[pastor1189]

I have what I call circuit number five. It is a 115. Line supplies
About five outlets. If you put on two space heaters it trips the 15amp breaker.
I do not want to up the breaker amp, because the wires are old.
If I add a new line, I would have to install new breaker and new wiring and new outlets
Or can I use the existing line and split the outlets between the two breakers?

[Tonyr1084]

Because the wiring is old it was not designed to handle that much current. You can do a little calculating on how much current you are drawing by adding the wattage of both units then divide them by the house voltage. That will tell you how many amps you are using.

Another thing to keep in mind is the wire gage. To have a 20 amp service you must have 12 gage wire. A 15 amp breaker may be used on a 14 gage wire (smaller wire). Though not common, some older homes may have used 14 gage wiring because back when the house was built energy demands were not the same as they are today. Couple years back a friend had a problem with her breakers always popping. The reason was they had a large screen TV, Surround sound, stereo, satellite receiver, VCR/DVD player and a game console. The house was just not engineered to handle that kind of load. So when she would run the toaster while her kids were watching TV the breaker would trip. She thought it was a bad breaker, but after showing her the load calculations she could see she was drawing too much current.

The solution was to split up the circuit. In her house it was a simple matter of running a wire from the panel to the same circuit and reducing the number of outlets on that circuit - in short, half the outlets were on one breaker the other half on the new breaker. We used the new line (12 gage) to power the entertainment center while the older circuit (15 amp) handled the kitchen outlets.

Keep this in mind, the work needs to be done by a licensed electrician. If you ever have an electrical fire, your insurance won't cover the damage because you did not have a licensed professional do the work. In your home there may be particular circumstances that a licensed professional will readily recognize and address according to local codes. HERE, we can only give you general answers and HOPE you don't kill yourself. Be careful.

You are probably using too much power on that circuit. If the typical heater runs at about 1500 watts, that's 12.5 amps. Easily carried by a 15 amp breaker and 14 gage wire. But if you are using two heaters, that's 25 amps. Even a 20 amp breaker would trip. If you swap out to a higher breaker AND have 14 gage wire, I hope you have lots of hot dogs and marshmallows because you will be burning something down. Best to leave it to a professional. If you MUST use two space heaters, plug them on different circuits.

Good luck.

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[pastor1189]

Sounds good splitting the outlets between the two breakers. I wonder if where the existing outlets
Space is if there is enough room to add another outlet along side the existing outlet. Two outlets
Side by side? Both working off different breakers.

[Tonyr1084]

If you do that (and there's no reason you couldn't have 3, 4, 5, 10, 20 outlets on one wall, all on individual circuits) you would not be following conventional practices. The result of adding an additional outlet next to the existing outlet would be confusing to the next person who lives there, and to the next electrician who has to work on the house. Personally, I wouldn't do that, the risk of shock is too great. Someone might turn off the breaker and assume that both outlets would be off. Then when they handle the wires they would get a shock, and possible death.

There are codes and conventional methods to house wiring. This makes it easy to know where a circuit goes. In my house, the previous owner added outlets willy/nilly with no sense of what was going on. I had to remove all the outlets and wiring and have a professional rewire them PROPERLY.

In your case, it sounds like you are tying to use two heaters in one room. I don't understand why, but you know your circumstances better than I do. If the room is unusually cold then I'd think you want to focus on making the room more energy efficient. But since I can not see or inspect your home, I can only guess. But I'd start by sealing up the windows. If there's no insulation in the walls, if you own, better money would be spent on insulating the walls. A more energy efficient window would help too. Attic insulation is another plus.

Why not fix or upgrade the home heating system? All you are doing is throwing money into a pit. It's better to fix the problem at the source than just trying to find a way to live with it.

If you were a friend or neighbor I would be willing to look at it and give you proper advice. But I get the feeling you are only looking for a way to run two heaters at the same time. I hope your neighbors don't see your house on the local news because of a house fire. Really.

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