Max Electrical box voltage draw

Mobileaudio25

Active Member
I have a 200amp main breaker switch on my electrical box. Most of my outlets are hooked up to 15 or 20 amp breakers. I know that safely I can hook up no more that 1440w to a 15 amp and no more than 1920 to a 20 amp circuit.

My question is how many watts can my electrical box supply at once? For example let's say I power every circuit(breaker) to 1200w would my electrical box still be able to safely support all of that draw even though my circuits are all capable of doing so? Can you overpower an electrical box and still under power each circuit?
 

AKgrower29

Well-Known Member
If your main breaker is 200 amps then that is the maximum that your panel will be able to draw. If your wanting a conversion to watts is Amps X Volts = Watts. Your 200 amp breaker is operating at 240 volts. So 200 x 240 = 48000 watts is where your main breaker will trip. Now it's never recommended to exceed 80% load. So truthfully constant load limit is 40000 watts.
 

QtrNdaPuss

Well-Known Member
If your main breaker is 200 amps then that is the maximum that your panel will be able to draw. If your wanting a conversion to watts is Amps X Volts = Watts. Your 200 amp breaker is operating at 240 volts. So 200 x 240 = 48000 watts is where your main breaker will trip. Now it's never recommended to exceed 80% load. So truthfully constant load limit is 40000 watts.
if you run 40kwh you are gonna light that building up in a short amount of time.
 

AKgrower29

Well-Known Member
Well that depends if no single circuit is overloaded then he is in no danger. But if he is overloading cicuits it could take as little as a few thousand watts.
 

kratos015

Well-Known Member
Actually, I wouldn't recommend ever maxing out a load on a breaker. Especially if you don't know what the condition of the breaker and/or wiring is. These lights take up a lot of energy, which will create a lot of heat, and if you're running things at a constant 100% you could find yourself starting a fire. 75-80% is the recommended max capacity.

200 amps x 120v = 24k watts, at 75% capacity that would be 18k watts you can safely run. However, you need to figure out what breakers are connected to what outlets in your house and go from there. I don't know if you're in a house or what, but with a 200a panel I'm going to guess a house in the suburbs for sake of example? Each room is likely connected to a 15A breaker, which would be able to handle a single 1k light or 2 600w lights and absolutely nothing else. Unless you've got yourself a kick ass central air conditioner and are willing to run it as long as you run your lights, you won't be able to control temps because you won't be able to plug in an A/C to whatever room your lights are in. No humidifiers, fans, etc, only the lights. The best thing you could do is do single 600w lights in each room as that would only be 5.3A on a 15A breaker, leaving you room for a humidifier/dehumidifier, fans, and an inline fan. This would still require you running central air so that's kind of meh too. There is no way you will be able to hook up an A/C of any sort on the same breaker as an HPS light, so unless you can light cool the light efficiently you could have some problems.

I recommend looking into a light controller for your dryer outlet, if you're not confident in your ability to do this then consult an electrician. It's a simple enough process if you know the basics. Just take a look at your dryer outlet, find the matching cable in as large of a length as you can and splice it into the light controller. I'm doing something similar with an RV hook up (30A @ 120v), I got myself a 25 ft RV cable, cut off the female end, stripped the wire and wired it into a 4 light controller. It's working out quite nicely for me and the same thing can be done with a dryer outlet instead. If you wired the light controller from the dryer outlet into one of the bedrooms, you could run 4 600w lights or 3 600w lights and a single 1k light on the controller, and still have the 15A breaker in the bedroom to work with. If you get your light cooling good enough to the point where your central A/C can help pick up the slack you'd be golden. Hell, if the 4 600 watters were light cooled enough then a 8k BTU window unit might even be able to do the job. It would only take 7-8 amps, leaving you with some wiggle room for your fans and a humidifier should you need one. If in doubt, consult an electrician!

If you post a few more details about the place you're working with I can do what I can to help, but unless you're confident in wiring a controller to a dryer cable or having single 600 watters in each bedroom with dialed in air cooling then you don't have many options without consulting an electrician.

Hope I was able to help.
 

Mobileaudio25

Active Member
I apologize my main thread title should have said "max electrical box wattage draw"

I actually am residential with a 200amp 125v panel. I will make sure that each circuit (breaker) is underpowered by 2-300 w. My question was, if I underpower all of the circuits a few hundred watts will my electrical box be able to safely provide the current to all of my outlets. Honestly I only plan on running 4 600w and 2 400w with fans and all of that. This will be split up over 4 different circuits. I have done 2 600w and a 400w with fans and all that without any problem.
 

