sero
Hello
I am an MIS student and i have zero knowledge on electricity. I'm in the process in getting an electricity "ishtirak" and i need to know if 5 amps is enough for me.
My question is, how do i calculate amps for every house appliance? I know the formula A=W/V but i am not sure if i'm using it correctly.
for example, i have an electric heater that says:
power: 2100W
voltage: 220-240
so does this mean, this appliance by itself will need 2100/240=~9 amps?! I find this strange because i turned on this appliance on 5 amps ishtirak and electricity didn't cut off.
On another note, i have a fridge that is 424 kwh/annum
how do i calculate amps for that?
amkahal
your heater consumes 2100/220 = 9.5 Amps, may your circuit breaker be faulty or the rating of heater is wrong.
as for the frigde, 424 kwh/annum means 424 kilowatts per hours in a year, this approximation is taking that the fridge is not running all time into consideration, so you cannot get accurate number from this, try to find power consumption in Watts or Amps on your fridge.
m-sabra
Get a clamp meter for accurate measuring instead of calculation.
nuclearcat
Usually heaters also have multiple levels of heating power, on lowest it might be much less than max stated.
xazbrat
5 amps will usually be enough unless you want to turn on an air conditioning unit and/or have an electric stove/oven. Most times, if you are just looking to run the fridge, lights, TV etc, 5 amps will usually be more than enough. If you plan on running an AC in the summer for example, most 9000 and 12000 BTU units will use around 5 amps by themselves when the compressor turns on. Other things that use a lot of amps include water heaters, blow driers ('seshwar') and just about anything which heats a coil, so if you have a lot of them, you may not want to use them while ishtirak is on.
If I were you, I would go with the minimum 5 amps and then see how it works out. You may have to turn off the fridge to run the heater etc which isnt too bad in the winter, but when warmer weather gets here, you may want to reconsider.
sero
It turned out that the circuit breaker is faulty. its supposed to be 5 amps, but its breaking at ~12 amps
I realized this after getting a clamp meter and measuring how much each device needs.
on another note, there is the DAIKIN AC that needs only 3.75 amps for the compressor to turn on (9000BTU). But its expensive (600$ for the 9000BTU one). Do you recommend this brand? will it use more amps as it depreciates?
xazbrat
Don't worry about the brand name too much---most 9000 BTU AC units will draw near 4 amps (12000 near 5 amps). The one thing you have to worry about is the initial draw--the compressor will draw more than what is rated for a second or two, and then go back down. During this period, you may want to turn off the fridge to let the ac 'alli3' and then turn it back on after a few moments. You will get the trick and figure out pretty quickly.
