Help in ascertaining my amp limit.

[Adam Sackfield]

Good evening,

I am going to be increasing the power consumption in my apartment. I am trying to be diligent in regards to safety and have been reading on how to find out what limits I have.

So I believe I can map out my outlets and then map these to the breakers on the circuit breaker. Great I'm fine with this, however I also need to check the max 'amps' for the circuit breaker. From my research I was expecting to see 15a or 20a, but I don't see those and not sure where I should be looking, on my circuit breaker there are two sections of breaker levers, on the main breaker for section one I see "80 A" and on the main breaker for section two I see "100 A". Are these the max amps?

Also as an aside, there are only two breakers for sockets and they are both in the same section, does this mean I would need to split circuits for my appliances at a certain point?

Attached are a few images of the breakers.

Thanks in in advance for your guidance.

 

[jackhammerJIM]

If your apartment is not on the top floor you will have good heat camouflage from the police helicopter . The smell however will be your undoing .

 

[Geordie Spark]

As Davesparks says, this is modest load. Even with basic, low power factor control gear you can run both the lamps off one 13A plug, with a current less than that of one fanheater. Extractor fans have negligible consumption, only tens of watts. Check that any timeswitch you use can control an inductive load of say 1500W (some can't, or they will have a rating such as 13/3A meaning 13A resistive, 3A inductive, which wouldn't control both your lamps) and you might get away without the complications of a contactor. If you want to go down the contactor route, seek advice here about the wiring as many people try this and make a hash of it...

Oh yes!!! Very droll Lucien. I saw what you did there!! :devilish:

 

[Geordie Spark]

Oh yea of little faith (that includes me) see Top 10 Hydroponic Fruits & Vegetables | Easy Grow

seems its taking off must be costly tho whatever happened to the greenhouse?

That's where they keep the Moonshine Still.

 

[Phil Thompson]

I just see 420 all over this thread lol

 

[Bobster]

Doubt bonsai trees need extraction haha

 

[Adam Sackfield]

I would love a greenhouse but I live in apartment. Yeah the initial outlay is high, but that's the same for any hobby I have learnt. Trust me I have had plenty lol. It's nice to see someone else who can see that growing indoors lends itself to more than drugs. FYI I intend on growing tomatos, chills and strawberries although I hear it takes years from seed so we will see. Cucumbers are easy apparently shame I don't really like those.

 

[Adam Sackfield]

Everything would need extraction, to change the air in the tent. Now whether you have a filter inside or outside would be a tell tale sign.

 

[Adam Sackfield]

I'm at a loss to this reference. Care to elaborate?

 

[Adam Sackfield]

Doubt bonsai trees need extraction haha

Everything would need extraction, to change the air in the tent. Now whether you have a filter inside or outside would be a tell tale sign.

 

[Adam Sackfield]

Oh yea of little faith (that includes me) see Top 10 Hydroponic Fruits & Vegetables | Easy Grow

seems its taking off must be costly tho whatever happened to the greenhouse?

I would love a greenhouse but I live in apartment. Yeah the initial outlay is high, but that's the same for any hobby I have learnt. Trust me I have had plenty lol. It's nice to see someone else who can see that growing indoors lends itself to more than drugs. FYI I intend on growing tomatos, chills and strawberries although I hear it takes years from seed so we will see. Cucumbers are easy apparently shame I don't really like those.

 

[Adam Sackfield]

As Davesparks says, this is modest load. Even with basic, low power factor control gear you can run both the lamps off one 13A plug, with a current less than that of one fanheater. Extractor fans have negligible consumption, only tens of watts. Check that any timeswitch you use can control an inductive load of say 1500W (some can't, or they will have a rating such as 13/3A meaning 13A resistive, 3A inductive, which wouldn't control both your lamps) and you might get away without the complications of a contactor. If you want to go down the contactor route, seek advice here about the wiring as many people try this and make a hash of it...

thanks for the information. Much appreciated.

 

[Lucien Nunes]

I saw what you did there!!

Eh? I just meant that haphazard wiring could cause the whole operation to go to pot. How often do we see some dope bodging a switching system together with weedy bits of undersize cable and badly-made joints? Usually ends with a loud bhang. Or in this case a loud raspberry.

 

[Leesparkykent]

http://www.ecotechnics.co.uk/powerstar.htm would probably be best using a plug and play contactor.

 

[YoungScud]

powerstar would probably be best using a plug and play contactor.

A range of the contactors Lee posted are available on Amazon.

Amazon.co.uk: powerstar contactor