ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area 15 or 20 to Refrigerator circuit

My own frigge draws 4 amps.

As to a fridge drawing 'about 10 amps' at start up that means little.

How much a motor draws at start up depends on how long you are taking the measurement for.

I bet a fridge at start will draw over 50 amps at start up if I set my meter for 100 Milli-second peak record.

Set the meter for a 1 second peak and you will see much less current.

Breakers are designed to deal with inrush currents.

I also try real hard to place the refrigerator on it's own circuit.

Part of the reason is that you really don't want something else to shut off the fridge.

Another reason is that, however the numbers may work today, refrigerators are getting HUGE.
When I was growing up, a typical fridge was about 5 ft. tall, 2 ft wide, and 2 ft. deep. A few ice cube trays took up almost half the freezer space.
I just had a customer buy an 800 lb monster, with double doors and bathtub-sized drawers. This thing was 6 ft. tall, 5 ft. wide, and 30" deep. My bedroom closet isn't that big.
Mark my words, it's just a matter of time before folks start installing walk-in coolers!

I am also seeing an increased use of upright freezers, in addition to the fridge. A "little old lady" I know has a "normal" fridge as well as a 4 ft. tall upright freezer, both plugged into the same place. That her apartment was carved out of a 100-yr old house suggests that her electric may be minimal at best.

So, though there is no code saying I must, I try to give the fridge its' own line.

Bob beat me to it but have any of you ever looked at the nameplate of a fridge? Dedicated 20 amp circuit is a waste.
Unless the fridge is a pig like a 48" Sub Zero it just isn't needed.

Here in Manitoba, code is dedicated 15 amp plug non gfi and if desired one recessed clock receptacle attached in the kitchen.

lock receptacle for the fridge? Now why didn't I think of that?

Clock recpts that I recall have no grounding means.

I think hydro meant a 'dedicated' circuit that they will allow a clock receptacle installed on.

More so... to my knowledge _no_ breaker trips at it's rated current. For example European B type breakers have to trip on 1,45 times their rated current within one hour (only regarding the overload protection). So there's no way anything just slightly over 20 amps would trip a 20 amps breaker. That would probably require a 60 amps spike which the breaker recognizes as a short circuit and trips instantly (0.2 seconds with most Euro breakers).

Most of the smaller American breakers may never trip with up to 1.25% of the rated load.

It is enlightening looking at the trip curves of the OCPDs we use.

The 'about 10 amps' figure comes from a Thomson/ Delmar learning book that I own. I have never personally done an amprobe reading on a fridge because usually the fridge isn't installed until well after I am done doing my electricial work. I know a dedicated line isn't required but it's still a good idea to run one whenever possible.

Speaking of the trip curves on the OCPDs we use here in America, I was sent to troubleshoot a tripping circuit breaker at a health spa recently. Seems that a sump pump was cord temporarily plugged into to convience outlet that was on the same circuit as a the swimming pools filtering system. The OCPD was a 15 square D and it was holding at 20.2 amps for about 15 minutes at a time before it would trip. I had no idea that a 15 amp breaker would hold that long.

Yes, that's usually pretty surprising! At school we have been loading a 10amp fuse with more than 15 amps for several minutes without knowing and it never blew. Might have gotten warm though I guess.