So the fan in my bedroom starts making some horrible racket last night in the middle of the night and wakes us out of a dead sleep. \u00a0I get out of bed and shut the damn thing off. \u00a0It’s a tower fan; one of those tall, cylindrical ones that oscillates back and forth. \u00a0So today I go on a mission to replace it. \u00a0No one has them. \u00a0Apparently no one uses or buys fans in September, because it’s already winter.<\/p>\n
So I decide it’s about time I finally get the ceiling fan for the bedroom that I’ve wanted to put in there for a long time. \u00a0I pick one out, and buy the brace that goes above the ceiling. \u00a0My house is plaster, and the electrical box on the ceiling in my bedroom is basically just laying on the plaster. \u00a0The brace goes between two studs and holds the fan. \u00a0Anyway, I get the shit home and start tearing off the light fixture in the bedroom. \u00a0I shut the switch off, but don’t bother to flip off the breaker because it’s just a simple light… Right? \u00a0Wrong! \u00a0When I pull the fixture down, I notice that there’s one black wire, and two white wires twisted together, which feed the fixture. \u00a0I can’t think of a reason there’d be a shared neutral in the ceiling (rather than at the switch). \u00a0Shortly thereafter, I realize that the white wires are warm. \u00a0And the uninsulated portion of them is actually somewhat hot! \u00a0Now I’m really concerned, so I start doing some investigating. \u00a0I put a toner on the wire and started checking other outlets in my house. \u00a0Get this… \u00a0The following things are all on the same 15A circuit:<\/p>\n
Bedroom
\n-Ceiling light fixture
\n-TV
\n-DVR
\n-Alarm clock, phone charger, etc.
\nDining room
\n-Existing ceiling fan w 4 60W bulbs
\nLiving room
\n-Recessed lighting (9x 60W floods)
\n-Sony 52″ LCD TV
\n-Denon receiver (135W x 9)
\n-DirecTV DVR
\n-Subwoofer (in a different outlet, but same circuit)
\n-PS3 (actually draws quite a bit of current… 2-3A)
\n-2200VA APC UPS
\nBasement bedroom (entire rack of network\/server gear)
\n-Cisco 3550-48PWR
\n-Cisco 871W
\n-1TB NAS
\n-P4 2.4 server with 6 HDs
\n-Slingbox
\n-Cable modem
\n-1400VA APC UPS<\/p>\n
I did some quick current readings and found the following:
\nThe home theater draws about 5.5A when just TV, Receiver and DVR are on.
\nThe network rack draws about 4A with the monitor turned off.
\nIf you add all of light bulbs on that circuit up, you get 900W, which equates to 7.5A. \u00a0I didn’t bother to measure the subwoofer, PS3, bedroom TV and DVR, or alarm clock and other BS.<\/p>\n
You do the math… \u00a0How is it that my house has not burned down? \u00a0Why did the 15A breaker never pop?<\/p>\n
I knew quite a bit of my upstairs was on the same circuit, but I didn’t realize how bad it was. \u00a0I desperately need to run dedicated circuits for my network rack and home theater. \u00a0For the time being, I’ve routed my network rack power to another outlet that’s on it’s own circuit in the basement.<\/p>\n
Needless to say, the ceiling fan is not installed. \u00a0I can’t wait to see what an adventure that winds up being. \u00a0I predict an unplanned skylight! So the fan in my bedroom starts making some horrible racket last night in the middle of the night and wakes us out of a dead sleep. \u00a0I get out of bed and shut the damn thing off. \u00a0It’s a … Continue reading
\n <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"