Anyone know about electrical outlets and all that?

Hi, I know that different houses are wired differently but I just need a general idea of how many watts I can run out of a standard american outlet? Also, would a bigger outlet be able to take more watts or does it just have more plug ins? How many watts can i Put into an outlit with 6 plug ins? Not a splitter either, there are 6 in a wall

Thanks so much

Forget about outlets,you need to think in terms of line's,every outlet does not have it's own line,lines are shared by several/many different outlets,sometimes the line is shared by outlets in different rooms,you can check which line controls each outlet by plugging in an electrical device in every outlet in the house,then turn them all on at once,then start flipping breakers off until you find out which outlest turn off with what switch,this will tell you what outlets are ran off the intended outlet for your grow,this way you can limit whats on that line.

With that being said all lines are not equal,you need to look at the breaker to determine how much wattage the outlet is capabale of giving before flipping a breaker,15 amp & 20 amp are the most common lines/breakers in homes.

The formula for finding out the max wattage is as followed.

Amps x Volts X 80% Duty cycle.

To find the safe wattage for a 15 amp line you'd have this equasition.

15 Amps X 120 Volts X 80% Duty cycle = 1,440 watts.

A 20 Amp line's safe wattage would look like this.

20 Amps X 120 Volts X 80% Duty cycle = 1,920 watts.

If you have the old style screw in fuses it's safe to assume that the fuse's that are now in the fuse box are of improper amperage,people tend to get sick of blowing fuses,they are hard to find for most people & a pain in the ass so they compensate by installing heavier fuses,be on the safe side,install all 15 amp fuses in the fuse box & assume all lines are max 15 amp,then follow the 15 amp equasition.

excellent question, I always wondered about this. great info there panhead, I would +rep but it appears I've already given you some. I was actualy out looking for something that would test the amps on the outlets, but now I realize its the lines I need to worry about.

I don't mean to hi-jack the thread, but I live in a small cassita detached from the main house, do the outlets ussualy share 1 line?

thanks a lot man. That was a lot of help

"Amps x Volts X 80% Duty cycle"

It's nice that there are knowledgable people on this board who understand that a circuit ran as a continuous load needs to be derated to 80% and also points out that screw type fuses should be the 15 amp variety. Great safety!

Used to in some older homes they would stack up to 12 "loads" per circuit, Current Standards(US) say's no more than 8 load sites. (Outlets or light fixtures.)
Additionally you may ne in a location that used Aluminum or Copper Clad Aluminum for wiring. If so they may require additional care to insure all connections are tight, and or the addition of "Noalox", a Zinc based paste used to prevent Aluminum Oxide from forming due to Electrolysis.

I need to run two 1kW lamps. After searching, it seems a good idea would be to use a Intermatic T104? Timer. How would you wire up the outlets from this timer so I could have two 1kW lamps running? Could I just run 12g from the timer to a two gang box with 2 outlets and plug each 1000w light into each outlet?