How Many Fridges Can You Run From A 15a Circuit?

[Bonenose]

Should not be an issue running on a lead, but I would run the urn separate on it's own lead. If possible from an outlet on another power circuit just for extra reliability. I assume your urn is 2400w therefore you would potentially be running 14A or more in the case of everything running at once.

 

[Lionman]

Fridges only use 200w at the most usually. Depends on the size of the fridge though.

They can use high amps at startup but only for a brief moment. I'm not sure if it would be enough to trip a breaker if 2 or 3 or 4 started simultaneously but I highly doubt it.

 

[Zorco]

Fridges only use 200w at the most usually. Depends on the size of the fridge though.

They can use high amps at startup but only for a brief moment. I'm not sure if it would be enough to trip a breaker if 2 or 3 or 4 started simultaneously but I highly doubt it.

Yep, it's possible. I have three (and at one time 4) fridges on STC1000s. Was a simple matter of changing the compressor delay timer to shift them apart after a black out.

 

[malt junkie]

the double power point all this is hooked up to is most likely on a 16a breaker (you really should check), your fridges if all on at once will be drawing around 3amps, your urn will pull 10amps. Now a standard power point is rated to 10amps, so the urn really does need it's own, also I'd be using a 15amp extension (minimum) for the urn (volt drop over distance). Check your powerboard the garage should be on it's own circuit and might have a higher rate breaker if so it would be a simple job for your sparky to add a few more points.

 

[earle]

Thanks for the responses.

Need to get the electrician out for a few other small jobs so will probably get another power point added then.

Will use a separate extension lead for the urn. The heavy duty leads I have in mind have 1.5mm wire, my understanding is that this is essentially the same as a 15A lead but without the 15A wide earth blade

 

[pcqypcqy]

At the old place, when I was brewing in the shed in my profile pic, I used to run 2 extension leads out for brew days. These were 'heavy duty' from Bunnings, but still only 10 amp I believe. Link.

I'd run the HLT element and its STC off one lead, and then everything else (pumps, kettle for HERMS, ferment fridge) off the other. Note that I wasn't usually running the fridge during a brew, and I use gas for the kettle.

Given the price of those leads, I'd be running one lead as a semi-permanent one to do all your fridges, light, stereo, tv, etc. And then on brew days just run another one out just for the urn.

You may find you won't want to actually brew in the shed during summer anyway, so you might end up just brewing outside near the shed and packing it all away.

 

[earle]

Some of the HD leads have 1.5mm, I'll just need to look closely.

Yes, might get a bit hot in summer. Will see. It's actually in a pretty shady corner of the yard. If it's too hot I'll just brew where I currently brew as you say. I'd just like the option of brewing in the shad, particularly for sours where the process takes a few days.

 

[earle]

Extension something like this https://www.bunnings.com.au/hpm-10m-10a-1-5mm-core-heavy-duty-tradesman-extension-lead_p4420227

 

[Lionman]

the double power point all this is hooked up to is most likely on a 16a breaker (you really should check), your fridges if all on at once will be drawing around 3amps, your urn will pull 10amps. Now a standard power point is rated to 10amps, so the urn really does need it's own, also I'd be using a 15amp extension (minimum) for the urn (volt drop over distance). Check your powerboard the garage should be on it's own circuit and might have a higher rate breaker if so it would be a simple job for your sparky to add a few more points.

Can't a double power point handle 10A per socket, limited to a total of 16A on a standard breaker?

If so it would be fine to run the fridges on one and the urn on the other?

 

[pcqypcqy]

Can't a double power point handle 10A per socket, limited to a total of 16A on a standard breaker?

If so it would be fine to run the fridges on one and the urn on the other?

Depends on how it was wired. Some of the ones have one socket piggy backed onto the other, so the total for both sockets is still only 10 amps. If they are wired individually, you should be able to pull 10 amps per socket.

 

[Bonenose]

Heavy duty 10A lead should be fine, in general the only difference is the earth pin. I assume you will have one lead pretty much permanently run out for fridges light etc. that you wont touch. I would recommend then running out a second lead when using the urn and putting it away afterwards. That way you check the lead every time you use it simply because you have to plug each end in. Have replaced a lot of outlets and leads where they have melted plugs into outlet etc. from high loads that are just plugged in and forgotten about. On a reasonably modern install with decent circuit breaker you should not have an issue.

 

[Bonenose]

Couple photos of plug and powerboard you can see discolouration on the outlet around the active and the plastic on the plug has started to melt around active and neutral, there is also some discolouration of the pins not sure if it will show up in the photo. Normally run from an outlet plugged in to powerboard yesterday for convenience with this result. This is running a Robobrew so 10A load. I'm putting it down to crap connection on the powerboard, just something to look out for. Needless to say will not be doing that again.