It's the standard Type 'G' 3-pin plug used in the UK for electrical equipment and appliances. It should always contain a cartridge fuse of the right size to match the current or "amperage" drawn by the equipment/appliance it is supplying with power. Standard fuses to fit the plug are available in 13 amp, 5 amp, 3 amp and 1 amp sizes. For more information see the Related Link and the answer to the Related Question shown below.
A #3 copper conductor with an insulation rating of 75 or 90 degrees C is rated at 100 and 105 amps respectively.
The ground earth wire serves two purposes:
To trip the protection as quickly as possible if theres an out of balanced current or a fault to earth.
and to bring the user to the same potential to the earth if there is a fault and the protection doesnt trip. that way because you are at the same potential as earth you will not get electrocuted.
im by no means an expert but the answer is yes you just wont get full potential out of the speakers. the amp is pushing 700 watts the speakers are capable of catching 1000 watts.
Can lights have a junction box attached to them. So yes.
There is no such thing as a watt amp.
To determine wire size you need to know the current. Watts = Current x Voltage, so if you know the applied voltage to the load that consumes 300 watts you can get the answer. If we assume 120 volts as standard home voltage then current is 25 amps. If you had 240 volts it would be 12.5 amps.
In general 14 AWG is 15 Amps
12 AWG is 20 Amps
10 AWG is 30 Amps
Most residential service in USA has both. In the USA 110 to 120 volts is a given and it would be very unusual not to have 220 to 240 volts. It can be easily tested at main panel with a volt meter. Or as an alternative call your power company.
A 50-amp cord -- the sort generally used for electric ranges -- will NOT fit into a 30-amp outlet. This arrangement (called "indexing") is meant to protect consumers from mismatching the two common 240 VAC appliance hookups.
If you're wondering whether an electric dryer can be run from a 50-amp outlet -- yep, all day and all night and to the end of time. All that needs to happen is to provide a 50-amp pigtail for the dryer. The dryer DRAWS amps, it doesn't RECEIVE them at the whim of the circuit. It will draw no more than usual on a 50-amp circuit.
An electric range -- normally a 50-amp 220-240 VAC appliance -- can be run on a 30-amp circuit... if you run just one or two burners at a time. The appliance is amp-rated based on all four (or six) burners and the oven all being on at the max settings all at the same time. Obviously, this seldom happens in real life. The worst thing that can happen when doing so -- in a properly wired building -- is that a breaker would pop.
To answer this question the circuits voltage must be stated. Find the total wattage of the lights, use the following formula. I = W/E, where W is the total wattage and E is the circuit's voltage.
If you are refering to a wall receptacle, the one on the right is the hot side. The left side is the neutral and it's slot is larger that the hot one. The U shaped on the bottom is for the ground pin of the plug.
For a distribution panel rated at 400 amps parallel runs of 3/0 conductors will do the job.
Either call for a service tech, or buy a new one. A mini fridge may cost less to buy new than to call for service, unlike a conventional refrigerator.
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Another option, consider going to the local appliance parts store and asking for a "hard start" unit (they sell for around $25). If you hear a "click" when the thermostat is moved below the current temp, but the "click" is not followed by the hum of the compressor, then it's either the starter or the compressor itself. If it's the starter, then the hard start unit will fix you right up.
The GFI outlet was there for a reason, such as a bathroom or other location around water where there is more risk of a shock being harmful or lethal. If it was a GFI, keep it a GFI. Also that outlet may be protecting other standard outlets being fed from the GFI.
You can only after the house has passed inspection after the house was finished being built. It's a requirement that all new houses have to have a GFI wherever there's water, but it's perfectly legal once you buy the house to do this modification.
However, it's highly not recommended unless there's more than one GFI outlet hooked up to the same circuit. If there's more than one, it's optional to take one off and replace it with a standard outlet because you really only need 1 GFI outlet to protect the rest of the outlets on the same circuit. But if it's already there, just leave it as is.
Example:
power box>GFI>normal>normal>GFI>normal; end;
You can take off the second GFI and and every normal non-GFI outlet will function like GFI. If you take off the left one, only the last normal outlet will be GFI protected, the ons to the left wouldn't.
You can reduce the breaker size because that limits the current that can reach the main panel. There is no safety issue other than the significant danger in an unskilled person changing out a main breaker.
