hey my name is Ben thanks for stopping
by today I want to talk about circuit
breakers and particularly how many
outlets you can have on a single circuit
breaker now the question is kind of
difficult to answer in the sense that
there aren't specific codes on the
maximum number of outlets you can have
on a circuit breaker now an outlet uh is
not only just a receptacle like a plug
uh it also counts something like a light
fixture is also called an outlet um but
for the purposes of what we want to talk
about today I want to talk more about
the receptical side of what we are
working on obviously you can have both
receptacles and lights on the same
circuit but pertaining to receptacles I
want to show you a couple things uh that
hopefully will help you figure out how
to plan out your electrical
circuits now a couple things to get
started um the way I wired my house is I
kept the lighting circuits and the
receptacles separate so I've got a 14
gauge wire with 15 amp circuit breakers
for all of my lighting throughout the
house and the receptacles are all 12
gauge wire on 20 amp circuit breakers
throughout the house it's really common
sense and really Simple and Clean to
keep it that way because it's easier for
doing your your light fixture wiring
and it gives you more flexibility for
your receptacles to have 20 amp circuits
so uh to start off in this room here
I've got a lot of boxes as you probably
already noticed uh this room actually
has even more boxes than what you see
right here because this is the office so
the way you think about how many outlets
you can have per circuit breaker uh is
not so much based on how many
receptacles you actually have how many
boxes you actually have it has a lot
more to do with your anticipated use of
those receptacles and what you think is
going to be uh ultimately plugged into
them and how much load that's going to
generate so in this case this is an
office a home office and so we've got
lots and lots of options for places to
plug stuff in but everything that's
going to be plugged in is going to be
extremely low amperage and it will draw
or wattage and so it's not going to draw
much power at
all so I've seen a general guidelines or
rules of thumb for a number of outlets
on a breaker and uh what I've found or
what I've noticed is that they say you
could take each receptacle and just say
that it's 1.5 amps off of that circuit
well if you do that then it's going to
really limit the number of recepticles
that you can put on a circuit I would
have probably had to have had two 20 amp
circuits in my office in order to have
each receptacle have 1 and 1/2 amps of
power but there's never going to be that
much draw in there it's just going to be
small accessories that are connected to
that circuit so uh the other place that
I saw just as a as general rule of thumb
don't exceed 10 and I also don't think
that that really makes a lot of sense
the way you have to break up the number
of outlets that you have on a circuit is
based on just common sense for what's
going to be in that room and uh how much
wattage is that going to draw you can
never exceed 80% of the capacity of
whatever circuit breaker that you're
using so you need to if you have
continuous load of greater than 80% that
is not what you want to plan for you
want to figure out approximately how
much power these your receptacles are
going to be using and then base your
your layout on that so now that's just
some of the kind of principles behind it
I'll show you the way I laid out uh the
wiring in my house just for the
receptacles so that you can kind of get
a picture of what I did and so maybe
give you some
ideas
so here's my panel layout and I'll just
kind of go through specifically what
I've done and I'll try to maybe Point
some stuff out in actual rooms as we go
along but initially we'll just talk
through this so I've got my septic pump
that's a dedicated circuit some pump
that's a dedicated circuit furnace as
well and then when you get to the
bathrooms uh if you had uh two bathrooms
in a house uh you could actually put
both of those bathrooms on one circuit
but it's not really recommended you
really want to have one 20 amp circuit
going to each bathroom so I have my
upstairs bathroom and Main level
bathroom each have a 20 amp circuit
that's just required mostly required by
code uh then they got upstairs laundry
and basement laundry each laundry area
has to have a dedicated circuit that can
include the washing machine so the
washing machine could be on that uh
laundry circuit included in that uh so
in uh the case in my case I'll show you
here's my upstairs bathroom and it's
both a bathroom and a laundry so you can
see right here that's going to be the
where the vanity is going to go and I've
got a recepticle there and a receptacle
over there and uh that is going to be
for the upstairs bathroom circuit now
coming over to this side of the room you
can see we've got a spot there for a
stackable washer and dryer
so I've got a recepticle back there
that's for the washing machine and then
a recepticle right here and that'll be
right above like a folding table there's
also a receptical down there and those
are also part of the laundry area
circuit if that makes any
sense so we got attic and kids bedroom
receptacles here and as you can see
where this is the kids bedroom I've got
receptacle there there there and there
that's just just a junction box and um
those ones up there are for if you were
to plug Christmas lights in in the
windows you don't have to have the cord
dangling down here where it's uh an
easier reach of the kids so as you can
see you can add more receptacles just
for convenience but it doesn't really
it's not really going to increase the
amount of electricity being used it just
gives you more options for plugging
stuff in so this since it says attic and
