* ATTN ELECTRICIANS* Doubling a 15 amp 120V circiut... Possible?

[XXXJAYXXX]

Hey everyone, just wanted to reach out to the electricians on here with a bit of a technical question.. I have a friend who is setting up a room that has 3 x 15amp circiuts run to it with standard 15amp 2wire cable. He wants to pull about 20-25 amps through his timer.. but we are trying to avoid running a new wire if possible. Just wondering if it would be ok to wire 2 of the 15 amp circiuts together at his timer so that he can run up to 30 amps from it? Thanks in advance for your input!

[Shovelhandle]

sorry, no. He needs to use the correct wiring and circuit breaker. BTW, What are the details of this timer that will handle 20-25 amps 'through' it?

[XXXJAYXXX]

Thanks for the info! Its an intermatic T-104 timer.. rated for 40 amps ;-)

[Shovelhandle]

That's a nice industrial timer and should work for a long time without any trouble. The rating is for a resistive load. That means there is no surge in current on start-up. Coil and core type ballasts are an inductive load, which does have a current spike on startup. None the less, that timer will easily handle 20-25 amps continuous HID lighting load. A 20-24 amp load will need # 10 awg wire and a 25 or 30 amp breaker, a 25 amp load would be just a little over the limit for that and code requires the next size wire (#8) and breaker (35 or 40 amp).

FYI, a 30 amp rated wire can only feed a 24 amp load (80% max). If you put 30 amps on a 30 amp breaker you are on the trip current and that's not what you want to happen.

[TANKJR]

Right On Shov! Also make sure to use a HVACR time delay type breaker...you'll have fewer nuisance trips if you do.

[XXXJAYXXX]

He is actually running Induction Lighting... Which to my knowledge has very little spike on start up... But thanks for the info!