Mobileaudio25

Active Member
Actually, I wouldn't recommend ever maxing out a load on a breaker. Especially if you don't know what the condition of the breaker and/or wiring is. These lights take up a lot of energy, which will create a lot of heat, and if you're running things at a constant 100% you could find yourself starting a fire. 75-80% is the recommended max capacity.

200 amps x 120v = 24k watts, at 75% capacity that would be 18k watts you can safely run. However, you need to figure out what breakers are connected to what outlets in your house and go from there. I don't know if you're in a house or what, but with a 200a panel I'm going to guess a house in the suburbs for sake of example? Each room is likely connected to a 15A breaker, which would be able to handle a single 1k light or 2 600w lights and absolutely nothing else. Unless you've got yourself a kick ass central air conditioner and are willing to run it as long as you run your lights, you won't be able to control temps because you won't be able to plug in an A/C to whatever room your lights are in. No humidifiers, fans, etc, only the lights. The best thing you could do is do single 600w lights in each room as that would only be 5.3A on a 15A breaker, leaving you room for a humidifier/dehumidifier, fans, and an inline fan. This would still require you running central air so that's kind of meh too. There is no way you will be able to hook up an A/C of any sort on the same breaker as an HPS light, so unless you can light cool the light efficiently you could have some problems.

I recommend looking into a light controller for your dryer outlet, if you're not confident in your ability to do this then consult an electrician. It's a simple enough process if you know the basics. Just take a look at your dryer outlet, find the matching cable in as large of a length as you can and splice it into the light controller. I'm doing something similar with an RV hook up (30A @ 120v), I got myself a 25 ft RV cable, cut off the female end, stripped the wire and wired it into a 4 light controller. It's working out quite nicely for me and the same thing can be done with a dryer outlet instead. If you wired the light controller from the dryer outlet into one of the bedrooms, you could run 4 600w lights or 3 600w lights and a single 1k light on the controller, and still have the 15A breaker in the bedroom to work with. If you get your light cooling good enough to the point where your central A/C can help pick up the slack you'd be golden. Hell, if the 4 600 watters were light cooled enough then a 8k BTU window unit might even be able to do the job. It would only take 7-8 amps, leaving you with some wiggle room for your fans and a humidifier should you need one. If in doubt, consult an electrician!

If you post a few more details about the place you're working with I can do what I can to help, but unless you're confident in wiring a controller to a dryer cable or having single 600 watters in each bedroom with dialed in air cooling then you don't have many options without consulting an electrician.

Hope I was able to help.
Good info! Seems like you have a good idea what's going on. See my above post.

I will have all air cooled lights except for maybe 1 600w and a 400w. All rooms will have adequate exhaust being extracted from the house. I will figure it out if there is a heat issue I'm not worried about that...

I also have a few 15amp and 20amp circuits that I am going to tap into. My question was if I run around 1000-1200 watts on 4 different circuits with my ac do you think my box will be able to supply that and what I use daily around the home?

I will make sure nothing is tripping or over powered I just want to make sure my box could support around 4000w spread to 4 different circuits constantly (not one circuit having more than 1200 .
 

kratos015

Well-Known Member
Well that depends if no single circuit is overloaded then he is in no danger. But if he is overloading cicuits it could take as little as a few thousand watts.
Especially depending on the type of wire used as well as how old it is. It's an awful lot of heat being
Good info! Seems like you have a good idea what's going on. See my above post.

I will have all air cooled lights except for maybe 1 600w and a 400w. All rooms will have adequate exhaust being extracted from the house. I will figure it out if there is a heat issue I'm not worried about that...

I also have a few 15amp and 20amp circuits that I am going to tap into. My question was if I run around 1000-1200 watts on 4 different circuits with my ac do you think my box will be able to supply that and what I use daily around the home?

I will make sure nothing is tripping or over powered I just want to make sure my box could support around 4000w spread to 4 different circuits constantly (not one circuit having more than 1200 .
Oh yeah, definitely. So long as you make sure the max load on the circuit isn't more than 75-80% or so you'll be fine. I run 4 lights on one 30A breaker, and the other 2 on separate 15A breakers, about 4400w total. So long as you make sure you don't exceed 11-12 amps per 15A breaker you should be fine. I'd find out what breakers go to what outlets first, then go from there. Some of your rooms might already have appliances in them, so either disconnect them or make sure you aren't maxing the amperage on your breaker. Once you figure out what outlets go to what breakers from that point it's just a matter of doing some math to figure out how to balance things out so that none of your breakers are doing too much. Totally doable though.
 

bottletoke

Well-Known Member
Actually, I wouldn't recommend ever maxing out a load on a breaker. Especially if you don't know what the condition of the breaker and/or wiring is. These lights take up a lot of energy, which will create a lot of heat, and if you're running things at a constant 100% you could find yourself starting a fire. 75-80% is the recommended max capacity.

