How to check the amps being drawn from a breaker

[felipemartinez]

hello dominic, question. i want to run a switch and lighting to my porch outside the house, but the closest wire of electricity near the area is an outlet. being that its a 20 amp and my lighting only requires 15 amp. can i still pull it from there?

[totallldigital]

Dominick, as always, great video, appreciate you taking the time to spread your knowledge. After studying your various videos, I wired my entire garage to include recepticles, switches, 110v and 220v wiring, and tied it all in to my electrical panel without burning down the house. Or it hasn't burnt down YET. You are appreciated.

[jrvs]

I'm a RV service tech and I do this same type of thing and show my customers why they keep tripping breaker and at the same time give a crash course on electricity Love the video

[NedKLee]

Thanks Dominic, somehow you seem to have the ability to put up the right video at the time I need it most.

[brizzx]

Love the way Dominic just waves his hand over a live Panel like that while not even looking at it. What a brave soul!

[jimkingsland]

Thank you for this concise but thorough demonstration. I will look into my panel and see if I think I can test a circuit. Seems my panel may be a bit more cluttered with wires. Also, I will check into getting a tester and how to set it up to test. Thanks again I subbed.

[SweepeasPoppa]

Dominick, thank you very much for your excellent and clear explanation of wiring a sub panel, especially the splitting of the neutral and ground bars.  Also excellent tip on removing the sheathing on the NMC cable and proper sizing.  Very well done!

[rotorcraft]

Clear and concise. Thank you!!! I have a 15A breaker in 2018 new construction that keeps tripping at random, but only when my small electric floor heater is turned on in the computer room which probably is already overloaded with 2 computers, a light, several chargers, a modem, etc. Would it be as simple as going to home depot and getting a higher amp breaker? I'm guessing this may be a BAD idea. Someone suggested it was in violation of new construction code for fire reasons? I do have the heater plugged into a TRC Southwire 120-Volt, 15-Amp, 1800-Watts, Single Outlet GFCI Adapter (bought from Amazon). I basically use it as an on-off switch because plugging and unplugging the heater is a pain to do. I've been using it this way for over a decade with no ill effects. I also heard that was a bad idea, but I'm looking for an expert opinion on the garage breaker as well as using a GFCI as a poor man's power switch.

[sharonlee]

I've performed my own electrical for years on the Homes I have owned and was never trained to do any of this work but by watching these videos I have learned for sure that I performed all these past jobs correctly ! I just used common sense but back in those days we had no internet and you tube but these are great videos for the person who wishes to learn proper techniques in performing Electrical work...Good Luck

[haroldt]

Per usual Dom, great stuff.  I was (however) waiting for you to "light UP" with the way you where putting your hands all over that live panel box.  I'd been a bit timid myself to have been doing that.  But that the difference between experience (you) and occasional weekend warrior (me.)

[yournemesis]

Great video. What if its a 220V circuit? Do I read both wires and add the amps from each, or one of the two? Trying to see how much consumption my new pool pump motor uses up.

[BigSkidMedia]

Great video.  My home office was pulling too many amps as it was designed for a bedroom and not really a home office.  Thanks to this tip I was able to figure out that I had a bad battery backup device that was eating up the electrons.  I took that out of the equation and did other things to lighten the load.  Anyhow, didn't even know that device existed before this video.  Thanks!

[harrytolentino]

Thanks for great video!Question:If a subpanel is being fed from junction box which feeds 2 other panels, do I still need to separate the neutral from the grounding bar?

[Askmediy]

Sounds like you tripped a GFI outlet. Check the bathrooms, kitchen and garage. Also check outside outlets as well. There will be a little push in tripper on the front of the outlet.

[minthos]

the way your hands were almost touching the terminals gave me goosebumps

[dynamicdopamine]

I've got a situation right now to where debating on rewiring this mobile home. We lost everything in a house fire and money is definitely tight. We bought a cheap mobile home that basically needs everything updated or replaced. I've replaced receptacles and light switches I have cut off all the old ends and they were stuck into the back of the receptacles. I did away with that and use the screws and wire nuts like it's supposed to be done. My issue is I've got a radio plugged in to a specific Outlet and whenever I hook up a battery charger to charge up the drill... The radio goes into static. I'm about to check the amps like you just showed me because I've already checked the voltage and the voltage is fine. I'm just trying to figure out if I should replace the wires or not

[Jay-trpx]

Hi thanks for a great video.
I was wondering why is my amperage reading bouncing back and forth when I check my amps with my clamp meter on my main switch of my 480 volts AC oven machine?

[doradean]

Hi Dominic! I found a old Snap 8 SPR - 300 AC Volt ohm ammeter made by Sperry Equipment Inc left by my deceased father. It doesn't have any leads on it. Trying to see if I can still use it. Googled and found pdf file of intruction on the plus model, which requires a AA battery. Mine is not the plus model. On mine, there are 4 screws at the back that opens the panel, but a button dial at the bottom corner keeps me from prying it open completely to see if a battery is needed or not. The dial is not popping out using a flat head. I see a small recessed hole on the side of the button dial, but using small screw drivers for eye glasses is not doing anything inside that hole. Have you used one of these instrument before? Are any of these old style meter not require a battery? If so, are these plug-in lead wires interchangeable with the lead wires of a regular multimeter? Thanks so much!

[richardmiller]

I was just wondering if you can connect an LED amp meter to a panel? I would like to know what kind of amps I am pulling while in my workshop as a whole.

[STV-HH]

Very helpful. I wish I watched this a couple hours ago. But it will still be valuable info. THx