How to deal with high amp draw?

andrew james · Mar 10, 2017

Last night i set up my new Giesemann Specra light and for the first time overloaded my Neptune EB8 power bar. My system or whats connected to the power bar is now pulling 16 amp. The circuit for the room is only 15 so im not sure how that hasnt tripped yet. As a short term solution I have an extra powerbar Im going to run an extension cord under the floor and pull power from another room.

Has anyone hired an electrician to install I larger circuit? How much does something like that cost?

jason2459 · Mar 10, 2017

Cost is going to vary on location and qualifications of the electrician. Could be anywhere from $100 to $500 or more

I would highly suggest at least 2 dedicated 20 amp circuits with a dual protection of CAFCI and GFCI.

brb with copy paste blurb

jason2459 · Mar 10, 2017

On CAFCI, GFCI, and Surge Protection to protect your house, yourself, and your equipment.

I like redundancy and as much protection against equipment failures as possible. Things like Heaters and power strips in our hobby have created more havoc then necessary with the occasional fun dip of lights into the tank...

My standard Copy/paste on this topic:

I would also suggest a CACFI along with GFCI

CAFCI will help protect your house from fire
GFCI will help protect you from electrocution

And a good surge protector will help protect your equipment.

Individual one shown above. Tripplite makes some good ones. Be warned some newer surge protection devices will stop power from flowing all together once it can no longer provide surge protection. This is actually a good thing IMO for many things like computers/tv/etc but NOT a good thing, again IMO, for many other things like refrigerators, freezers, our aquariums, etc. Some will make an audible alarm when exhausted which is nice too.

Plus a whole home. None last forever and will need replaced eventually based on how many surges and intensity of surges they've been hit by. Surges can come from outside your home, not just lightening strikes, and from inside the home.

Eaton Ultra and SquareD hepd80 are a couple good whole home surge protectors.

Plus having more then one circuit with life support spread across them. I have two additional circuits then what's pictured above to my main tank on the first floor with GFCI at the receptacles so its easier to reset them if tripped. Then the two shown in the picture above go to my basement sump with the GFCI at the breaker. Along with being a CAFCI. There are also AFCI breakers but don't protect against as many arc faults as a CAFCI.

And don't get confused by combination AFCI (CAFCI). That doesn't mean it combines GFCI with it. The packaging has to specify GFCI as well to support both CAFCI and GFCI. Sometimes called dual.

Here's some visuals

And CAFCI protects against both of these where AFCI only parallel

In the US the NEC will typically require a class A GFCI protection in places like a bathroom (fishtank) which trips at 6mA. Some places like commercial applications can use class C, D, or E that trip at 20mA.

http://m.csemag.com/index.php?id=9575&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=102229&cHash=89c8746cdc4a7fd8a3cb93f1d51ba57a