Yes you would be daisy chaining from fixture to fixture.. The large blue wire
nuts can if needed cover six or seven number 12 wires together, but you have to
strip them a bit longer than normal twist them together then if needed trim
with cutters then install the wire at more as a cover and tightened. Usually
for this many connections a much larger box becomes necessary. Personally I
use number 12 wire for lights and outlets. Theoretical limit of 2400 watts.
Code says no greater than 80 percent continuous load giving you 1,920 watts.
That's a lot of light bulbs. You only have to buy one circuit breaker and one
power line as well as fewer box connectors. All a money saving. By the way
the 2008 code requires arc fault breakers on all circuits other than special
duty and ground fault protected ones. These breakers cost $40 to $60 each
whether 15 or 20 amp. You do the math one circuit or two.
Ron
----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Rossi
To: Blind Handyman List
Sent: Monday, February 15, 2010 8:56 AM
Subject: [BlindHandyMan] How many connections are feasible.
OK, lets say I've got this idea of having a single circuit for all the
lights on the second floor of my house. That way, if an air conditioner
overloads a circuit, or my wife throws the toaster into the shower while
I'm in there, none of the lights will go out. I believe it is pretty rare
for a light fixture to overload a circuit, although it is possible. But I
just thought it would be a cool concept to have a breaker that says, all
lights on second floor.
In my house, I think this is doable in that a 15 amp circuit can handle
1440 Watts. 1440 Watts is a hell of a lot of attic.
OK, so how do you wire this? I can't imagine that it works to run say six
or eight sets of wires from various light fixtures to one box, and one
power line. Then try and tie 7 or 9 black wires together and 7 or 9
whites together. I wouldn't think you could twist that many wires
together.
So, do you just run the power to the first fixture, then jump to the next
fixture, and daisy chain your way along, wiring a switch in parallel for
each fixture?
--
Blue skies.
Dan Rossi
Carnegie Mellon University.
E-Mail: [email protected]
Tel: (412) 268-9081
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
