Electric Panel Specs Advice Please

[shellsea]

I have a display tank on one side of an interior wall and my control board with Energy Bars and a 8 DJ switch on the other side.

Currently I have a hole in the wall and extension cords running through it to other side. I understand this is not to code and needs to be in conduit.

I am planning on installing an electric panel similar to what Marc Lev did on his site MelsReef . A bank of 24 total outlets behind the tank. 16 going through the wall in conduit and then plugged in to 2 Energy Bars 832. 8 in a separate conduit (if needed to comply w/ 60% open space) going to DJ switch.

My intent is to use romex from outlet, through the conduit then put a male plug on opposite wall side to plug in directly to the 832's and the DJ box.

The 832's and the DJ bar will be plugged into dedicated 20 amp GFCI outlets.
When assembled, but before install, I intend to have an electrician look at it but I want to reduce his time as much as possible.

My first question is does this sound safe?
Should I use 15 or 20 volt outlets?
Wire size?
Do the outlets also need to be GFCI if I have that down the line?
What type of plug would be best?
Any other thoughts?
Thanks in advance.

 

[slojim]

I'm comfortable with electrical work, but not so well-versed in code. If I understand what you are describing, you may have to blank off the outlet you are jumpering off of so you are effectively coming straight off the breaker to this "subpanel". I was struggling with a similar job once and finally called an electrician, and he was well-equipped to pull wire and get back to the main circuit panel, so it turned out well worth it.
Maybe you decide it is worth it to call your chosen electrician twice, once for a consult up front, and once for a close-out on the back end.

My city code references some international building code but also spells out minimum wire gage sizes. I think interior in-wall had to be 12ga with a ground. I don't think you cna daisy chain a 20 amp outlet off of a 15, so if your existing outlet is 15, you can't go 20. The cost difference is minimal for a handful of outlets, so I usually use 20's, and sometime the commercial 20's if it is an outlet I'll be plugging and unplugging a lot.
I believe you only need one GFCI in the circuit - and in this case, more is not better. There is a give and take - an upstream GFCI is cheaper to install, but when it trips (it will trip) it kills the whole circuit. A downstream GFCI might just take out the one load - so you might group loads by criticality. I don't want my light or heater (not critical on the Gulf Coast) taking out my main circulation.

 

[shellsea]

Thanks slojim. I'm still open for input from others especially you sparkies out there!

 

[billdogg]

If it's a 15 amp (15A) breaker then you need to use a minimum of 14g wire. For 20A breakers, use 12g. NEVER put a 15A outlet on a 20A breaker. You could easily overload the outlet and cause it to fail (fire - bad). Although you could use a 20A outlet on a 15A breaker it will do nothing other than cost you more.

I would suggest running a dedicated line or two to your system (or have someone do it for you) rather than trying to tie in to an existing circuit. Depending on what else may (or could be) running on it, you could easily pop the breaker and lose power to the line. This generally happens 5 minutes after you leave the house for a 2 week vacation.

 

[shellsea]

Thanks billdog. I already have dedicated line(s) on the one side of the wall. What i want to do is find a safer way to run the various pump, heater plugs etc. from the display tank side of the wall through the wall to where the dedicated outlets and control panel are or will be. Perhaps this will help explain what I want to accomplish better.

Marc's link https://www.melevsreef.com/tanks/280g-reef-electrical-needs
And my feeble sketch of what I am thinking.

 

[discussmith]

If your outlets are on the other side of the same wall you can open up those and put a cut-in box on the side without outlets in the same stud space and fish a romex out of the existing outlet. If the existing are on an adjoining wall you will need a surface molding like wiremold to a stud space you can then fish up to the location for your new outlet. FYI it's too bad you already had the manual switched outlets as the guitar store used to sell 8 gang low voltage relays and you could switch them with phone cable size wire and you wouldn't have had to deal with all that line voltage romex to your switch location. All you would need is 9 conductors to switch a bank of 8 relays. You could then keep the line voltage wiring close to the relays and outlets and run a small cable to your switch location.