200 amps x 120v = 24k watts, at 75% capacity that would be 18k watts you can safely run. However, you need to figure out what breakers are connected to what outlets in your house and go from there. I don't know if you're in a house or what, but with a 200a panel I'm going to guess a house in the suburbs for sake of example? Each room is likely connected to a 15A breaker, which would be able to handle a single 1k light or 2 600w lights and absolutely nothing else. Unless you've got yourself a kick ass central air conditioner and are willing to run it as long as you run your lights, you won't be able to control temps because you won't be able to plug in an A/C to whatever room your lights are in. No humidifiers, fans, etc, only the lights. The best thing you could do is do single 600w lights in each room as that would only be 5.3A on a 15A breaker, leaving you room for a humidifier/dehumidifier, fans, and an inline fan. This would still require you running central air so that's kind of meh too. There is no way you will be able to hook up an A/C of any sort on the same breaker as an HPS light, so unless you can light cool the light efficiently you could have some problems.

I recommend looking into a light controller for your dryer outlet, if you're not confident in your ability to do this then consult an electrician. It's a simple enough process if you know the basics. Just take a look at your dryer outlet, find the matching cable in as large of a length as you can and splice it into the light controller. I'm doing something similar with an RV hook up (30A @ 120v), I got myself a 25 ft RV cable, cut off the female end, stripped the wire and wired it into a 4 light controller. It's working out quite nicely for me and the same thing can be done with a dryer outlet instead. If you wired the light controller from the dryer outlet into one of the bedrooms, you could run 4 600w lights or 3 600w lights and a single 1k light on the controller, and still have the 15A breaker in the bedroom to work with. If you get your light cooling good enough to the point where your central A/C can help pick up the slack you'd be golden. Hell, if the 4 600 watters were light cooled enough then a 8k BTU window unit might even be able to do the job. It would only take 7-8 amps, leaving you with some wiggle room for your fans and a humidifier should you need one. If in doubt, consult an electrician!

If you post a few more details about the place you're working with I can do what I can to help, but unless you're confident in wiring a controller to a dryer cable or having single 600 watters in each bedroom with dialed in air cooling then you don't have many options without consulting an electrician.

Hope I was able to help.
actually it's 220volts x 200 amps x 80%
 

Johnei

Well-Known Member
Individual breaker for a certain circuit would overload and trip before the entire main 200amp box would trip. Don't overload any one circuit and you should be fine.

They have at stores like homedepot a little plug in electrical device, you plug it into a socket, and it will light up green ok, or error if ground wire is no good, or open neutral, and other issues.. may want to invest a few bucks for something like this to check all sockets before trusting to run lights, it's really cheap, a google search for ''socket electrical tester' and looking at google image results, you'll see the kind of small device I'm talking about.
 

Mobileaudio25

Active Member
Individual breaker for a certain circuit would overload and trip before the entire main 200amp box would trip. Don't overload any one circuit and you should be fine.

They have at stores like homedepot a little plug in electrical device, you plug it into a socket, and it will light up green ok, or error if ground wire is no good, or open neutral, and other issues.. may want to invest a few bucks for something like this to check all sockets before trusting to run lights, it's really cheap, a google search for ''socket electrical tester' and looking at google image results, you'll see the kind of small device I'm talking about.
I have an outlet checker and I know which outlets are on which circuit. I've also replaced every outlet so they are all less than 1hear old. My house is 15 years old and they redid the whole electrical box because the house was hit by lightning.
 

Johnei

Well-Known Member
I have an outlet checker and I know which outlets are on which circuit. I've also replaced every outlet so they are all less than 1hear old. My house is 15 years old and they redid the whole electrical box because the house was hit by lightning.
Very good! You're all set.
(I love those outlet checkers, so quick and easy to find any issues at the socket before ripping everything apart.)
 

Mobileaudio25

Active Member
Especially depending on the type of wire used as well as how old it is. It's an awful lot of heat being


Oh yeah, definitely. So long as you make sure the max load on the circuit isn't more than 75-80% or so you'll be fine. I run 4 lights on one 30A breaker, and the other 2 on separate 15A breakers, about 4400w total. So long as you make sure you don't exceed 11-12 amps per 15A breaker you should be fine. I'd find out what breakers go to what outlets first, then go from there. Some of your rooms might already have appliances in them, so either disconnect them or make sure you aren't maxing the amperage on your breaker. Once you figure out what outlets go to what breakers from that point it's just a matter of doing some math to figure out how to balance things out so that none of your breakers are doing too much. Totally doable though.
That's what I was looking for! I have replaced every outlet in the house so I know which ones are on which circuit and how many watts are on each circuit. I have a lot of designated outlets for my appliances which is nice....

