Upgrading electrical outlets?
- Thread starter MarcosDelgado0
- Start date
Daymn. That was extremely dangerous. You won the lottery my friend.
I didn’t read thru the whole thread. But this is what I can add in. I’m not an electrical expert or fan. I do play around with it tho. Old houses are 15amp systems basic 14 gauge wire. Newer houses are 20 amps 12 gauge wire. You can go down to your breaker box and look at the circuit breaker. It will have a number on the switch. That’s the rating of the breaker. Ok so what am I saying. Chances are your aquariums will never pull 15 amps. That’s a lot for an aquarium. If you’re worried. You can always get a kilowatt meter and spec out each component or whole system. My 320,30,25 and 10 gallon pulls 10 amps when everything is on. So I wouldn’t worry too much about it
Ok. So what would I do ? If your dead set on gfci outlet. Then check the 3 plug with a grounding tool like the one in the picture above. If it is grounded then put in a gfci breaker. Then run extension cords. Orange cords are light duty and yellow is medium duty black is heavy duty. Orange is ok. Yellow is better.
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Im pretty sure the companies I worked for then motto was Saftey 4th
Coral reefer
Past President
Technically it’s tied for third with a two point conversion. Clearly behind a touchdown and a field goal
I have extension cords all over the house. Not to trip breakers. With the tanks. Can't run microwave and toaster oven at same time. Or I have to turn off the ac to use the dryer.
So with the extension cords I ensure only one tank's power strip is plugged into to a single breaker. Otherwise they all will go black. Very inconvient when most of the tanks are all in the same room.
I rent the place so meh nothing i can do about it. Even if money for that kinda upgrade wasn't a issue.
This is seriously the only place I ever lived that had these issues.
So with the extension cords I ensure only one tank's power strip is plugged into to a single breaker. Otherwise they all will go black. Very inconvient when most of the tanks are all in the same room.
I rent the place so meh nothing i can do about it. Even if money for that kinda upgrade wasn't a issue.
This is seriously the only place I ever lived that had these issues.
Your House needs a panel upgrade with new wiring and more circuits in your house. . Depending on year your house was built you may have old knob and tube whiich is new 2 wire power system no ground wire.
Definitely outdated wiring. It's a 4 plex apt building built in 1962 lmao. So yes let me tell the landlord to hop on that (get my apartment totally rewired - screw the neighbors they don't have reef tanks) so I can get my multiple aquariums plugged in more efficiently Jk.
Intresting let me know how it goes. Wouldn’t mind one or two.at that price. Oddly i have a gfc outlet in kitchen and both bathrooms so i suspect that wiring could have grounds they just used cheap outlets. I may have to get someone to check things for me at the least. I couldn't have someone opening walls etc being i'm only renting. I couldn't do anything that drastic. Without permission. Swaping a outlet Wouldn’t be that invasive if I'm that lucky.
The main power coming into the kitchen and bathroom has to be gfci protected. That’s the city code. Regarding the items that you mentioned. Those are considered high demand items. Meaning when they start or in use. They pull a lot of amps. Thus popped breakers. If you spread the high demand items out to different breakers you can avoid this problem. But of course sometimes that is just unavoidable.
Nitpick: having a GFCI doesn't mean there are grounding wires, nor that the outlet is even grounded. You can install a GFCI outlet anywhere. The proper thing to do if ungrounded is install the GFCI and label it as not grounded. Having GFCI without grounding is safer than nothing, in that the GFCI should trip when there's a fault. Eg if a heater is broken, hopefully enough current flows through that the GFCI trips. GFCI's effectively are measuring "did the amount of current coming in match the amount of current going out".
Also RE code, the code applies to new, permitted work including new construction. A 1950 house that hasn't been upgraded (or hasn't had a permit really inspected) can have ungrounded or even 2-prong outlets wherever, including the bathroom. You don't have to change anything unless you do some sort of electrical work around it (or if your insurance company makes you).
Neither of those statements are necessarily in conflict with what @Turkeysammich said, but noting there's a lot of gray area around it.
Also RE code, the code applies to new, permitted work including new construction. A 1950 house that hasn't been upgraded (or hasn't had a permit really inspected) can have ungrounded or even 2-prong outlets wherever, including the bathroom. You don't have to change anything unless you do some sort of electrical work around it (or if your insurance company makes you).
Neither of those statements are necessarily in conflict with what @Turkeysammich said, but noting there's a lot of gray area around it.
finalphaze987
Supporting Member
You can technically install a gfci outlet and wire the ground to the screw that holds the box in and it would be grounded.
Not that I'd recommend it, but I know it's been done and works.