how many watts can I use?

[MrDanky]

Hello, I live in a regular 3 bedroom 1 bath home. I have grown up to 2k watts of lights running at one time. I was just wondering how many watts I would be able to run MAX on one breaker. I only have 1 breaker in the house, so assuming that I have a refrigerator, tv, and a couple other typical home appliances running, how many lights could I run? I want it to be fire proof and all around secure, so what do you guys think?

thanks in advance

 

[bakerman]

Hi!I'm in Canada,just wondering why 1 breaker?We have usually 1 for each room!Then 1 for major appliance's!I use to have the sats on watts x volts=amps or something like that!Wish I was more help!

 

[wishbone420]

one breaker that if free to use. if so what size. hope u don't have one breaker for whole house. im sure u don't. pic of fusebox would help.peace

 

[MrDanky]

well it isnt one breaker, my bad... it is a typical fusebox with about 10-15 breakers.

 

[JohnnyToke]

assuming you had 2 x 1000w ballast, and assuming the breakers are 15A, you would need to run the ballast on seperate breakers.

regards,
JT

 

[MarquisBlack]

If you run your lights on your 240v drier outlet you could get maybe 3k in lights.

3000watts / 240volts = 12.5amps. That is assuming you have a 15 amp circuit. If you're at 20, you could run more, obviously.

 

[JohnnyToke]

just make sure your 4500w dryer isnt running...lol

regards,
JT

 

[MarquisBlack]

Hahaha. I plan on running on 240v and I can just see my old lady running the drier during lights-on. Yikes.

 

[Microwido]

240V*15 = 3600 Watts.
110V*15= 1650 Watts
110V*20= 2200 Watts


Assuming you have 6 free circuits, as most houses do on a 100amp breaker, you could run about 13,200 watts with 20 amp circuits.

 

[freebuzz]

800w, 3 fans on a 15amp, fine for 3 yrs.

 

[Hempstress]

If this is your home and you have an open space in your breaker box, I would run a dedicated circuit with a 30 amp breaker (10 gauge wire or better). It is usually a fairly simple thing to run a new line either through a crawl space or an attic.

 

[Sloppy Seconds]

I'm soo happy my house came with a 200 amp panel! makes all of this much easier.
I agree with Hempstess add an extra breaker if you can, pretty simple to do.
then you can run "dedicated" lines to your lights, I use one breaker for each light with GFI outlets just to be safe. dont forget the smoke detector! good luck.