help on electrical(im making a 20 duel outlet power station with 20 recepticals

[PHIL GUY]

Originally Posted by PHIL GUY

here you go:

so ill leave section 2 out...will that be better?

[PHIL GUY]

how about if i go this route, the ones i made already go to one circiut and the 4 in the field goto another circiut?..the 4 sperate ones are for my timers for my lighting

[dobejazz]

Phil I'm sorry I think there is too much risk involved for anyone to advise you how to hook this up.

[OneDummHikk]

Originally Posted by PHIL GUY

how about if i go this route, the ones i made already go to one circiut and the 4 in the field goto another circiut?..the 4 sperate ones are for my timers for my lighting

What I write is with regards to code in Alabama and Georgia. I don't know how closely the electrical code in Florida follows it but most electrical is fairly standardized across the country.

You are only allowed 7 "fixtures" on a breaker. Anything attached to the circuit is considered a "fixture". Light, switch, receptacle, smoke alarms, all considered a "fixture". That means you can only have 7 receptacles on a circuit. For safety reasons. Making to "receptacle" banks and putting a plug on each and plugging them into the same receptacle on the wall doesn't isolate them, they are still running on the same circuit.

With that said, there are three ways to wire your boxes:

1) Series
2) Parallel
3) A combination of the two.

The way you have it wired is the worst way to wire it. If the last receptacle has a problem, it will propogate across receptacles until it gets to the breaker. There is no direct route to the breaker without going through another receptacle first (unless it is the first one). If the first receptacle goes bad, nothing else is going to work after that receptacle.

If you are set on building this thing (and it seems you are), then wire them in parallel. If you look in your panel box, all of the breakers have a direct link to the main breaker. You do the same thing on your panel board. You would need three common bars for the ground, neutral and positive. Then you would have a wire from each bar to the receptacle. Much like having 7 extension cords hard wired in.

My drawing ability in Paint sucks but let's try it:


The colors got screwed up saving it as a jpeg. But, the vertical line on the left is a common bar. The horizontal lines are wires to each Lug (The L). That would be running to your receptacle. That is good. The one on the right is where you run a short piece of wire from one receptacle to the next, that is bad.

My advice? Use the power strips unless you have an empty breaker slot in your panel box to run a dedicated circuit to your tank. The power strips have built in circuit protection to trip the power strip instead of letting the wiring in your house short out.

[Fly Guy]

dj power strips are pretty sweet. simple and safe

I dont use them, I use a fairly complicated power supplies designed specifically for my needs. But I would be using them if my father didnt have more electrical knowledge in his little pinky than I do in my whole body and didnt build my boxes for me.

[Junkzoo]

FYI,This is at the bottom of every page here on TRT.


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'Nuff said

[motorslave]

PHIL, READ THIS!

Originally Posted by Junkzoo

FYI,This is at the bottom of every page here on TRT.


Our lawyer tells us that, by pressing the "New Thread" or "New Reply" button, you acknowledge that the opinions and information expressed in your article are yours alone and not those of thereeftank.com, dba The Reef Tank. Further, you agree to indemnify The Reef Tank, its moderators, administrators and agents from any and all liability which may arise as a result of your article. (C)opyright 2006 TheReefTank.com


'Nuff said

[PHIL GUY]

thanks for your help and concern.. ive changed it a lil.. im hooking up the first 4 plugs to one circiut and the other 4 below to another circiut.. the 4 outlets in the field to the left will also be hooked to another circiut...one behind my tank, one in the living room right around the corner from my tank and the 3rd through a hole in the wall behind my tank going to my master bedroom socket, ill take another pic when done.. these outlets will all have covers over them so no salt can get behind the outlet to carode them.. thanks everyone and also to you too motorslave

[PHIL GUY]

this is better right guys?

[OneDummHikk]

No. You have them wired the worst way. Instead of the yellow/black/green going from the first receptacle and then to the second, then to the third and then to the fourth, you should have one from each receptacle that goes to the wire from the plug.

[OneDummHikk]

The black line from the top would be your "source". The 4 coming off of it would go to each receptacle. Do the same thing for all three source wires.

[PHIL GUY]

Originally Posted by OneDummHikk

No. You have them wired the worst way. Instead of the yellow/black/green going from the first receptacle and then to the second, then to the third and then to the fourth, you should have one from each receptacle that goes to the wire from the plug.

draw a diagram and show me, im not understanding what your talking about?i had a person that knows about electric show me this way

[PHIL GUY]

Originally Posted by OneDummHikk

The black line from the top would be your "source". The 4 coming off of it would go to each receptacle. Do the same thing for all three source wires.

so your saying tie the 4 black to the black on the plug, tie the 4 whites to the white cord com'n from the plug and tie the 4 copprs to the one copper on the plug?

[PHIL GUY]

like this ?..why is it wrong the other way,can you explain that to me?

[PHIL GUY]

bump