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15 vs 20 amp circuits

K

Kaz

Jan 1, 1970
0
I just got back from Home Depot with 100ft 10/3, a sub breaker panel w/
breakers installed, 240/30a wall outlet. $255. Copper has indeed
gotten expensive. I cant imagine the bill if I also had to tack on
labor from a professional.
 
T

Tony Hwang

Jan 1, 1970
0
mdb said:
I'm renovating my basement and have a pretty fundamental question about the
romex cable I'll be running throughout the space for lights and wall jacks.
I'm having my old Federal Pacific breaker panel (150 amps) replaced with a
new Cutler Hammer 200 amp box. Have hired an electrician to do that work for
me. But I wondered why I'd bother with 15 amp circuits (14-2 romex). Is
there a reason not to simply make all three of the circuits I'll be creating
for the new basement 20 amp circuits, using 12-2 romex? Or is there a
fire/shock hazard caused by using the higher amperage circuit breakers on
those standard circuits.

Also, does on GFI protect the entire circuit on which it is located or do I
need to install more? My basement, like so many, sometimes gets wet when the
outside drains are blocked.
Hi,
It all depends. If you have long run of wires, 12 gauge will help
minimizing voltage drop and also you can put little hevier load on it.
Other than that, it's your call. It's your house, it's your work.
I have some 20A circuits for long run with more often used outlets.
Others are all 15A circuits. But on 220V application, I even use 6
gauge wires down to 12 gauge.
 
D

Daniel Who Wants to Know

Jan 1, 1970
0
Kaz said:
Is it possible to make errors in home wiring?

Yes it is. When I moved in this apartment I found an outlet that had a
jumper wire from the neutral terminal to the ground terminal to make it look
like it was grounded to one of those little testers with the three lights.
The problem was that the circuit was also reverse polarity so the ground
slot was "hot".
 
C

Chris Lewis

Jan 1, 1970
0
According to Chip C said:
My understanding is that Canada requires GFCI protection only within
1m of a sink, and that all other kitchen outlets can be non-GFCI,
either the traditional splits (in 15 or 20A) or 20A t-slot non-
splits...that's based on the latest P.S.Knight book. Am I reading that
wrong?

I'd have to double check. But considering the speed in which
the US NEC went from a similar rule to "all counter outlets", I
wouldn't expect it to stay that way long here.
 
D

Dave Martindale

Jan 1, 1970
0
Daniel Who Wants to Know said:
Yes it is. When I moved in this apartment I found an outlet that had a
jumper wire from the neutral terminal to the ground terminal to make it look
like it was grounded to one of those little testers with the three lights.
The problem was that the circuit was also reverse polarity so the ground
slot was "hot".

Wow. Talk about making a bad situation worse...

A place I used to live in had a once-unfinished basement turned into a
somewhat-finished one, obviously by one of the previous owners. About
half of the outlets had hot and neutral reversed, so the people who did
the work apparently didn't know what the silver and brass screws on the
outlets were trying to tell them. But at least they got the grounds
right.

Dave
 
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