Having just finished my basement I'm a little familiar with this (and
why wiring is so crazy in a house).

A circuit breaker going for the box to a series of plugs and switches
will be rated for the wiring, not the plugs.  A 12 guage wire is rated
for 20A, meaning that the total power on the line can be up to 20A, with
the total amperage at a single plug being less than 15A.

The reason your lights are dimming (and your circuit breaker is not
tripping) is that there is some point between your circuit breaker and
your outlet where the connection is bad.  Since the connections are
diasy chained (in parallel), then your current may have to go through 2
to 15 screw connections, and it would only take one slightly loose
connection to become corroded and present another several ohms of
resistance in the circuit - a definite fire hazard.

-Adam

"I'm a man
I can change
If I have to
I guess..."
-Red Green


Pic Dude wrote:

>Just had my one-year home review and one of the issues I had raised
>was that the bedroom light dims when an iron is switched on.  I can
>actually tell when the thermostat switches the iron on/off by the change
>of intensity of the light.
>
>The light was installed by the home-builder when the house was built
>and has 2 @ 60W bulbs in it.  That should be less than 1 Amp total
>I believe.  The only other thing in the room is a small digital alarm clock
>(no radio either).  There are 6 other plug outlets in the room (each has
>2 actual plug sockets), for a total capacity of 12 plugs.  Nothing else
>is plugged into any of the room outlets.  Only other factor is that the
>light switch was replaced with an x10 unit, but the dimming problem
>was there before the X10 stuff went in.
>
>An electrician came over today and said that this is normal, because
>the outlet is rated at 15A, and the outlet plus the light is taking more
>than 15A total.  (The iron is rated at approx 10A, btw).  He said that
>for places where an iron would be plugged in, they would normally add
>a special outlet.  I've never heard of that before, cause it's an iron -- not
>a welder or dryer.
>
>Is this all just BS?  If I have 12 outlets, that implies to a homeowner,
>a capacity of 12 x 15A, for a total of 180A.  Perhaps one might say
>that it's 15A per plate (2 outlets) so the capacity is really only 90A.
>Either way, should the iron dim the room light noticeably?
>
>Why does this matter to me?  Cause if I ever have a problem such as
>a fire, etc, my guess (from past issues with these guys) is that they
>will say that my warranty is void due to the X10 switch, and I'd like an
>official answer from them now, with the reasons etc.
>
>Cheers,
>-Neil.
>
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>
>
>
>
>

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