Need Advice on a 15 Amp Circuit

[BOOTHA06]

I'm hoping someone can give me some advice on an existing 15 AMP circuit in my house. When I built in 2007, this circuit contained an outlet for the electronic ignition on my gas water heater, a single GFCI outlet in my basement, and it powered all the light fixtures in my basement (8 simple ceramic fixtures with 60W incandescent bulbs) from a single switch. Since then, I have not changed anything with the water heater outlet or the GFCI outlet. However, I have split the lighting to a couple different switches, and I have updated all but 2 of the ceramic fixtures with 9W LEDs, as I've (partially) finished the basement. Right now, there are 12, 9W integrated LED fixtures on this circuit along with the water heater outlet and the GFCI outlet. I'd like to add 10-15 more 9W LED fixtures to this circuit, but I'm worried about the load I'm going to start putting on this circuit. Should I be concerned, even though the math tells me I shouldn't? Even if I have 30 of these lights, I'm still only using ~300 Watts, which would be less than the original 8 incandescent bulbs (8 bulbs x 60 watts= 480). It just feels like I'm doing something wrong because of the number of fixtures. Also, all the work that was originally done, (water heater, GFCI, Lights) passed local code, and I had nothing to do with the original circuit design. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[OnlQQker]

I'm hoping someone can give me some advice on an existing 15 AMP circuit in my house. When I built in 2007, this circuit contained an outlet for the electronic ignition on my gas water heater, a single GFCI outlet in my basement, and it powered all the light fixtures in my basement (8 simple ceramic fixtures with 60W incandescent bulbs) from a single switch. Since then, I have not changed anything with the water heater outlet or the GFCI outlet. However, I have split the lighting to a couple different switches, and I have updated all but 2 of the ceramic fixtures with 9W LEDs, as I've (partially) finished the basement. Right now, there are 12, 9W integrated LED fixtures on this circuit along with the water heater outlet and the GFCI outlet. I'd like to add 10-15 more 9W LED fixtures to this circuit, but I'm worried about the load I'm going to start putting on this circuit. Should I be concerned, even though the math tells me I shouldn't? Even if I have 30 of these lights, I'm still only using ~300 Watts, which would be less than the original 8 incandescent bulbs (8 bulbs x 60 watts= 480). It just feels like I'm doing something wrong because of the number of fixtures. Also, all the work that was originally done, (water heater, GFCI, Lights) passed local code, and I had nothing to do with the original circuit design. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

What size is the circuit cable?

 

[M-Ty]

Your logic seems sound, however you should also consider the power factor of the LEDs to calculate the current.
(All incandescent ones, of course, have a p.f. of 1; Cheap LED lamps in the UK typically use capacitive droppers giving a p.f. around 0.5 (taking around twice the current you'd expect for their power.) I'd be interested to know about the US versions.

 

[Megawatt]

I'm hoping someone can give me some advice on an existing 15 AMP circuit in my house. When I built in 2007, this circuit contained an outlet for the electronic ignition on my gas water heater, a single GFCI outlet in my basement, and it powered all the light fixtures in my basement (8 simple ceramic fixtures with 60W incandescent bulbs) from a single switch. Since then, I have not changed anything with the water heater outlet or the GFCI outlet. However, I have split the lighting to a couple different switches, and I have updated all but 2 of the ceramic fixtures with 9W LEDs, as I've (partially) finished the basement. Right now, there are 12, 9W integrated LED fixtures on this circuit along with the water heater outlet and the GFCI outlet. I'd like to add 10-15 more 9W LED fixtures to this circuit, but I'm worried about the load I'm going to start putting on this circuit. Should I be concerned, even though the math tells me I shouldn't? Even if I have 30 of these lights, I'm still only using ~300 Watts, which would be less than the original 8 incandescent bulbs (8 bulbs x 60 watts= 480). It just feels like I'm doing something wrong because of the number of fixtures. Also, all the work that was originally done, (water heater, GFCI, Lights) passed local code, and I had nothing to do with the original circuit design. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Booth and welcome to the forum and if you have a 15 amp breaker feeding you hot water heater, GFCI which if nothing is plugged into it there’s no load and lights remember that the 15 means 1500 watts and you can go to Lowe’s or Home Depot and buy a amp meter to see how much current you are pulling and I probably wouldn’t want to exceed 1200 watts 80% is safe practice. Now since you are not an electrician I advise you to call one just to advise you and get in the panel to check the current draw and he would probably have a amp meter. Good luck

 

[BOOTHA06]

What size is the circuit cable?

It's a 15 Amp breaker with 14/2 Romex.
[automerge]1581258037[/automerge]

Hi Booth and welcome to the forum and if you have a 15 amp breaker feeding you hot water heater, GFCI which if nothing is plugged into it there’s no load and lights remember that the 15 means 1500 watts and you can go to Lowe’s or Home Depot and buy a amp meter to see how much current you are pulling and I probably wouldn’t want to exceed 1200 watts 80% is safe practice. Now since you are not an electrician I advise you to call one just to advise you and get in the panel to check the current draw and he would probably have a amp meter. Good luck

Thanks for the reply. I have an electrician coming in to do some other work this week... I will ask him to check this for me.
[automerge]1581258526[/automerge]

Your logic seems sound, however you should also consider the power factor of the LEDs to calculate the current.
(All incandescent ones, of course, have a p.f. of 1; Cheap LED lamps in the UK typically use capacitive droppers giving a p.f. around 0.5 (taking around twice the current you'd expect for their power.) I'd be interested to know about the US versions.

Thank you for the reply. This is not something I had considered. I did some research and could not find the PF for these lights, but I did find that to be Energy Star rated (these are), LED lights have to have a min. PF of 0.7. Can you advise that if these were minimum, what this would do to my calculations?

 

[Megawatt]

It's a 15 Amp breaker with 14/2 Romex.
[automerge]1581258037[/automerge]

Thanks for the reply. I have an electrician coming in to do some other work this week... I will ask him to check this for me.
[automerge]1581258526[/automerge]

Thank you for the reply. This is not something I had considered. I did some research and could not find the PF for these lights, but I did find that to be Energy Star rated (these are), LED lights have to have a min. PF of 0.7. Can you advise that if these were minimum, what this would do to my calculations?

Booth I don’t know the exact number of lights you are planning to install but I really don’t think you will have a problem as long as your electrician records the amperage. Just go by the instructions on the lights and how much current per light. Do you know ?
[automerge]1581264950[/automerge]

It's a 15 Amp breaker with 14/2 Romex.
[automerge]1581258037[/automerge]

Thanks for the reply. I have an electrician coming in to do some other work this week... I will ask him to check this for me.
[automerge]1581258526[/automerge]

Thank you for the reply. This is not something I had considered. I did some research and could not find the PF for these lights, but I did find that to be Energy Star rated (these are), LED lights have to have a min. PF of 0.7. Can you advise that if these were minimum, what this would do to my calculations?

Quit worrying about the PF Or power factor. If I was that concerned do an amp reading on what you have already have installed, I would take one light and temporarily wire it up to see in the real world what 1 light pulls amperage wise then multiply by the number of lights you want