Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ.

---

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Tweakers' Asylum ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ]

---

RE: All you kids......

Posted by jea48 (A) on July 20, 2014 at 21:24:20

In Reply to: All you kids...... posted by unclestu on July 20, 2014 at 16:08:34:

I can remember pre NEC days....

Wow Stu you are old! LOL....

>>>>>>>>

One home I lived in used cartridge fuses and had three of them for the entire two bedroom house. One Fuse for the kitchen, one for the lights, and one for all the outlets.

Another I lived in had those glass type screw in fuses: a lot safer to change than those cartridge type.

The old Edison Base Plug Fuses, I remember them well. A fuse would blow and Dad would stick a penny behind the fuse. It's a miracle he didn't burn down the house.
>>>

NEC codes were developed for the lowest common denominator types: people who were too cheap or too stupid to install enough current distribution means for the electrical usage. Of course when those houses were built people had far fewer appliances, but still.

NEC code is bare minimum after all.
>>>>

Consider even modern homes which meet code. It is not uncommon to have several (say three for the sake of convenience) duplex outlets in series in one room attached to one breaker. The breaker is standardized at 15 amps, and so are the duplex outlets. Suppose you plugged in a 15 amp draw device in each duplex and turned them all on: That's 45 amps on one 15 amp breaker...So much for the common sense of the NEC rules...

Well actually in the case of a cord and plug connected appliance or piece of equipment which uses a 15 amp plug the appliance/equipment cannot have an FLA that exceeds 12 amps. So 3 X 12 = 36 amps which would overload the circuit and hopefully cause the 15 amp breaker to trip open at some point. To this day in a residential dwelling unit there is not any limit on how many duplex receptacles that can be installed on a 15 or 20 amp branch circuit. You could have a 15 amp branch circuit feeding a large living room with 50 duplex receptacles if you so wanted....
There is a limit for the number of receptacles installed on a branch circuit in a commercial or industrial building.
>>>>

The rules are there to promote some degree of common sense and some standardization. But to prohibit use of a 32 amp breaker is just plain silly as long as the cable gauge is sufficient to carry the full current. After all, we have 50 amp breakers (they are 240 volt so can run the same wire gauge).

As for the US the 32 amp breaker mentioned cannot be used. It is not Listed for use in the US.

The panelboard is not a Recognized Listed assembly and there for per NEC Code cannot be installed in the US.
>>>>>>>

.

The breaker handle rating determines the size of the branch circuit, not the wire size. For a specific size breaker a minimum wire size shall be used. There is no maximum wire size.

NEC 210.3 Rating
Branch circuits recognized by this article shall be rated in accordance with the maximum permitted ampere rating or setting of the overcurrent device. The rating for other individual branch circuits shall be 15, 20, 30, 40, and 50 amperes. Where conductors of higher ampacity are used for any reason, the ampere rating or setting of the specified overcurrent device shall determine the circuit rating.

Where conductors of higher ampacity are used for any reason, the ampere rating or setting of the specified overcurrent device shall determine the circuit rating.

>>>>>>>>>>

Even for purely safety reasons, should the wire gauge be appropriate for the increase breaker size, there really is nothing wrong with doing so. Yeah you break the law, but how many of you follow speed limits dogmatically ?

NEC 2011 Table 210.21(B)(3) Receptacle Rating for Various Size Circuits

Circuit Rating ...... Receptacle Rating
...(Amperes) ...........(Amperes)
...15 .................. Not over 15
...20 ................... 15 or 20
...30 ..................... 30
...40 ................. 40 or 50
...50 .................... 50

Only 15 amp receptacle/s can be installed on a 15 amp branch circuit.

20 amp receptacle/s can only be installed on a 20 amp branch circuit.

Two or more 15 amp receptacles can be installed on a 20 amp branch circuit. ( A duplex receptacle = two receptacles.)

A single 15 amp receptacle can only be installed on a 15 amp branch circuit.

Jim

Edits: 07/20/14

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Signature Sound

[ Signature Sound Lounge ]

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---