Wiring electric heaters

17 years ago

Hi,Im wiring my own house and i need to know,

When im running the circuits for the electric baseboard heaters I know you go to the thermostate then to the heater.

What i need to know is when i run the wire to the thermostate (parellel wiring) then to the heater can i run power from the thermostate to the next thermostate in the next bedroom then to that heater,Ect?

I would be wiring the thermostates parellel using pigtails as i would from outlet to out let,,Is this the right method to wire from room to room.And how many rooms would i be able to run on a circuit.Most rooms will only have one heater in them.

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Comments (7)

Ron Natalie
17 years ago
You need more help than we can provide here. Start by reading the instructions on the heaters. Your typical 8' long base board on 240V is just over 8 amps. That means two of them will exceed a 20A circuit.

I strongly recommend that you have someone who has a clue look at what you intend to do (and everything else) before you build a house that is a fire trap at worst and a nuisance at best.
kudzu9
17 years ago
If you are asking questions like this, you need to consult a professional, at least to get you started. I say this not to be insulting, but to keep you and your family safe. Incorrectly wired baseboard heating is a dangerous situation that you do not want to create.
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cutter4735
Original Author
17 years ago
Do i need to run a seperate curcuit to each room,The two small bedrooms are only goung to have 1 heater each in them and there 750watt heaters.
I should be able to run them two off one circuit and do the same with my bathroom and laundry room,they wil only have 1 heater in each room,The master bedroom wil have two heaters as will the kitchen and living room.

This is what i plan on doing,Wiring the 2 small rooms on 1 curcuit,The bath and laundry on another,Seperate curcuits for the living room and kitchen.
From what ive learned so far in my course this should work fine.Im wiring it my self as a leaning experiance and it wil be all checked over by an electrician befor and power is applied. I asked on here because any input is helpfull.
Ron Natalie
17 years ago
You can put about 3800 watts on a 20A /240 circuit.
If these rooms are really small 750 watts might be OK. Rule of thumb an an average modern design house is 6 watts / sf. You might want to go to 10 if there are more windows (or you are very close to the windows).
gblentz
17 years ago
If this is this just supplemental heat, and the rooms are well-insulated, you could get by with the heaters you're planning. Otherwise, ronnatalie is correct in suggesting that you may want to consider larger heaters.

One thing to remember is that you cannot have baseboard heaters directly below receptacles, so that will limit where you can place them.
Ron Natalie
6 years ago
Again BX doesn't exist anymore (and is illegal).
mtvhike
6 years ago
If it were my build, I would put each heater on it's own circuit (and breaker). It's relatively inexpensive to do that now, on a new build.

Ron: in what way is BX is illegal? I know BX is a brand type, but what's illegal about it? Old-style BX didn't have a ground wire, is that it?