[Shop-talk] 220 outlets

[Mark Andy]

Howdy,

On Wed, 29 Jul 2009, Paul Mele wrote:
> as far as the rating on the outlets goes, recall that the job of the 
> breaker in the box is to limit the current thru the wiring (in the wall) 
> to the rated carrying capacity of the wire, e.g. 12g/ 20 A, 10g/ 30A 
> (each wire gauge has a rated ampacity; it is determined by the amount of 
> heat given off by the wire when it carries max amperage; this in turn 
> prevents fire potential in the walls).

That makes sense, and its something I never really thought about too much.

Out of curiosity, does that mean it'd be within code to run a 30A 110vac 
circuit (with 10g wire & appropriate breaker) with a bunch of 20A outlets 
on it?

How does GFI protection play into a scenario like that?  In my garage, 
I've got a GFI outlet as the first in a series on a circuit, protecting 
the rest of the outlets on the circuit.  Can that GFI outlet handle 
protecting a 30A load?

And, at least for me, the garage 220vac outlets are 50A (6g or 8g wire, I 
can't remember), and that wire was kinda hard to do anything with a wire 
nut... I'll check out the split bolt ones someone mentioned... Sounds like 
a good idea.

Mark