SWDesertDom
Posts: 231
Joined: 4/5/2012
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New houses in the USA typically have 1 circuit per bedroom/general room. That circuit is usually 15 amp. If the receptacles are up to code you can tell by looking at them. A 15 amp receptacle will have two prongs that are straight up and down, in the direction of the grounding prong. A 20 amp receptacle (typically found in kitchens) will have a notch in one of the prong slots. 15 amp receptacles should only be on 15 amp circuits, and 20 amp receptacles only on 20 amp circuits. One receptacle can handle the entire load of a circuit, but multiple loads equal to the receptacle limit (like two 15 amp loads on a 15 amp circuit) will overload the circuit and trip the breaker (or fuse).
It's important to remember that in most normal rooms (not kitchens) all the receptacles in a room will be on the same circuit, in older dwellings multiple rooms may be on the same circuit. It's not how much load you put on a single receptacle that matters, but how much you load the entire circuit.
Simply replacing the fuse box won't fix the problem (if the problem is overloaded circuits), the circuits themselves need to be rewired. Your breaker box should have a panel schedule which shows what rooms or what receptacles within a room are on each circuit. Using this you may be able to find a way to re-balance the load, at least until the property managers fix the problems.
To you limey's and Europeans, 230 V service will maintain more appliances on a circuit, but 230V systems are much more dangerous to work with (you can kill yourself with 120V, but it takes work, 230V will manage it in a jiffy, it's also theoretically possible to initiate an arc flash on 230V).
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RE: Venting - 
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