Need Electrical Help..

[bagged87blayzer]

Ok here is the situation. I live in an apartment. My tank is in the living room. Well actually 2 tanks (reef and FOWLR) in the living room and 1 in the "dinning room" (chiclids). Well on my reef tank right now there are about 12 plugs - 3 powerheads, 1 return, MH - light and fan, PC Fixture - 2 lights 2 fans, Skimmer 2 plugs. Well the breaker that the reef tank is on is also the breaker for the FOWLR, TV, Stereo, Cable Box, Ceiling fan, Lamp, Laptop. That is a lot of one breaker. I have never had a problem with it ever popping - now that I say that it will.....lol. Well my question is because it is not a house I can not install new outlets on new breakers is there anyway I can put a in-line breaker. This way I can separate like my lights from my pumps? My tank will live is the lights are off for a couple house but it the pumps all stop for 8 hours that me be a problem. Any advice???

 

[dugg]

Buy a house lol

 

[bagged87blayzer]

Wish I could......

 

[Trueno22]

You should talk to the property manager. Your apartments are pretty high end I bet they would do something for you.

P.S. Thanks for the halide lamp I already ordered the bulb. Hope you enjoyed the money during your trip to Sea in the City.

I can't believe I almost left thinking the farm house was the store. I almost called you to pester you about how you sent me to a closed store.

 

[bagged87blayzer]

nno problem man. I wish I could get a house but bad credit (when i was 18 I was like Ohhh Yeah free money) plus no saving right now

 

[mhurley]

What exactly does this mortgage advice and on-line poker have to do with the OP's topic?

Let's stop giving advice on car repairs when someone is asking how to bake a cake.

Thanks.

 

[mhurley]

Ok..hint not taken apparently so I'll fix.

 

[dugg]

As far as contacting the managment and asking them to help, all that is gonna do for you is that they will see how you are overloading thier circuits and tell you to either stop overloading it or they will evict you. They cannot put a larger breaker on any circuit without risking causing a fire. The wires that are installed to those plugs are only rated to handle a certain amount of amps. If you install a larger breaker on the wires currently there, they will get hot and cause a fire. They are not going to rewire thier building to support your tank. They are going to tell you to either move the tank to a different circuit or to get rid of it. Then they are going to come back and inspect to make sure you comply. If you don't comply they will have every right to evict you from thier property.

 

[dugg]

What do you mean hint not taken? I am not trying to break any rules or cause problems. I said i would not recommend or encourage that to anyone>

 

[chrisstie]

Actually one way to be completely sure of what you're doing is to crunch the math. The first step is to find out how much power each thing draws. With a light that runs on x amount of watts that should be easy, some of your other components may be more difficult to determine but most have labels that say (powerheads usually do or a tag on the cord that will say)

I am *not* an electrician. However with a google search most people say that the standard house circuit runs 10A=2400 W. You could verify this with your landlord. You cant use up more than the 2400 W between all your stuff.

You could ask how many circuits run in your house and where they are located - usually these should be marked on the circuit breaker itself. If not its smart to mark them yourself.

If you can split the load among several circuits you will be a lot better off than risking electrical issues which are never good when dealing with water.

 

[bagged87blayzer]

I think What i am going to do is they make surge protectors that have breaker built into them. This way if the lights cause a problem then the surge protector will pop its breaker before it pops the main breaker for the whole room. And then for the biggest pump in the tank I will just run a battery backup so even if the main breaker does pop for some reason then at least I will have one pump. Hopefully this will work.

 

[LunarCubes]

most people say that the standard house circuit runs 10A=2400 W

Not sure where you came up with that. Most household circuits are 15Amps. A 15A circuit can handle a max of 1800watts (Amps X Volts = Watts) so 15A x 120V = 1800W MAX. A good rule of thumb is not to exceed 80% load which would be 12A or 1440W on a 15A circuit.

 

[Flacricket]

Buy a "kill-a-watt" and see what your curciut is pulling. Plug each thing into it and add up the total for the circuit. watts devided by 120 will give you the amps that your breakers are rated in. +1 if your under 80% dont worry about it if you are over somehing must go NOW for safety. Horbor freight has kill-a-watts cheap. The most important thing is to know what your are pulling so you can make the proper choice.

 

[dugg]

Don't go in that breaker box and go splitting circuits around unless you are very sure wht you are donig in there. The main lines that come in to that breaker box WILL KILL YOU. That is not safe anyway and can cause a fire doubling things on a breaker. It will either ruin the breaker, or over heat wires. It can be done safely if you know that the breaker you are running to doesn't have much of a load on it, but you need to really know what you are doing if you are going to open anything other then the front door on that box. You don't get second chances with those main lines.

 

[chrisstie]

The numbers I came up with were a quick google search but yeah either use a device where you can come up 100% sure what is running in your apartment than do the math accordingly.

LunarCubes has been able to put it much better than I can its always safe to have a barrier so 80% load is good.

 

[Fuzzy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14683290#post14683290 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dugg
Don't go in that breaker box and go splitting circuits around unless you are very sure what you are doing in there.....

What Dugg said :thumbsup:

The Kill A Watt is a good idea, but you can read the wattage of the labels on the devices and total the wattage for a lot less.
Another idea would be to check the outlets in the room, it's possible there may be more than one circuit wired in.
An easy way to check is to plug in a light or radio then turn off the breakers one by one to identify the circuits.

Buying individual breakers won't help unless there is a fault condition, the total load is what will trip the breakers.
I would still ask the manager if they can add a circuit. If you are on a top floor with attic access an electrician could add a circuit without too much difficulty and expense.
When we moved to our new house I had an electrician add 3 - 20 amp dedicated circuits. If memory serves total cost was around $150.

Good luck!