electrical question

[kyolic]

I live in an apartment I have 5 different outlets in my room. On the outlet closest to my closet i have my fan plugged into it, along with my 600w light..well technically the balast is plugged into it. And on my other outlets i have like my computer and tv/xbox and my clock and cell phone charger and other random shit plugged into the remaining outlets. And im pretty sure that all the outlets in my room run off the same circuit? Should i be worried about overloading anything? I dont nkow how many amps they are able to handle.

kyolic Reviewed by kyolic on 11-28-2007. electrical question I live in an apartment I have 5 different outlets in my room. On the outlet closest to my closet i have my fan plugged into it, along with my 600w light..well technically the balast is plugged into it. And on my other outlets i have like my computer and tv/xbox and my clock and cell phone charger and other random shit plugged into the remaining outlets. And im pretty sure that all the outlets in my room run off the same circuit? Should i be worried about overloading anything? I dont nkow Rating: 5

[killerweed420]

Check your power box to see what size breakers you have. Usually 10 to 25 amp. If it hasn't blown a breaker yet you are probably be fine.
120 volts X 10 amp breaker= 1200 watts

[kyolic]

well my ballast says 240volts on it..so i am assuming thats all that is going to the outlet...am i wrong? But if thats the case then thats pretty much nothing..i mean my george forman grill puts out about that much. Just making sure thats how much is actually going into it though. And if i should unplug anything else in my room

[klondike_bar]

uhm...ok. the ballast has an output power of 600w, which is relatively low. (many of those small electric heater/fan thingies are 1500watts)

like was said, if it hasnt gone yet, it should be fine. if it does, its a flip of a switch to reset.

however, if you are worried, just dont turn on every single thing in the room at once

[Jerry Garcia 2007]

Do you live in Europe? The 2 biggest consuming pieces of equipment other than your light are your tv and computer. Look on the back of these devices for the lable that states either the watts or amps take note of these. If lable gives you watts then take the watts divide by 120 for North Amarica, 240 for Europe and that will give you total amp draw for that device. Then add up the amp draw for each device. This will give you the total amp draw on the circuit. Now go to the breaker panel and look for the breaker for the outlets in that room and look at the number printed on it either 15 or 20 in North Amarica, I am not sure in Europe. Your total amp draw should be 10% less than the number on
the breaker ex. for a 15 amp breaker you should only have a constant load of no more than 13.5 amps for it to work without any potential problems.
I do suggest taking your computer off this circuit because when your lights and fans turn on they send voltage spikes that may potentially damage it.
I hope this helps you out.

[klondike_bar]

yeah. check the fuse before ya do anything. yur probly safe, but good thing to check

[stinkyattic]

Kyolic, somewhere on the safety tags on the backs of all those bits of equipment the actual AMPERAGE should be listed. This is different from the watts. Forget about the cell phone charger, but add up the draws of all the other items and then tack on 10% on top of that for a margin of safety.

Find the value and report back here.

Do you have access to the main panel for your apartment? You will need to know what sized breaker your room is on. Bedrooms aren't a place where you are usually expecting to draw a lot of juice. A laundry room, workshop, or kitchen is expected to take a much larger load, and those rooms will often have 2 or more breakers associated with them.

If I were you, and if I couldn't find out what size breaker I was on, I'd stick either the TV or the computer on another circuit in a different room.