This is a voltage drop question. To answer this question a voltage has to be stated. The higher the voltage to the circuit becomes the smaller the wire size needed. After a certain voltage point the wire size will remain constant and the voltage drop at the load will become smaller.
Yes, if there is a 208 volt connection on the multi tap ballast. One side of the 208 to the common terminal and the other side of the 208 supply to the 208 volt lead. <><><> As always, if you are in doubt about what to do, the best advice anyone should give you is to call a licensed electrician to advise what work is needed. Before you do any work yourself,
on electrical circuits, equipment or appliances,
always use a test meter to ensure the circuit is, in fact, de-energized. IF YOU ARE NOT ALREADY SURE YOU CAN DO THIS JOB
SAFELY AND COMPETENTLY
REFER THIS WORK TO QUALIFIED PROFESSIONALS.
Capacitors in parallel simply add up, similar to resistors in series...
CTOTAL = sumI=1-N (CI)
Capacitors in series work like resistors in parallel...
CTOTAL = 1 / sumI=1-N (1 / CI)
The answer to that question depends on exactly where in the building's wiring is being asked about.
The only place the neutral and ground (or "earth") wires in a building should ever be tied (or "connected") together is at the incoming service main breaker panel "upstream" of all the fuses and/or circuit breakers which are there to protect the hot (or "live") wires for the various circuits installed in the building.
In the absence of an earth wire (= ground wire in US/Canadian English), if the appliance suffered some damage that caused a short circuit between the high voltage "hot" lead and the case of the appliance, the damage would make the case live and it would cause an electrical shock to anyone who touched it.
If the case is earthed by using a ground wire (= earth wire in British English), if that same damage occurred the hot lead would immediately be shorted to ground and in theory cause the fuse to blow or circuit breaker to open, thus eliminating the danger of a live case.
<><><>
In the USA I think we refer to what you are calling an "earth wire," as a GROUNDING CONDUCTOR, which in effect is a separate conductor which seems to be doing nothing but is in fact a protective wire. It is there, ready to take the current away to earth if it, or the body/frame of the electrical device it is connected-to, makes contact with any "hot" wire. [120 Volts mains power is carried in two current carrying conductors "hot" and "neutral".]
So, IF one of the "hot" conductors should contact the metal frame or housing - perhaps because the appliance got damaged by being dropped from a table, or similar accident - the third wire which is the "ground" or "earth" wire, which runs directly from the housing to the grounding [or earth bus] in the fuse or breaker panel, will in effect cause a short circuit which should blow the fuse or trip the breaker.
This third wire also guarantees a current path back to the load center where the fuse or circuit breaker protecting that circuit is located, in the event the hot wire should be in contact with the frame, but the other [neutral/return] conductor should happen to be cut, disconnected, or open.
The idea is to guarantee that if a part of the device should become "hot," which could be fatal to anyone who then came into contact with it, would trip/open the circuit protection device [fuse or breaker], turning off the flow of current to that circuit.
<><><>
All the neutral and ground (or "earth") wires in a building are tied or linked together at the incoming service main breaker panel. This is the only place they should ever be tied together because it is "upstream" of all the fuses and/or circuit breakers protecting the hot (or "live") wires for the various circuits installed in the building.
Warning: we must never assume that a neutral is safe to touch: it has to be checked with a voltmeter or a voltage indicator to be sure it is not "live". This is because a neutral wire is designed to carry current under normal circumstances.
So, if a neutral wire going back to the incoming main breaker panel has not been properly connected - or suffers a deliberate disconnection or some accidental damage which causes it to break - then it and any neutral wires connected to it further downstream will go live up to the break because of being connected to the downstream loads which still have hot feeds coming into them!
That is why we should never use a neutral as a substitute for a proper, separate, ground or "earth" wire.
<><><>
In addition to the above description it should also be mentioned that the presence of an earth wire allows a very sensitive safety device called a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI) to operate. It will cut off the power supply to the appliance even if a tiny current of a few thousandths of an Amp is detected flowing in the earth wire, which should normally carry no current at all.
In USA/Canada, and similar countries which use mains supplies running at 120 Volts 60 Hz to feed power sockets, it is probable that the latest designs of GFCIs which are fitted to all new wiring work actually operate in the same way as the RCDs described in the next paragraph, although they are still commonly called GFCIs.
