Not Enough Outlets

[dan2x38]

I do not have enough AC outlets in my livingroom. I use extension cords & power bars. I can add next to nothing in the livingroom without tripping the breaker. I've tried some Web queries but got no helpful hits expect adding a piggyback breaker or second breaker box. Either of those options are not possible totally out of the question. Have no good queries to do a good Web search?

Is there a product to buy that anyone knows of? Maybe a DIY project to handle an overload? Was thinking of some sort of box with multi outlets in it. A breaker built in like a power bar with several AC outlets. The box I'd like to mark the outlets: lights, heaters, filters, air pumps, misc. At least this way I could shut down say heaters when doing WCs. I could also shut down heaters, lights, air pumps, & misc. if I need to run a rug cleaner, etc. So my filters would stay up and running. I would need to build more then one because I have tanks in different locations in the living room.

Any ideas? Any help greatly appreciated.

[Alchemist]

I'm no electrician but what about running your extension cords from circuits with lower loads on them...like bedroom ones with just lights and sockets for instance?  Sounds like you have all your cords running in the same room am I correct? 

[dan2x38]

I'm no electrician but what about running your extension cords from circuits with lower loads on them...like bedroom ones with just lights and sockets for instance?  Sounds like you have all your cords running in the same room am I correct? 

I would do that run from other rooms but they are all upstairs. Everything is in 1 room.

[Alchemist]

Costco had some heavy duty extension cords that have about a 100ft run for a good price....you could run one of those from an upstairs room for now?

[dan2x38]

There is no immediate danger. The extenstion cord would have to run along the stairs. It would be ugly and wife would not like it or me. Maybe I could staple on some 14/2 wiring using a junction box to splice into some upstairs outlet. Still not what I am hoping for.

A box with outlets why could it not have a simialr circuit as a surge supressor or simple power bar?

[normc]

You are tripping breakers (fuses) because there is to high a load, a surge protector wouldn't make any difference. You ether have to add a new circuit or  reduce the load.

[washefuzzy]

That's the one problem with this hobby a shortage of outlets.I've had to rearrange the stereo and don't get me started about the computer. I've got power bars everywhere.

[MikeM]

Running an extension cord down the stairs is a recipe for disaster, no matter how well its secured there's always a tripping risk.  Depending on the grade of the house wiring, it may be possible to upgrade the circuit breaker to accommodate more load (a 20 A breaker as opposed to a 15 A).  An electrician could tell you if your wiring is 20 A grade. Beyond that, there's nothing you can really do to increase a circuit's load capacity.  Most devices take more power at start-up, so if you have items on timers, staggering their start times will help to not trip the breaker.  Also bear in mind that GFCI breakers (or any GFCI outlets on the circuit) will make circuits a bit more "trippy".

[BigDaddy]

You likely have a 10A breaker.  Have an electrician confirm if you can swap it out for a 20A breaker and still keep your circuit box "under code"

[bitterman]

I think Max legal for code in Canada is 15 Amp per single circuit, But with dual feeds you can run up to 30 Amps (2 power, 1common and ground).  Most 20 Amp circuits I have seen in Canada are dual 10's.  Do you have access to the area from under neath? If so an electrician can most likely run some new circuits to the area you need them as long as you panel has enough free Amps/space for breakers.

FYI technically you need a permit and have a licensed electricion do the work for you. It may also be inspected.

Bruce

[Kemokid]

There is no way around it, you need to supply a feed for your equipment from the electrical panel on it's own. The only time cord quantity and size comes into play is for long runs (hundreds of feet) where the wire resistance drops the voltage thereby increasing the amperage. In the case of using many cords or small wire size cords, you increase the risk of fire as the wire will get hot as the amperage goes up to the trip level of the 15 amp breaker, and the connections aren't always good and sometimes burn with load. By no means should you ever replace a 15 amp breaker with a 20 amp breaker unless the wire on the breaker and the outlets connected are rated at 20 amps, as this will let the wires that are rated for 15 amp in the case of 14 gauge wire and lower for smaller wire like 16 or 18 gauge (often found in cheap extension cords) and the risk for fire is very high as the protection is gone other than for a dead short.

The best thing to do is have your panel looked at to see what the abilities are with it (eg. - are there actually spare breaker spots left, are there breakers that are not loaded, does your panel have wide breakers that can be replaced with twin breakers?). There are many different sizes and amounts of equipment being used by fish enthusists on this site and I have no idea what you are running, but I would say for a large single tank set-up you should have at least a dedicated 15 amp 120 volt breaker run to a separate outlet near the tank. If you are running more than that or plan on adding more stuff in the area, you should run a 3 conductor and put it on a double pole 15 amp breaker then put in two duplex receptacles, one on each pole of the double breaker.

I have no problem looking at stuff for people and letting them know what I see and  suggest as a licensed electrician, as long as it doesn't cost me much in gasand time to do it.

I hope this helps a little and isn't to technical.

Kemokid (Kevin)

[gvv]

When I wired my basement I called for a certified guy who later sent me a report that he confirms that the job I did is "under code". First, he checked my wiring which is good and the second I have a paper for insurance. It cost me nothing (or very little as I even don't remember ), so I definetly suggest to do it.
Besides that our main breaker box is only 100A rated. I was told that if you load is more than that you have to order from Hydro Ottawa to upgrade to 150A. But this will cost you...

In any way I would not use any of this extension cords going from one roo and especially floor to the other. I completly agree with MikeM on this!

