Wiring Thread: This stupid safety device started alerting that there wasn't safety!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Wiring Thread: This stupid safety device started alerting that there wasn't safety!

wallaka: Jun 8, 2010; Least it wasn't a fucking red shell

Sanity check: I was looking at my main service panel to see if there were any open spaces, and counted 320 amps worth of breakers. They�re all 220 though. This is fine, right?

# ¿ May 24, 2020 01:42

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 06:06

wallaka: Jun 8, 2010; Least it wasn't a fucking red shell

B-Nasty posted:

They probably aren't all 240v (double pole), because only certain appliances use that in a house. Maybe they are tandems?

In any case, you can't just add up the breaker handles to estimate the load. There's a specific load calc an electrician (or you, maybe) can perform to determine what your main service should be: https://zenfixit.com/free-electrical-load-calculator/form-00.pdf?sfvrsn=1ca8e453_16

As a very rough rule of thumb: if you have a 200A service, you're almost certainly good to go. If you have natural gas and use it for heating/cooking/water heaters, you can usually get by with 100A, though more is always better.

Look at the main breaker. What does it say? List you major electric appliances (stove? dryer? water heater? electric car? AC? elec baseboard heat?) and house sq/ft and a good guess can be made.

A/C, dryer, stove, water heater, and a breaker going to the secondary breaker panel inside the house. They should all be 240v as far as I can tell. It�s a 2200 square foot split level house.

# ¿ May 25, 2020 17:44

wallaka: Jun 8, 2010; Least it wasn't a fucking red shell

devicenull posted:

Would something like this help? https://www.micro-air.com/products_easystart_368_softstarter_microair.cfm

I can't actually tell WTF that does, the docs kinda just present it as snake oil...

It's just a larger capacitor, and they do help with inrush load.

I run my RV air conditioner on a 4k inverter generator with no issues. However, it's only 15k BTUs at 25A, and horribly inefficient. I'd say a modern mini-split could run on a 7k generator with zero problems as long as it's less than around 20k BTUS, especially the super-efficient 19+ SEER units we're seeing now.

I can't run the microwave and A/C at the same time, though.

# ¿ May 1, 2022 23:47

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