Robert,
The wire mat have been 12 gauge but too long and your heavy load could have 
dropped voltage at the outlet to approx 100V which turns a 1000W heater into a 
600W appliance, hence the trip at 2400W at 4 heaters. 
Cor

On Jan 20, 2016, at 7:23 AM, Robert Bruninga via EV <[email protected]> wrote:

>> Is there a way... to recognize the gauge and [circuit breaker] of an
> existing outlet?
> 
> Bring an electric heater, iron, coffeepot, toaster, hair dryer, or
> anything rated at 1000W or 1500W and plug them in one at a time for at
> least 5 minutes after the second one...
> 
> A 15 amp circuit should do a 1500W appliance for ever....
> A 15 amp circuit should trip eventually on anything over 1800W total
> A 20 amp circuit should handle 2000W forever
> A 20 amp circuit should trip eventually on anything over 2400W
> 
> I plugged three spaceheaters into three separate 120v convenience outlets
> on three floors in a garage to see if they were on the same circuit.  It
> took the 4th heater to finally trip the breake (they were all on the same
> circuit).  I didn't record the exact wattage of each, but I know they were
> all at least 1000W, so my assumption was that it took over 3kW to trip.
> Doesn't seem legal with NEC specs for 120v outlets...
> 
> Bob, WB4aPR
> _______________________________________________
> UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub
> http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org
> Read EVAngel's EV News at http://evdl.org/evln/
> Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
> 
_______________________________________________
UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub
http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org
Read EVAngel's EV News at http://evdl.org/evln/
Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)

Reply via email to