In Europe, where 230 Volts, 50Hz mains supplies are standard in homes, offices, etc. such protective "trip" devices are called Residual Current Detectors (RCDs) because, in addition to being able to detect small earth leakage currents, they have the ability to detect very small differences between the currents flowing in the hot (or live) wire and the neutral wire. Such imbalances might be caused by minor damage to the appliance which allows a small current - known as a residual current - to leak to earth either via the user or via the earth wire (if one is connected) even though the appliance itself is still working. So using an RCD helps to prevent a serious shock hazard to users if ever the kind of minor damage occurs which, in the absence of an RCD, would cause the appliance's casing to become "hot" or live.
Thus RCDs give a very high level of safe operation even if no circuit breaker has tripped and no fuse has blown and the appliance appears to be working normally. (But it has really become unsafe!) Because of the enhanced protection they give to users of appliances the latest European wiring regulations (= wiring codes in US/Canada and elsewhere) make it compulsory to fit RCDs to all new power circuits.
<><><>
As always, if you are in doubt about what to do, the best advice anyone should give you is to call a licensed electrician to advise what work is needed.
Before you do any work yourself,
on electrical circuits, equipment or appliances,
always use a test meter to ensure the circuit is, in fact, de-energized.
IF YOU ARE NOT ALREADY SURE YOU CAN DO THIS JOB
SAFELY AND COMPETENTLY
REFER THIS WORK TO QUALIFIED PROFESSIONALS.
A toaster can be either of :
Yes. The Home Depot has a kit for about $10 that converts a recessed can to accept a standard fixture. Weight limit is about 10 pounds.
For typical residential house wiring 12 AWG wire is required for a 20 Amp breaker. If you change out the breaker for a 25 A breaker you would have to rewire the circuit with 10 AWG. In that case you could up the breaker to 30 Amps. All outlets and switches should be rated at the same voltage and current as the breaker.
No. This practice is a violation of Article 210.19 (A) of the NEC. "Conductors of branch circuits supplying more than one receptacle for cord-and-plug-connected portable loads shall have an ampacity of not less than the rating of the branch circuit."
Yes, a #12 AWG conductor has a greater diameter than a #14 AWG conductor.
A #12 conductor has an ampacity of 20 amps whereas a #14 conductor only has an ampacity of 15 amps.
Answer for USA, Canada and countries running a 60 Hz power supply service. Extension cord construction If you are constructing an extension cord make sure that the ends go on the right end of the cable. Match the wire end when looking at it, to the proper pin configuration of the plug. Looking at the plug from the blade side directly on you should see a larger blade (silver) on the right, smaller (brass) blade on the left and a U shaped ground blade on the bottom. The white wire connects under the right (silver) coloured screw, the black wire connects under the left (brass) coloured screw and the green wire under the green ground screw. Looking at the end of the cable it should be matched to this configuration. If it doesn't look at the other end of the cable. No wires should cross when connecting to the blades on the plug, if they do you have the wrong end of the cable.
== == If you're asking about the electrical socket outlet itself, usually two screws fix it into its wall outlet box.
There are several ways to mount an electrical outlet box. Depending where you live, just go to your local Home Depot, B&Q, Homebase, Wickes or any similar hardware or DIY-supplies store and look around the section for electrical parts. If you're asking about the wall outlet box, usually 2 nails or screws fix it. If it's mounted into a hollow wall built using wooden wall studs and sheetrock/plasterboard, the nails or screws fix the box to the closest wall stud. If it's mounted into (or onto) a brick wall, the nails or screws fix the box to the brickwork.
If not nailed or screwed to a wall stud in a hollow wall, an electrical outlet box can be held-in with a pair of "jiffy clips" or the box itself has flip-up ears that clamp it to the sheetrock/plasterboard. These types of boxes are known as "EZ-Boxes". <><><> As always, if you are in doubt about what to do, the best advice anyone should give you is to call a licensed electrician to advise what work is needed. If you do this work yourself, always turn off the power
at the breaker box/fuse panel BEFORE you attempt to do any work
AND
always use an electricians test meter having metal-tipped probes
(not a simple proximity voltage indicator)
to insure the circuit is, in fact, de-energized.
IF YOU ARE NOT ALREADY SURE YOU CAN DO THIS JOB
SAFELY AND COMPETENTLY
REFER THIS WORK TO QUALIFIED PROFESSIONALS.