Is there an electrician in the house?

[PencilHead]

I've got 2 different types of timers, both Intermatic. T35 is from the local hydro store for $19; TN800CL from Lowe's on sale for like $9. The first says: 1250w Tungsten, and has 1/2 HP on it. The second has 1000w Tungsten and 1/3 HP on it. My load is 2-600w ballasts 5.7amp, a 6" inline fan, a room AC 8000BTU/800w 6.7amp, 2-12" oscillating fans.
Question: will the cheapies from Lowe's run anything I've got as long as I keep the biggies on seperate 20amp circuits?

Sorry it turned into the Gettysberg Address. Help will be much appreciated.

 

[PencilHead]

Oh, and what does the Tungsten part mean? Thanks.

 

[Locked]

I am not an electrician.. but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night...

 

[HippyInEngland]

We have several highly respected 'sparkies' on the forum.

You will get an answer

eace:

 

[PoppedAlung]

no electrician but if the 1250w timer is also rated at 15 amps you should be good to put the 2 lights on one the ac on 1000w and you will need one more for your fans but i will say ive gone through 3 cheap timers in a little over a year you seem to get what you pay for with them

 

[PencilHead]

Thanks, Pop. I think you hit it on the head about getting what we pay for. The one from my hydro guy is way more professional looking--if I use it, I'll have to change my souchy ways though.

 

[pcduck]

I am not an electrician.. but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night...

LOL...I didn't and I am not, but I would not go over the amp or wattage rating. Things have a tendency to warm up pretty quick when you overload those cheap timers.

 

[scatking]

You will be safest if you put each ballast on a separate timer, the A/C on its own timer. You will probably run the fans constantly, and could Plug them into any of the circuits in addition to the timer. Try to avoid getting to close to the max limit on any of the timers or you will fry them (and your closet!).

 

[swiftgt]

hi i am an electrician,

first of all
the HP rating advertised is a 'Rated HP' or 'Peak HP. That rating is used solely for marketing purposes and really is quite deceptive. The one figure you can use for accurate comparison is 'watts'. This is a measurement of the amount of electricity a particular circuit will consume
746 watts equals 1 horsepower

i am not a fan of these plug in timers for large loads
i would recommend you use central heating timers
these will cost about $30 for a segment timer,
these can be mounted to your wall with a surface box.
keep your max usage to 90% of the time clocks max rating to insure reliability,
but you should never have trouble with them,
you could use the timers you have but it would be too easy to forget there rating down the line and overload them by adding another appliance

some handy formula are

power=volts x current (assuming no power factor)

and ohms law

volts
--------------
current x resistance

with this formula you can find out
current by dividing volts by resistance
to find volts multiply current by resistance
and to find resistance divide volts by current

as for the "Tungsten part" as i am not familiar with these timers i couldn't say for sure but it sounds like the internal contacts could be made of tungsten to increase the timers life.
if you have any other questions ill be happy to help,
or if you want me to clarify any thing just ask.

 

[Motor City Madman]

Oh, and what does the Tungsten part mean? Thanks.

Tungsten is the type of metal the contact's are made out of. I would not recommend the plastic plug in timers for six hundred watt lites especially if you are using magnetic ballast. The start up inrush current can be really high and can damage noncommercial rated timers. If you lights are 120v I wouldn't recommend putting them on the same circuit as they will draw more current than 240v. Better safe then sorry when I comes to the electrical, you don't want to get busted cause you grow caught on fire.

Good luck
MCM

 

[Locked]

Swiftgt... that was a rockin answer... very informative post...

 

[PencilHead]

Tungsten is the type of metal the contact's are made out of. I would not recommend the plastic plug in timers for six hundred watt lites especially if you are using magnetic ballast. The start up inrush current can be really high and can damage noncommercial rated timers. If you lights are 120v I wouldn't recommend putting them on the same circuit as they will draw more current than 240v. Better safe then sorry when I comes to the electrical, you don't want to get busted cause you grow caught on fire.

Good luck
MCM

Which brinfgs up another question: Is there a significant difference in cost of running 120V versus 240V?

 

[leafminer]

Motor City Madman has it right. You're right on the limit for those cheap timers.
There is no significant cost difference in going to 240V except that of course you need to have ballasts and fans that are 240V capable.

 

[PencilHead]

Motor City Madman has it right. You're right on the limit for those cheap timers.
There is no significant cost difference in going to 240V except that of course you need to have ballasts and fans that are 240V capable.

Thanks. I've got a 240 available and could pull another to my room, but if there is no significant difference... well I'm pretty lazy and if it isn't costing me more, I'll let sleeping dogs lie.

BTW--haven't seen Fat Freddy in years. How's he doing?

 

[BuddyLuv]

I wouldn't run any of the timers past 85% max rating. The reason I say this is because the intial startup my be higher then the average draw for each unit. Here is an example. I have 8 600w Lumateks, the draw a rated 5.785 each (46.25 combined) amps. However, if you stand by the box with an amp meter when they kick on the meter reads a tad of 49 and then drops off to 46 after about 5-8 seconds. I was going to run all 8 off one independent 50 amp circuit but this would be cutting it very close to what the wire and breaker can handle. So I opted to run 6 on one circuit and 2 on another independent 20 amp circuit to insure that all my wires run cool and eliminate any risk of overload and possible fire.