I have a "expanded" garage that was expanded by punching out the back
wall into the backyard another 16 feet, the end result is my garage is
24ft. wide by 38 ft. deep. I wired this up with lots of lights and I mean
lots. I have a total of 14 4ft. 40watt fluorescent bulbs and 4 8ft. ?watt
bulbs. Thats a lot of lights most are 2 bulb fixtures placed right over a
tool, the 4bulb fixture is over the workbench. I was noticing a few nights
ago while outside that my garage is quite bright but I like light over a
tool or bench or motor. If it matters, the exact count of fixtures is 5
2bulb 4ft fixtures, 1 4bulb 4ft. fixture, 2 2bulb 8ft. fixtures on a maybe
20Amp circuit.
I never rewired the garage for this and I am wondering if I am
overloading the wires. What is the amperage of a 40watt fluorescent bulb ?
and a 8ft. bulb of ?watts. Also what is the wire gauge for a 20Amp
circuit, this is a old house with a new looking 20Amp breaker, I have not
checked the gauge of the wiring behind that breaker.
I can turn on my shop vac and band saw together, or my grinder with no
dimming of the lights. My radial arm saw and shop vac causes the lights to
dim for a second so thats overloading a little. I hardly ever blow the
circuit breaker and only when a friend and I are running multiple
tools. I don't want a fire, should I do something about this ?
I have a 220V circuit running the stationary tools, a 120V 25Amp circuit
that my Mig is plugged into and all the lights and few small tools are on a
20Amp circuit. I was thinking of taking a few lights and moving them to
the 25Amp circuit but the Mig requires 25 on the thicker metal.
mike
~~~~~ I'd rather be sailing and ~~~ .oooO Oooo. ~~~~~~~~~~~
Mike Rambour ( ) ( )
Bug Writer er...Programmer \ ) ( /
mikey@b2systems.com \_) (_/
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