Load Calculations: A Simple Guide for Home and Business Owners
More home and business owners are looking for ways to save energy, use power more efficiently, prevent costly electrical hazards, and prepare their properties for electrical updates. The first step to managing your electrical usage and preparing for the future is learning how to calculate electrical loads on a circuit. Electrical circuit load calculations help you understand how much power your electrical system can handle and how much energy your appliances and fixtures use.
Read on to learn more about how to calculate electrical circuit load capacity and why hiring a professional electrician in Gilroy, CA, can save you time and money.
What Are Load Calculations?
Electrical circuit load calculations measure the amperage or current of your fixtures and appliances and compare it with the capacity or rating of your circuits and electrical panel. By doing this, you can avoid overloading your circuits, reduce the risk of fires or damage to your appliances, operate more efficiently, and plan for future renovations or upgrades to your home, such as installing new outlets, upgrading to electric appliances, or adding an EV charging station to your home.
How to Calculate Electrical loads
To do electrical circuit load calculations for your home, you need to follow these three steps:
Understand Watts, Volts & Amps
Electrical load calculation means adding up the amperage of all your fixtures and appliances. That means using some formulas that relate watts (the unit of power), volts (the unit of voltage), and amps (the unit of current). These formulas are:
Volts x Amps = Watts
Amps = Watts/Volts
These formulas can be used to calculate the capacity and loads of individual circuits and the entire electrical service. For example, a 20-amp, 120-volt branch circuit has a total capacity of 2,400 watts (20 amps x 120 volts). If you have an air fryer that uses 800 watts on this circuit, you can find its amperage by dividing 800 by 120, giving you 6.67 amps.
Do The Calculation
Once you know the capacity of your individual circuits or your home’s full service, you can measure it against the load. The load is the total amount of power your fixtures and appliances use on each circuit or system. To calculate the load, you need to add the amperage of all your devices on each circuit or your whole system. For example, if you have a toaster (6.67 amps), a microwave (10 amps), and a coffee maker (5 amps) on one circuit, your total load is 21.67 amps. You can compare this with the capacity of that circuit (20 amps) to see if it is overloaded. In this case, running the toaster, microwave, and coffee maker would overload the circuit, as the combined amperage required is more than the total amperage allowed.
While complicated, electrical load calculations aren’t rocket science.
Think Ahead
When doing electrical circuit load calculations, you should not only consider the current situation but also think about the future. You may want to add more outlets, lights, or devices to your home later, increasing the load on your circuits and service panel.
You should plan by leaving some margin or buffer between the capacity and the load of each circuit and your entire system. This will allow you to accommodate changes or additions without overloading your circuits or service panel.
Outdated Systems
If your electrical system is old or not up to date with the current codes and standards, you may have problems with your electrical circuit load calculations. For example, you may have outdated wiring that cannot handle the demands of an updated electric oven, fuses instead of breakers that are more prone to overheating, or a service panel that is too small for your home’s needs. Outdated systems can cause inefficiency, unreliability, and hazards in your electrical system. More importantly, an older, obsolete system can skew your load calculations.
An outdated service panel can impact your load calculations and be a safety hazard
Get Safe and Accurate Load Calculations with a Professional
To ensure accurate and safe electrical circuit load calculations for your property, you should hire a professional Santa Clara Valley electrician. A licensed electrician has the skills, experience, and equipment necessary to audit your property’s electrical system efficiently.
Here are some of the top benefits of bringing on Gilroy Electrician:
Saving Time And Money
Doing electrical circuit load calculations yourself can be time-consuming and complicated. You may make mistakes or miss some details that could cost you more in repairs or replacements later.
Avoiding Mistakes
Doing electrical circuit load calculations yourself can be risky if you don’t know what you are doing. You may damage your wiring or appliances, cause short circuits/power surges, or even electrocute yourself or start a fire. A professional electrician can help you avoid these mistakes. If an accident occurs, your electrician’s insurance will make you whole.
Complying With Codes
If you aren’t familiar with your area's current codes and standards, you could make costly mistakes in your load calculations. You may complete work that violates regulations that could result in penalties down the road.
Getting Quality Workmanship And Materials
Not everyone has the right tools and materials for the job. Unfortunately, there is no simple electrical circuit load calculator you can plug into your breaker box and get a full readout on your electrical system. However, some tools help electricians trace electrical circuits and determine how a house is wired. It is far too easy to make a miscalculation that could lead to risky situations later on.
With the right knowledge, skill, and tools, professional electricians can calculate electrical loads in no time.
Get Accurate Load Calculations with Watson’s
Electrical circuit load calculations are critical for your home because they help save energy and prevent electrical hazards. To do them properly, you need to understand various electrical terms and calculations. While creating circuit load calculations may be something you are comfortable doing, you can reduce the hassle and risk of error by bringing in the pros.
The team at Watson’s Charging Stations & Electric has the experience and expertise to help you generate accurate load calculations in no time. We can also inspect your current electrical system to ensure it is in proper shape, void of hazards, and ready for your next home upgrade. From inspections and calculations to installations and upgrades, no other team is committed to offering you the top-notch service you’ll find with us.
Give us a call for your free consultation, and let’s get to work.