capacity: Number of lights on a circuit
#1
09-27-05, 10:30 AM
capacity: Number of lights on a circuit
I want to add some more canned lights in my kitchen but I dont know how many you can add and still be safe. Currently there are 8. I beleive the circuit is an 20 amp circuit but for the sake of argument lets say its 15 amp. How many 60w canned lights can I add?
#2
09-27-05, 11:19 AM
For a 15 Amp circuit, you could theoretically put as many as (30)-60 Watt lights on it before the breaker trips. Some would suggest not loading a branch circuit more than, say 80% of it's rating, so that limits you to (24)-60 Watt lights.
dave
dave
#3
09-27-05, 11:27 AM
Member
This is no time for guessing. So I'm not going to suppose anything.
First figure out how many amp circuit this really is. Multiply that by 120 to get the number of watts it can support.
Then figure out everything that is on this circuit. No room for guessing here either. Shut off the breaker and test everything is the house to see what is now without power.
Then add up the wattage of all of those things. Keep it below the number of watts you got above. To leave some margin for error, I'd suggest keeping it no more than 80% of circuit capacity.
First figure out how many amp circuit this really is. Multiply that by 120 to get the number of watts it can support.
Then figure out everything that is on this circuit. No room for guessing here either. Shut off the breaker and test everything is the house to see what is now without power.
Then add up the wattage of all of those things. Keep it below the number of watts you got above. To leave some margin for error, I'd suggest keeping it no more than 80% of circuit capacity.
