative :).

We should keep this going and add other topics that may destroy our houses :P
 
Yeah, that's that last thing we want is to endanger ourselves and most important our familes! I'm gladd I went with a 1/4 chiller rather than a 1/3. I think that would of over done my circuit.

Somethime I even think about reverse lighting for my tank to save on heat and cooling. Right now on the cooler nights my heater turns on at night and chiller runs in the day. But if I had my lights turned on later in the day like when I got home from work and ran after I went to bed my heater and chiller would come on as much...just some thoughts.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10028084#post10028084 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Nuuze
Yeah, that's that last thing we want is to endanger ourselves and most important our familes! I'm gladd I went with a 1/4 chiller rather than a 1/3. I think that would of over done my circuit.

Somethime I even think about reverse lighting for my tank to save on heat and cooling. Right now on the cooler nights my heater turns on at night and chiller runs in the day. But if I had my lights turned on later in the day like when I got home from work and ran after I went to bed my heater and chiller would come on as much...just some thoughts.
Click to expand...

I agree there. Because my lights and the other electrical equipments are controlled by the AC II, there is a risk that something may go wrong while no one is home. So in order to minimize the risk, I want to be able to redistribute the power consumption from a breaker.
 
What you listed is about the max for a 15 amp circuit. Which is most likely what you have. Most people with larger tanks run atleast two dedicated 20 amp circuits. I am running
250w Heater
3- 175w MH
2- 65w PC
4-54w T5
3 pumps = 240w
2-19w fuge lights.

All this and my amp probe reads 9.6 amps.
I used to have it on an original circuit from the house and it would trip every time we vacuumed.
Took care of that real fast.
 
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