If people are hell bent of plugging anything and everything into receptacles, and using multioutlet strips to increase receptacles on circuits when they run out of them, neither limiting the number of receps or demanding the circuits be 20 amps will help. The problem, is that neither method is effective in the prevention of overloading because there is no way to control what gets plugged into such power circuits. This is an attempt to reduce overloading by permitting the most common larger household loads to be served from larger cicuits.Īnother is the NEC's requirement to calculate receptacles at 180va for load purposes which has the net effect of setting a maximum number of outlets on any given 15 or 20 amp circuit. One such scheme is the NEC's current one for residential wiring that requires 20 amp circuits for small appliance, bathroom, and similar power circuits. Reason I asked is that codemaking panels have tried for years to develop some sort of parameters to regulate the size of circuits and number of outlets on them to limit overloading, but none have never succeeded. In the real world, we wire receptacles on 20 amps and lights on 15 amps." Sould I install one of those KVAR units to save on my electric bills.JUST KIDDING !!! Have any of you pros seen wear issues from connecting/disconnecting 15A plugs on 20A outlets ? Should I spend twice as much to get the "lesser" 15A Decora outlets, even though my pitiful wiring will be upgraded anyway ? Adding 20A outlets in every room would be overkill, but is it otherwise "wrong" ? I'm a little nuts to go through all this trouble to get red outlets. The only place "backstab" outlets should be installed is in a landfill. It's my own home so local BI will issue me a permit (he's done so in the past). However, a 15A single outlet needs a 15A breaker. A dual or quad 15A outlet can be fed from a 20A breaker. Using 20A breakers/wiring, or more breakers/homeruns will stop the nusance breaker trips. Some breakers trip from time to time because too many outlets are fed by a single breaker (iron + aircon or TV plus microwave). House panel is a 200A Square-D QO-series with plenty of room for more breakers. I also don't know if 20A outlets will "wear out" more quickly when plugging/unplugging only 15A plugs. I don't know if "standard" outlets are more durable than Decoras. Advantage: No need to upgrade wire or breakers right away with 15A units. The red Decoras come in either 15A or 20A. Disadvantage: Will have to upgrade wire and breaker on each new outlet right away. Advantage: half the price of Decora outlets. I plan on upgrading to 12-2 and 20A breakers wherever these are installed no 20A outlets will go on a 15A circuit. These are NOT the isolated-ground orange ones. The "standard" red ones come only in 20A. My dilemma.should I go with the "standard" or Decora style? I really like some red outlets I've seen on a design website. Other than the bathroom, I want to change all of the two-outlet boxes to quads. I want to replace the whole lot with something "different". Most of them (with exception of the bathroom and kitchen) are the "backstab" style. A few are even cracked (not the outlet cover, but the face). Many of them are too loose to reliably accept a plug. If there is no grounding pigtail in the box, cut an additional pigtail from the cable roll and connect it to the box's ground screw and the other ground wires and pigtail.The original contractor-grade electrical outlets in my home are in rough shape. Join this pigtail with the two circuit grounds and the new grounding pigtail, connecting all of them with a single wire connector. Note: If you have a metal indoor box, there should be a grounding pigtail already attached to the box (all metal boxes must be grounded). Do the same with the three white wires, then the three ground wires. If your box already contained two white wires and two black wires, you will join those with the new wires and the pigtails, too, joining a total of four white wires together and four black wires together. Join the black wire from the new circuit cable to the black wire from the existing circuit cable and the black pigtail wire, using an appropriately sized wire connector (wire nut). Strip 3/4 inch of insulation from the black and white insulated wires. Strip away about 6 inches of the outer sheathing on the interior end of the newly installed circuit cable. The Spruce Home Improvement Review Board.
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