electrician needed

hi all I really do not have the time right now to do google and scroll through a million things so I was hoping to post my issue and get some links or possible answers ...
I have very basic electric knowledge so bare with me
I want to try to clarify some things on my circuit break box most of my switches are labeled with a 20 A I am assuming each one of these circuits has a max of 20 amps ? There is no diagram of which or how many outlets are on each circuit how can I find this out?
my concerns are my lights and fans will be plugged into a surge protector rated at 15A I know I will probably only be pulling a max of 9 to 10 amps this surge protector is plugged toba 120 v outlet on the same wall there is another 120v outlet that a large window a/c unit is plugged into ( I have no way of finding the amps it pulls no specifications) I'm worried after everything is setup i will come to find out those two outlets are on the same circuit and trip the breaker everytime my lights shut on or off
really trying to plan ahead instead of moving stuff

semajkroy said:

I want to try to clarify some things on my circuit break box most of my switches are labeled with a 20 A I am assuming each one of these circuits has a max of 20 amps ?

Click to expand...

That is correct

semajkroy said:

There is no diagram of which or how many outlets are on each circuit how can I find this out?

Click to expand...

You have to manually figure out which outlets belong to each breaker. You do this by flipping each breaker off, taking note of which outlets/lights are off then jotting this down.

semajkroy said:

my concerns are my lights and fans will be plugged into a surge protector rated at 15A I know I will probably only be pulling a max of 9 to 10 amps this surge protector is plugged toba 120 v outlet on the same wall there is another 120v outlet that a large window a/c unit is plugged into ( I have no way of finding the amps it pulls no specifications) I'm worried after everything is setup i will come to find out those two outlets are on the same circuit and trip the breaker everytime my lights shut on or off
really trying to plan ahead instead of moving stuff

Click to expand...

To determine the number of amps you simply take the watts and divide by 120 to get the amp draw. Watts / Volts = Amps

Don't put more than 80% of the rated amps on the circuit.

mr2shim said:

That is correct



You have to manually figure out which outlets belong to each breaker. You do this by flipping each breaker off, taking note of which outlets/lights are off then jotting this down.



To determine the number of amps you simply take the watts and divide by 120 to get the amp draw. Watts / Volts = Amps

Don't put more than 80% of the rated amps on the circuit.

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so should I be adding the combined wattage of my fans and lights and / that by 120 to determine how many amps I'm pulling from that one outlet ? And also your saying after determining what all is on the same switch as the outlet I will be plugging my box into i should make sure that all combined amps do not exceed 16 since my switch says 20 ?

In an ideal world, everything in your house is up to code. An easy way to see what outlets are on which breaker is get an outlet tester, it has a gfci tester that will also trip the circuit breaker if the outlet is not gfci. It can also tell you if anything was wired incorrectly. A killawatt meter is also handy, it will tell you how much power anything and everything uses. How much lighting are you trying to power?

And yes, 16amps on a 20amp curcuit or 1920watts on standard120vac

Banana444 said:

And yes, 16amps on a 20amp curcuit or 1920watts on standard120vac

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ok thanks I should be way under that then I'm trying to power a 400 watt digital hps and a 6" inline hyperfan ,a couple box or oscillating fans I know this alone ideally shouldn't cause any issues it was the unkown wattage from the ac that worries me not knowing how much they generally pull

Banana444 said:

In an ideal world, everything in your house is up to code. An easy way to see what outlets are on which breaker is get an outlet tester, it has a gfci tester that will also trip the circuit breaker if the outlet is not gfci. It can also tell you if anything was wired incorrectly. A killawatt meter is also handy, it will tell you how much power anything and everything uses. How much lighting are you trying to power?

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can you suggest a tester that will do all of that . That is another concern I don't really know the shape of the wiring and so forth the house I older when I moved in it had the old style big fuses and they blew soon after so my landlord had a new fuse oannel and whatever all goes into the box that controls everything he said the electrician was good and checked all the wiring in the attic and blah blah but you never know .. This was 2 yrs ago

I am sure you are well under 16A even with this, but for your info and those reading, the box fans and oscillating fans can draw almost 2X as much current because they are not power factor corrected. The digital HPS and inline most likely are power factor corrected. A watt meter will show you actual current draw and will tell you if a device power factor corrected or not.

http://www.amazon.com/TS-836A-Energy-Voltage-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B00E945SJG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1424651271&sr=8-2&keywords=watt meter