One other question, I have a breaker that powers my 3 bathroom GFI's. It's a 15 amp. I'm planning on turning a bathroom into a room and plan on running about 1k off of that breaker. Do GFI's handle the same amount of watts as a normal outlet or should I change it to a new normal outlet since water won't be used in that room now?
 

WeedFreak78

Well-Known Member
How many breakers in that box? I'm in an older house and my main box would be considered overloaded, but some of those circuits only run occasionally, the stove, dryer, central AC and a 50A sub panel that was wired into the garage for a welder. I have to be aware of what I'm running at any one time, especially in the summer with the AC going. I ended up running 220V to my lights to cut down on amp draw, which is what you should be watching, not wattage.

Just got Nat gas run to the house a couple years ago for heat, going to a gas stove and drier soon to free up some big amperage.
 

Mobileaudio25

Active Member
How many breakers in that box? I'm in an older house and my main box would be considered overloaded, but some of those circuits only run occasionally, the stove, dryer, central AC and a 50A sub panel that was wired into the garage for a welder. I have to be aware of what I'm running at any one time, especially in the summer with the AC going. I ended up running 220V to my lights to cut down on amp draw, which is what you should be watching, not wattage.

Just got Nat gas run to the house a couple years ago for heat, going to a gas stove and drier soon to free up some big amperage.
I'm not at home to check but I would say around 15-20 breakers. Mostly 15amp but some 20 and I have a fridge, ac, furnace, dish washer, garbage disposal l, microwave all set up on their own breaker. My house is newer it was built in 2000 and has all 10 ga wire if I remember correctly
 

WeedFreak78

Well-Known Member
I'm not at home to check but I would say around 15-20 breakers. Mostly 15amp but some 20 and I have a fridge, ac, furnace, dish washer, garbage disposal l, microwave all set up on their own breaker. My house is newer it was built in 2000 and has all 10 ga wire if I remember correctly
15 breakers at 80% capacity is 180A

80% of a 200A main is 160A

So if you were to run each breaker to max capacity you'd be over the 80% draw on the main.

If you have more than 15 breakers or any 20A breakers, or larger, you're even more over capacity. Sounds like you're in my situation, just keep an eye on what's running at any one time. It's extremely uncommon to be running everything at max, so I really don't worry, but it's always in the back of my mind.
 

Johnei

Well-Known Member
changing a breaker to a double pole 220v and running a 220 wire into the grow to a subpanel is the way to go, with 220v outlets, timers, and ballasts run in 220. You can also run a bunch of 120v outlets from this main 220v wire feed without too much complicated wiring if you were up to it, but getting a main high amperage 220 wire into the grow wired through a high amperage new breaker is the best plan. All other regular house 15amp outlets would be free.
 

AKgrower29

Well-Known Member
Lot of contradicting information here.

I'll start with this "on a properly configured electrical system" all circuits are going to be sized accordingly to the amperage draw.
15 amp will use 14awg
20 amp will use 12awg
30 amp will use 10awg

No electrician than knows his ass will run 10awg for a 20amp circuit. It's unessecary and a waste of money. The electrician will size the wire accordingly.

In all modern house the incoming power is run in at 240 volts, if your main breaker is a double pole breaker (2 breaker handles connected together) then you have 240v incoming power. Your main breaker is sized according to incoming power and load bank limits. All mother breaker in your load bank are sized accordingly the individual circuit.

Whether you run your lights at 120v or 240v you are still using the same amperage. Watching wattage and amperage are the same thing as they correlate (more wattage is more amperage) you can not "use less power" by going to 240v.
 

Johnei

Well-Known Member
120v socket 15-20amp max.
15amp can only run one 1000w
20amp can only run one 1000w
1000w takes approx. 10amps at 120v for example

240v socket 15-20amp max.
15amp can run two 1000w ballasts
20amp can run three 1000w ballasts
1000w takes approx. 5amps at 240v

this is the advantage, 240v is more efficient, it is not about 'using less power' it is about being able to do more on a single circuit.
120240.png
 
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AKgrower29

Well-Known Member
Yes you are correct, you can run more off of a 240v circuit. I was just pointing out it uses the same amount of power regardless of voltage.
 
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