We need a lot more electricians if we’re going to electrify everything

Re:We need a lot more electricians if we’re going to electri... by bluGill on Wednesday January 11, 2023 @12:24PM (#34341193)

Standard non-metallic 8 gauge wire is only allowed to handle 40 amps. If you want to put 50 amps to the outlet you need more expensive wire (most likely 6 gauge, but there are other forms of 8 gauge that are approved for 50 amps). Since most stoves only need 40 amps electricians will run non-metallic 8 gauge by default and put a 40 amp breaker on it - then since there isn't such a thing as a 40 amp outlet they have a 50 amp outlet on the other end.

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Re:We need a lot more electricians if we’re going to electri... by sbradford26 on Wednesday January 11, 2023 @12:29PM (#34341286)

Yeah the main relationship that matters is the breaker to wire.

There is a fun semi related thing. Can you put 15 amp outlets on a 20 amp circuit? The answer is yes you can, but only if there is at least two receptacles, and a standard duplex outlet counts at two receptacles.

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Re:We need a lot more electricians if we’re going to electri... by bombcar on Wednesday January 11, 2023 @02:03PM (#34342903)

Which is another reason you don't want to oversize a breaker; you can have ten, twenty two-receptacle outlets on a single circuit, and if lots of stuff was plugged in you could easily draw tens or hundreds of amps, which would melt normal Romex pretty quickly.

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