Tang-away September 4, 2003 Share September 4, 2003 does anyone know an electrician that will install a 30 amp circuit breaker and install the wire to run to the plugs. I only have 15 amp right now and I have about 2000 or more watts that I will be using and the 15 amp breaker will pop all the time, so I need to upgrade to a 30 to be safe. Thanks in advance. Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sph2sail September 4, 2003 Share September 4, 2003 Where are you? I know someone in Centreville... s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest areefer September 4, 2003 Share September 4, 2003 From the looks of it, it is only about 17Amp (80% rule gives you a 25Amp) but a 30Amps is not a bad idea and for my suggestion is to have the guy do it this way, run the home run wire from the 30Amp double pole breaker to the tank and when it is next to the tank break it into two 120v for two GFCI outlet. That way you don't have all the tanks equipments on one GFCI outlet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krish September 4, 2003 Share September 4, 2003 Sam, Assuming you have a 15A breaker, leave it in there and just install a GFCI to it. This should provide enough power for the pumps and the vaccum cleaner that someone will plug into the same shared outlet Have the electrician install another 15A circuit for your lights. Why have a high capacity outlet in a room like a living room. ?? For 20A and above, the sockets are different. Just my thoughts. -krish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest areefer September 4, 2003 Share September 4, 2003 krish idea is not a bad one but if you go this route I would just go ahead and put in a 20 Amp breaker for the new run. I also have to disagree with krish on the different socket for a 20Amp 120V unless it is a 20Amp 220V. Also do you have enought room on your main panel for additional breaker? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty September 4, 2003 Share September 4, 2003 I agree with areefer. That is basically the way I had my wiring run for my tank in the new addition. I had the home run wire run to a 20A breaker. At the tank wall, I had it split into two sockets with a GFCI on each. That's plenty for my 120g. The plug for a 20A is the same. A 220V does have a different plug, but a 20A 110V is the same. I run the following with it: 2 Mag 7's (one return & one for the skimmer) 3 powerheads 1 Icecap 660 w/4 X 110w VHO's 1 PFO dual 250w MH ballast 2 150w heaters 1 Icecap 4" fan Never had a circuit or GFCI pop. mc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeltwayBandit September 4, 2003 Share September 4, 2003 Most houses are wired with 12 guage wire. That wire is rated for up to 20 amp service. So you can get away with just replacing the breaker. I was fortunate enough to want to put my tank very near where my breaker panel was and wired in a 20A GFCI breaker and then ran a dedicated line to a single outlet that only my tank uses. Installing a breaker is not very hard, the tricky part is running new wiring, if you are establishing a new dedicated circuit. BB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sph2sail September 4, 2003 Share September 4, 2003 Most houses are wired with 12 guage wire. That wire is rated for up to 20 amp service. So you can get away with just replacing the breaker. I was fortunate enough to want to put my tank very near where my breaker panel was and wired in a 20A GFCI breaker and then ran a dedicated line to a single outlet that only my tank uses. Installing a breaker is not very hard, the tricky part is running new wiring, if you are establishing a new dedicated circuit. BB Ooooohhhh be careful here... Code is 14 guage wire for 15 amp 120V circuits, 12 guage wire for 20amp 120V circuits. I strongly doubt contractors freely upgrade a home to use 12G wire when 14G will do. Do NOT upgrade a breaker unless you can confirm the wireguage matches rating and load requirements. 20amp 120V circuits actually ARE supposed to have a different socket. It is a HD grade socket, usually noticable by the horizontal notch in one of the female blade receptacles. These are commercial grade sockets and are not always used, but are recommended. I like the idea of just running a new circuit, keeping the old one and splitting the load. Bringing a 30amp circuit will DEFINATELY require either a very odd plug (e.g., dryer) -or- a sub panel to break it out to smaller circuits (2 15amp breakers). Not a great idea, I would think. Follow your original idea here... get an electrician to help out. s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tang-away September 4, 2003 Author Share September 4, 2003 well to update everyone. I just tapped off a different light swich which was totally independent of the other 15 amp line. I made sure that other things were not running on the other one also. So now I have 2 independent pretty much dedicated 15 amp lines running to my tank. I have 2 pumps 2 heaters so I will just put one on each so if 1 breaker pops the other will be running, so I will aways have circulation unless a total outage occurs. Sort of like what Krish said to do. Thanks for all the quick replys. 7 in 24 hours is awsome. Thanks Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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