Ooops, forgpt to run the line for the baseboard

[FrankInWI]

Hey.. I goofed.  I wanted to be sure ALL my electric lines were in before they blew in the cellulose.  My plan is constantly evolving and I had some #12 and #10 wire to run.  I ran 220 #12 for the two baseboards in the space upstairs from the garage. 

I forgot to run the #12 to the baseboard in the temporary/makeshit bathroom in the lower corner of the garage.  I did run the #10 wire for the small 30 gal electric water heater in that bathroom/shower area. 

The baseboard takes 8.5 AMPS.  I hear water heaters take 15 to 20 AMPS.  Can I run them BOTH off the same 25' long #10 wire? 

If it's too much for that gauge of wire, what happens? 

Thanks!

[firefox]

My gut feeling is that you would be asking for it. You want to have those on seperate breakers.

Can you use the #10 wire to pull in a pull rope? If that is feasable then you could use the pull rope to pull in the two cables you need.

Not sure what obsticles you will run into, but be sure to put lots of lube on the rope and the  wire.

Good luck!
Bruce

[FrankInWI]

couldn't pull #10 out and 2 others back through. all stapled and through many joists... all buried under the cellulose.

[glenn kangiser]

#10 is good for 30 amps, so I think it would work.  I assume they are both 220 otherwise it won't work as the legs will not be evenly loaded and you will likely pop the breaker.

With a 30A double breaker the worst you can do is trip it - no fires.  Then go to plan B.

[FrankInWI]

yes, both 220.  Thanks

[MountainDon]

You'll have no problem with that 220 VAC etup Frank.

[muldoon]

I have been reading up on electric quite a bit so maybe I can help on this one.

There are a few things to consider here, circuit size, wire size, load rating.

#10 wire is considered to have ampacity of between 35-40 amps based on NEC 310.16
http://www.houwire.com/products/technical/article310_16.html

As for load, a circuit breaker is by code supposed to run without tripping when under 80% of rated load.  ie, a circuit breaker will require a minimum of 80% utilization to trip it. 

Because your wire is sized to fit the breaker you'll have no trouble here.  As Glenn said, worst case is you pop the breaker.  If you were to use #12 or #14 wire fed from a 30amp breaker you could potentially run into a fire condition if the wire overheated due to not being sufficient to handle the load. 

As for the breaker being able to sustain the load without tripping, you need to read the tags on the devices and note the wattage requirements.  Basically, watts = voltage* amperage. 

For example, a 110v circuit on a 20 amp circuit will support (110*20*.80) = 1760 watts before being considered close to overload.  (recall the 80% above for the .8  ) 
For your use:
220v 30 amp = (220*30*.80) = 5280 watts without any trouble.

Go read the usage requirements of the equipment and add them up, if you come in under those numbers you'll be just fine.  I expect you will be just fine but this lets you sleep good at night knowing for sure. 

[MountainDon]

   Frank, you are not alone. I just realized this afternoon I neglected to run a 12 VDC line before gettting the drywall on the wall.   

[Redoverfarm]

And I thought I was the only one.

[FrankInWI]

as you can see...the blown in cellulose would be wrecked if I had to get between the studs and joists to run wire.  I'm ok though, had enough feedback and other research to be comfortable knowing it'll work out.





ED: for some reason the photo link didn't want to work, so I fiddled with it - MD

[MountainDon]

That looks so pretty it was a shame to cover it up.