Regards

[dan2x38]

My main problem is I rent. The access panel is not accessable except by the landlord & a caretaker, werid set-up. My landlord is a good guy but not sure he would let me alter the service, add breakers, or upgrade breakers. I've seen the box and there are empty breaker slots.

I am not tripping breakers but fear it will happen. With the panel accesibility this could be an issue.

Could I not run 14/2 or 12/2 wire spilt with a junction box from a circuit upstairs? My thought for some sort of box was to make a heavy duty cord to plug the box in then have outlets for my different aquarium items. This would at least eliminate extension cords & power bars.

So there is no way besides service access to step up voltage? Like an amplifier? My electirical experience is electronic not AC or very little.

Just brain storming to make my aquarium plug ins more safe.

[MikeM]

It's not the voltage you need to step up, but the amperage.  You could splice into an upstairs circuit and install a new outlet on that circuit on the lower level, but would probably entail a similar amount of work to installing a new circuit.  Done properly, there's no cosmetic issues with a new circuit run.  You might find you landlord wouldn't have a problem with it, if done by a licensed electrician.  I'm not sure if you are talking about running the splice in the wall or out in the open.  Running a splice exposed (not in the wall or a suitable conduit pipe), is dangerous and would definitely invalidate your insurance.

If you aren't tripping, you probably have nothing to worry about, at least in the short term.  All in all, except for the heaters and possibly some of the bigger lighting rigs, most aquarium equipment is pretty low power.  Wattage = Amperage * Voltage (this is for DC - but is a good rough estimate), so if you have a 10 A breaker you have about 1000 W - 1100 W available on the circuit.  If you know the wattage rating of your equipment it's pretty easy to figure out how much capacity you have left.

Also, I had a 20 A dedicated circuit run installed at work for a server rack about a year ago, and that only cost about $400 including the breaker, and was a MUCH longer run than you would see in a house, so an additional 10 A or 15 A probably wouldn't be too bad.

[BigDaddy]

I would start taking inventory of everything you wish to power up and get the amp ratings for each of them.  If you don't have an amp rating on it (like a heater) you can figure it out from voltage and wattage (voltage will always be 120V).

The equation is W=V x A

So a 150W heater is drawing.... 150=120 x A ....  A=150/120 ..... A=1.25 Amps

Heaters will draw the most amps.  Lights will be next.  Filters use very little (my big Eheim only uses .2 Amps)

Now, are you over 9 amps?  If not, it shouldn't be as big an issue as you might think it is.

[dan2x38]

I think I will do the calculations first. If I am over loading then will investigate an addtional breaker.

How many outlets is standard per 15A breaker. I could run the wiring 14/2 install the outlets even insert the breaker and make the tie in. Then I would only need to have it signed off on my a licenced electrican?

[MikeM]

There's not a standard number of outlets per se.  Especially in older buildings where the wiring has been modified already.  Four or five double outlet jacks are not unusual though, especially if they're serving bedrooms or other low-load areas.  You can rough in all the wiring for a new circuit, including the box on the outlet end, as long as the boxes are left open for the electrician to inspect.  In my experience, most electricians prefer to do the breaker box tie in themselves, as this can be tricky to inspect after the fact without taking it all apart and undoing what you had done.  This is generally easier anyways, as most will be able to do this "hot" without turning off the panel.  As an aside, if you do decide to install a new circuit for your tanks, invest the extra in a GFCI breaker.  Whenever water and electricity are close together, a GFCI is a wise move.  Canadian Tire also sells GFCI power bars as an alternative to a new breaker.

[RossW]

How many outlets is standard per 15A breaker. I could run the wiring 14/2 install the outlets even insert the breaker and make the tie in. Then I would only need to have it signed off on my a licenced electrican?

I believe the recommendation is 12 lights or outlets.  The inspectors like it best when the 12 things are a mix of outlets and lights as it is not often that they are all drawing load at the same time. i.e.: if they were all lights it is very possible you would have all lights on at once.

All of this stuff is in a simplified electrical code book which is available at Home Depot.  It is orange and if you are going to consider doing any of this stuff I would highly reccomend.  You can do the work yourself, but it MUST be inspected.  Legally... either you hire an electrician who get the permit and completes the work, or you get the permit and do it yourself.  An electrician is not allowed to work on a job for which you hold the permit.  It is all in the orange book.

Check out http://www.esainspection.net/  They issue the permit, perform the inspection, etc.

[dan2x38]

Would something like this the Noma Protection Plus Power Bar help the issue of over loading a power outlet? It has a built in 15 Amp breaker. I could use 3 of these in the different locations in the living room where I have tanks set-up.

[Funkmotor]

Would something like this the Noma Protection Plus Power Bar help the issue of over loading a power outlet? It has a built in 15 Amp breaker. I could use 3 of these in the different locations in the living room where I have tanks set-up.

If your living room outlets are all on one 15A circuit, then having three of these power bars would - theoretically at least - allow you to put 45A on that circuit if you did the whole 15A per board.  Of course, the breaker in the panel would go long before that.

I find myself in a similar situation.  Older house and renting, and there's just not enough juice to power what I want...so I have to have less, at least while we're living here.  (Panel is 100A, and all the breaker slots are full.)

Newer houses have a lot more power in them because of all the new stuff we have now that uses power - computers, big TV's, big fridges, air conditioning and so on.  20 or 30 years ago, none of that stuff was a concern to any normal person.

Best of luck, but remember that power isn't something to be trifled with.  Houses burn down *all*the*time* from bad, faulty and overloaded wiring.