kids bedroom kids bedroom is not going
to hardly draw very much electricity at
all so I've combined it with the attic
which is kind of just like a Family
room/ Den whatever you want to call it
and so up here uh is also not going to
be a lot of electricity being used so as
far as just for the general receptacles
so those are combined on one 20 amp
circuit same thing kind of applies here
master bedroom and hallway master
bedroom again we have General
receptacles and uh that's the master bed
doesn't need a 20 amp circuit all to
itself so I have decided to share that
with the hallway so the hallway
recepticles are also included on that
particular
circuit now sorry about this one here
this is the one spot where I had made an
error after talking to the electrical
inspector this is the living room and
stair receptacles that's it so uh the
dining room receptacles ended up not
being allowed the dining room
receptacles are not be not allowed to
share another receptacle from uh common
living other living areas so your dining
room receptacle is kind of I I put it in
under the category of kitchen it's right
adjacent to the kitchen but basically
you're going to want to have a dedicated
circuit to your dining room uh but yeah
so I've got my living room and stairs uh
together I'll show
you so there's the receptacles on the
stairs those are probably going to be
just to plug in night lights or
something else and then this is actually
my living room right now all the kitchen
cabinets are in there but all the living
room receptacles are also on that
circuit now you already saw the office
but the office receptacles are dedicated
circuit I mostly just wanted to have
that dedicated uh not because I need 20
amps there but because it's nice to have
all that sensitive electronic equipment
and stuff that'll be in the office have
its own circuit and then I have uh the
rest of the basement uh which will have
a dedicated circuit just for the
unfinished part of the basement uh and
then outdoor receptacles dedicated
circuit for that you're required to have
a receptacle in the front of the house
and one in the back I have more around
the house but that is uh the main uh one
that I have for that and then uh in your
kitchen which we happen to be back to
the kitchen again here uh you're
required to have two dedicated circuits
that serve the countertop so in my case
I have countertop that's going to be
coming along here and a little bit over
here here and so I've got two separate
circuits and I alternated these boxes so
every other box is on every other
circuit and that way if you were to uh
plug in more so let's say you plugged in
a griddle on this circuit and then you
wanted to plug in another griddle on
that circuit it's two separate circuits
so you're less likely to trip a breaker
so you can alternate the position of
them it's takes a little more wire and a
little more work but it's worth doing in
my opinion and then my third uh kitchen
uh circuit like I said in it includes a
dining room uh this was and then it also
includes the uh range hood right there
as well as uh the gas range plug just a
120 volt plug for the range and
also includes a couple of outlets right
over
here which
most likely going to have a little
coffee pot plugged in in that area that
all is kind of flexible but that's how
mine is set
up dishwasher requires a dedicated
circuit and uh another thing that would
require dedicated circuit would be a uh
garbage disposal but we're not going to
have one cuz we have a septic system and
garbage disposals are bad for septic
systems so that would be something that
could potentially be a dedicated circuit
another one that could be is a microwave
but I don't really love having a
microwave in the kitchen so we're not
doing that and um so that kind of tells
you that now we're finally to the
lighting circuits so uh because of the
way uh I'm using all LED lights I'm not
needing a a huge number of lighting
circuits cuz it's all dedicated circuits
and on LED you can go get a long ways
with not very many amps so I've just
kind of broken this up based on common
sense the attic and upstairs lights are
all in one circuit 115 amp circuit main
level lights all in one circuit the
basement lights and the outside lights
and the smoke detectors are on one
circuit now you always want to have your
smoke detectors your wired smoke
detectors on a lighting circuit so that
if the breaker gets turned off
inadvertently or it trips or something
and let's say it was on some other
obscure circuit that you don't use very
often uh then you'll notice right away
cuz when you go turn the basement lights
on or the outside lights on you're going
to know something's up and then you can
restore power to your smoke detectors uh
now I'll just talk through these ones
too even though it's probably out of the
scope of this video this is a surge
breaker it's a whole house surge
protector I'll put a link in the
description uh to to that and then um
upstairs dryer these are all uh 240 volt
uh circuits uh electric dryer in the
basement electric range water heater and
in this case it's an air source heat
pump so over overall that's the deal you
want to break up your circuits based on
anticipated use and just common sense
based on different areas of the house
and uh if you kind of apply these rules
and do some research to make sure that
uh based on your local codes that you
are good to go U that's going to be the
best way to pursue it it doesn't have to
do with it being exactly 10 receptacles
has to do with what's being plugged into
them I hope this video helped you out a
lot and if it did please rate It Up And
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helpful videos that I'll try to provide
on a semi-regular basis thanks again and
we'll talk to you in the next
video