Quote from: soy on September 18, 2014, 05:29:40 PM

Quote from: mrpark on September 18, 2014, 04:32:56 PM

Quote from: tl121 on September 17, 2014, 01:10:06 AM

Quote from: Stratobitz on September 16, 2014, 10:24:48 PM

We will just have to agree to disagree there. If a breaker is rated at 20 amps load at 110v it will certainly hold 1920. I also speak from experience here. Long term loads of 1800-1900 months on end. No issues. But yes the breaker will get warm.

Strato

Good luck with that. I hope your breakers work correctly. Some of them don't. I replaced my entire panel because the manufacturer, Federal Electric, produced breakers that didn't shut down reliably in the case of overloads and caused a number of house fires.

Another factor to consider if your power is subject to brown outs... Your miner power supply will attempt to maintain a constant voltage to the miner and hence constant power output even if the line voltage drops. This means the current draw will increase. So if you have reliable operation during periods when your supply voltage is high you may have difficulties if your voltage drops. Should this happen, you can hope that your problems are tripping breakers and not breakers that you wish had tripped but didn't.

The official way to calculate continuous load is to subtract 25% after your calculation. It's a fact, not really an opinion of mine. Also, an electrician inspected some of my 20 amp circuit breakers and he said max is 15 amp load which is about right. Now, a circuit breaker will not trip at exactly 20 amps, more like 30 amps most likely. When your breaker is getting hot, your breaker is on thermal meltdown. Anyway, if you like to take chances and gamble, by all means go for it. But for if you are looking to be safe subtract about 25% for continuous loads.

Put in two outlets last week to a 20 amp breaker with #12-2. There was a strange 60 cycle vibrating from the service afterwards and specifically the new breaker. Took the cover off and it turns out I hadn't mashed it down fully into place. While the power was off I checked the tightness of the screws holding wires into other breakers. One was quite loose. Also the huge aluminum cables into the service took a minor turn tightening. Aluminum wiring has been known to cause fires as its expansion and contraction, differing from copper, tends to cause it to loosen over time. But that one loose #14 copper that loosened in a 15 amp breaker I have no way to explain it. Glad I caught it tho.

yikes, that's probably the only thing more dangerous than overloading a circuit is electrical arc which can make a spark that heats up to 10,000F. This is why new construction code requires arc fault breakers in bedrooms. The fear is that you have an arc in the outlet, which is near a bed and then because of the heat it will catch something nearby on fire. The arc is very quick, it will spark before the breaker trips.