Did I Screw Up?

I'd be lazy like you; I'd placard it and not worry about it.

These days Christmas lights are LEDs and are getting more efficient, so even if someone ignored the placard and plugged in a bunch of lights it's not likely they'd overload the line. And usually the light strings have their own current limit fuses. (I bet they're limited to 15A anyway.)

When the house is eventually sold a home inspector will note the situation in his report, and then it will be up to the new buyer to ask you to upgrade the circuit or to live with it.

Anyone. Trying to plug a heavy load into a light socket addapter should have their head examined.

Consider adding an outdoor 20 amp gfi outlet and get rid of that pulling elbow. If needed..

Agreed, it will happen.

That would be incorrect procedure.

The NEC says, "unless specifically permitted in Section 240.4(E) through (G), the overcurrent protection shall not exceed 15 amperes for 14 AWG".

It'll be fine!

At 10 feet the voltage drop would be negligible. Also technically 14 ga wire in a residential application is good for 17 - 18 amps and a 20 amp circuit should not be run over 80% capacity which put it rat that the working limit.

Also a screw in light socket adapter or light socket itself and its related wiring is not rated for even 15 amps continuous duty anyways so if someone did try and run a 18 amp load off one it would burn up way before the 14 ga feedline ever got close to be too hot to be dangerous.

I call it a non issue 'what if' concern. Take you OCD meds and forget about it.

Your display size and choice of bulbs, whether incandescent or LED, will influence your energy bill the most. For example, a 100-count string of incandescent mini lights runs at 40 watts, while a 70 count of 5mm Wide Angle LEDs is approximately 4.8 watts total. In fact, because incandescent wattage is 80-90% more than LED wattage, the cost to power an incandescent can be up to 90x greater than powering an LED.

'.... For example, a 100-count string of incandescent mini lights runs at 40 watts, while a 70 count of 5mm Wide Angle LEDs is approximately 4.8 watts total. In fact, because incandescent wattage is 80-90% more than LED wattage, the cost to power an incandescent can be up to 90x greater than powering an LED.....'

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Want to try that again? Go ahead, everyone needs a do-over, every once in a while.

Look, if you ignore the bulb count and just declare the strings equivalent for comparison, then the incandescent wattage is 8.333 times the LED wattage. So not 80-90% more, 733% more (833% of the LED wattage).

That would cost more than 8 but less than 9 times as much than powering the LED string. That is still a significant difference, even if it isn't quite the 90% you were swinging for.

.

If you compare on a per bulb basis, the difference is still large but quite so.

..really? wouldn't he have 20A receptacles?

And you're asking him to downgrade at the panel?

That's a HUGE! no-no.. technically.

That's twice now that you don't know what you are talking about.

Oh I've been wrong a lot more than twice.

..I caught it. I was thinking the other way around and with 14G

I've seen it so many times that I can't get it right.

...I was just testing your knowledge.

..it still depends on ther situation

That table is not very rational; I wonder who dreamed it up.

Apart from that, it is not relevant to the point I was making.

well I'm glad you're enjoying yourself.

-take a hike

Not until you cease posting incompetent material.

I'm sorry.. did I offend you?

If all you're going to do is twirl around like an annoying tornado.

PLEASE don't comment.

If you would like to comment and contribute to the community in a constructive and friendly manner. Please feel free to do so.

-everything is interesting but your more

Please feel free to edit that illiterate post before asking for a real response.

You are not friendly

-sorry for you and yours

Hey, hey hey, can't we all just get alone... I have an idea, let's have a square dance.... everybody likes square dancing.

"placard" the box and get on with life.

In the highly unlikely event that the box gets wet a 20 AMP circuit breaker will still trip before 10 feet of 14 ga wire will catch fire.

I get codes. I used to work at an OEM where we had to specify all equipment electrical installations to accommodate the FLA loads on every piece of equipment in the line, which might be 100 feet long even though there was never an occasion that they would run anywhere near total FLA. It drove our customers crazy, but it was "the code".

The UK wiring regulations allow another method.

If the wire of reduced section at the end of the circuit [or on a spur] is protected against Short Circuit by the source breaker then it is permissible to put the Overload protection for the "reduced section"at the end of the circuit/spur, in your case, the "gray box".

For example, 1.5 sq.mm twin cable is rated 16.5 amp in conduit and is used with 16 amp distribution board MCB which magnetic trips on short-circuit with a maximum circuit loop impedance of 2.25 ohms @230V.

1 sq.mm twin cable is rated 13 amp in conduit and can be overload protected by a 13 amp ceramic fuse (breaking capacity for the common domestic 1" x 0.25" fuse is actually 6 kA - as much as the usual domestic board MCB).

20 metres of 1 sq.mm is 0.88 ohm loop which gives a short circuit prospective current of 230/0.44 = 262 amps.

Use of adiabatic equation or a chart shows that short circuit limit of standard 1 sq.mm PVC insulated copper cable is ~0.2s @ 260 amp & >1 sec @100 amp, compared to the 16A breaker trip time of less than 0.1 sec at 80 amp.