Ceiling Fans

[Bob]

I'm planning on adding 5 ceiling fans at the cottage.

Will 1 15 amp curcuit do the trick? Or should I make it 20?

Bob

[S. Barker]

I'd run two 15a circuits. The 14ga wire is eaiser to work with, and all your lights won't go out at the same time if you pop a breaker. As for the actual load, well it would depend on what kind of bulbs you use in the fan lights. 1440 watts is your max on a typical 15a circuit. With five fans you have about 400 watts in the fan motors. That leaves you roughly a thousand for the lights. If there is a total of 20 bulbs, then you can only have 50 watt (or less) bulbs. Someone goes and sticks 60 or 75 watt bulbs in all twenty sockets and you are technically overloaded.

s

[Phisherman]

Suppose each fan has a light and each maxes out at a total of 200 watts. For five fans you need 1000 watts of power.

P = I*E I = P/E I = 1000/120 = 8 amps

I like to keep the max amps about half of the circuit capacity so a 15 amp circuit will be fine. If you think the needs will exceed 1000 watts, then plan a 20 amp circuit or an additional circuit.

[AZ Nomad]

can you add?

[S. Barker]

Of course that's the sensible thing to think someone would do. But electrically, you have to be aware of what MIGHT happen. Just like sewer systems in large buildings must be able to handle ALL the fixtures going at once.

s

BUT,it's hot out and the fan are probably being used for cooling. So why would you use that many lights, which create heat. The better suggest might be to put it all on one circuit but use CF bulbs.

[Red Green]

AZ Nomad wrote in news: [e-mail]:

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[LouB]

Are the fans going to have lights?

Lou

[Bob]

Thanks for everyones reply. I will use CFB's and the units are primarily for the fan. I also have the luxury of a complete back up generator. In cottage country (Ontario North) we have a lot of power outages.

Yes I can add, but without knowing typical motor current I did not have anything to add. Interesting that no one asked what distance the runs were.

At any rate I think I'll go with one 15 amp circuit. The wire is a lot easier to handle.

Bob

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