Kitchens and small appliance branch circuits .
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People often call me and tell me that a whole section of their kitchen is not working . This seems to mystify them . Not because they are stupid or lack intelligence but because they have a preconceived notion about how their home is wired . Most people seem to think that all of the outlets are fed from their main electrical panel box . I guess they never really put much thought into it . It seems like their preconceived notion is that the main electrical panel is like a spider with the thousand legs . And each one of the legs feeds an electrical outlet in their home . This is in fact not the case .
One 20 amp electrical circuit is capable of feeding about 10 to 15 devices . Depending on what you're going to plug into them . The standard kitchen usually has 4 to 8 receptacles on 120 amp circuit . These electrical outlets are daisy-chained together as it were and each one is dependent on the receptacle in the chain upstream to provide it with power . The circuit is so dependent on each devise that in most cases if you remove one of the receptacles the rest of the circuit will not work .
Now back to the statement I made about the quantity of receptacles and that depending on the items that you're plugging into the circuit . A 20 amp circuit at 110 V has approximately 2000 W of electricity available . If you plug in an 1800 W toaster oven you have maxed out the circuit virtually . If you want to use your toaster oven and use a blender and or counter top microwave at the same time you need to add another circuit to one of the receptacles along the counter top .
Now adding another circuit does not mean adding an additional receptacle . You can install wiring to one of the existing receptacles and use the new wiring and leave the old wiring in the back of the box type through to power the other receptacles and in essence leaving that circuit as it was before but utilizing the new cable feeding the new receptacle device that is installed in the old box . When electrician comes in your home because your tripping circuit breakers on a regular basis and recommends installing a dedicated circuit this is what he is recommending . Contact One of your qualified Concord electricians NC today for more information .
One 20 amp electrical circuit is capable of feeding about 10 to 15 devices . Depending on what you're going to plug into them . The standard kitchen usually has 4 to 8 receptacles on 120 amp circuit . These electrical outlets are daisy-chained together as it were and each one is dependent on the receptacle in the chain upstream to provide it with power . The circuit is so dependent on each devise that in most cases if you remove one of the receptacles the rest of the circuit will not work .
Now back to the statement I made about the quantity of receptacles and that depending on the items that you're plugging into the circuit . A 20 amp circuit at 110 V has approximately 2000 W of electricity available . If you plug in an 1800 W toaster oven you have maxed out the circuit virtually . If you want to use your toaster oven and use a blender and or counter top microwave at the same time you need to add another circuit to one of the receptacles along the counter top .
Now adding another circuit does not mean adding an additional receptacle . You can install wiring to one of the existing receptacles and use the new wiring and leave the old wiring in the back of the box type through to power the other receptacles and in essence leaving that circuit as it was before but utilizing the new cable feeding the new receptacle device that is installed in the old box . When electrician comes in your home because your tripping circuit breakers on a regular basis and recommends installing a dedicated circuit this is what he is recommending . Contact One of your qualified Concord electricians NC today for more information .