I was wondering why the Kill-A-Watt wattmeter that I normally leave things in the room plugged into was beeping. Turned out that having an electric kettle and a space heater both on on a circuit were enough to drive the power usage over the 1800W that a normal US household circuit can provide, and that apparently the thing beeps in that case. It let me flip off the kettle before the circuit breaker flipped, which was nice.
I think I might look into a low-wattage, vacuum-insulated (to help compensate for the fact that the heat will have to be put into the water over a longer period of time) kettle.
A space heater will bring a standard US residential home circuit to max capacity.
If a circuit is currently being used to run a space heater, youd be very wise to unplug everything else from that circuit.
Thank you for reminding me that I need to get heavier breakers on every circuit in my house.
that’s a bad idea if you don’t upgrade wiring too.
But I want to start a fire inside of my walls :(
A space heater is limited in its heat production to the amount of power that the circuit can deliver via electricity. Unless, of course, you use that electric power as a starter to release some of the stored chemical energy of the items in your home. At that point you can continue to produce light and heat even after shutting off the electrical power.
Well yes but the jackets of wires rated for only 15amp will melt and short inside your walls if you try to pull 20 amps through them
that’s just an unfortunate side effect of keeping yourself warm in these trying times
Oh, I’ll probably have to upgrade wiring too. Unfortunately what’s in my budget is probably single-strand 22-gauge aluminum core, if I’m lucky.
then hold on until you can do the work. electrical fires are nasty and properly sized breakers to your wiring is a major part of making it safe.