Electrical/lighting question

[Cajundude]

I am redoing my garage right now and am wondering if I can run 6 flourescent four tube strips and two ceiling fans on one circuit. That circuit being the new line I ran to 7 additional outlets in the garage. The original plugs that I ran the wire for would probably only be used one at a time and there would never be multiple tools running all the outlets at once. Thanks!

 

[OldCarGuy]

Even if you ran a 20 Amp circuit using #12 wire, the seven outlets is taxing it already. I would recommend that you run a dedicated line for the lights and fans.

Anyhow you wouldn't want the lights to go out when you overloaded an outlet.

 

[Stuart in MN]

Are they 4 foot or 8 foot fluorescents? Assuming they are four footers at 32 watts each, that's 32 watts x 6 light fixtures x four lamps/fixture = 768 watts. I don't know how much power your fans draw, but I'll guess 75 watts each, or 150 watts for both. 768 + 150 = 918 watts; at 120 volts that's 7.65 amps.

You don't want to load a circuit more than 80% of its capacity; assuming it's a 15 amp circuit that's 12 amps max. 12 - 7.65 = only 4.35 amps, which probably wouldn't be enough to even run a 3/8" hand drill.

So, the lights should be on a separate circuit.

 

[The Money Pit]

I agree with Stuart. I used a 200 amp panel box because it was on the boarder line of not being able to hold all the brakers with a smaller box since I will have a bath and a full room upstairs. I have all my outlets on seperate circuts than my lights because if I'm working on an outlet I still have light if it's dark.

 

[TOO Z MAXX]

I would add a 20 amp circuit for the lights and fans and try to split the 7 plugs into 2 20 amp circuits.