I checked my main electric breaker box and 2 of the GFI power supply lines are marked on the panel as 20AMP. The GFI outtels installed are also 20AMP rated. This is an older house but wires looks good. I am looking at Expresson machines with specifications of: Two heaters with 1 x 1000 Watts and 1 x 1400 Watts = total 2400. As far as i understand the max wattage on the 20AMP outlet is 20x120 = 2400Watts where recommended load should not go over 80% which is around 1920Watts. Does it mean if i attempt to use that coffee machine on that outlet the outlet will shutoff or could it even lead to damaging the wiring? Would it be wiser to go with machine that only requires 1400Watts? thx

My friend hired someone to wire up her new kitchen. He put an electrical box behind the stove but forgot to wire an outlet for the microwave. He wired three or four outlets in the wall for cabinet access and added CGI OUtlets near the sink (no disposal). He also wired a dedicated outlet for the dishwasher and one for the refrigerator. Now he's gone. So, I am trying to help her get her kitchen together and figured I would simply connect the outlets in the boxes. In each box, there were two cables with 2 wires each and a ground. The grounds were connected as were the white wires and the black wires. They all appear to be wired to one circuit because switching off this one circuit cuts power to all the outlet boxes in the kitchen. So with the power off, I disconnect the white and black wires in one outlet to determine which is the live source cable and which is the load. I turn the power on and to my surprise, both black wires (though not connected together) are live. I wired in a 2 gang outlet with two white wires on the two terminals and the two black wires on the other terminals. Connected the ground wire, plugged in my outlet tester and flipped the switch. It says I have an open ground. My question is: how could both black wires be hot and not connected together. But then when connected together, it doesn't pop the circuit breaker. I need a single 120V outlet, should I just disconnect one cable and cap it off? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.