Jeremy/Bonnie Hellman on mon 1 apr 96
I expect to purchase a 7 cu ft (approx) electric kiln (which goes to cone
10) but need to have the electrician upgrade my outlet now before I have
decided which kiln to buy. I believe I need 50 amp service but would
appreciate confirmation that that should be right. TIA Bonnie
Hertz Pottery on tue 2 apr 96
Bonnie
larger kilns are usually direct wired , that means there is no plug the wire
goes in to the breaker box. I believe it is safer that way. the price of a
breaker varies alot between 50 and 70 amps.
if your box is far from your kiln you can have a sub-panel installed and
direct wire from there, this sub-feed can be shut off from the main box for
maintaince.hire an electrition with experience in wireing kilns let him know
how much current you will draw in a fireing. 7cu ft fired to ^10 could take
as much as 200 kwh probably more like 150 though.
good luck
Erik Hertz >----------------------------Original
message----------------------------
>I expect to purchase a 7 cu ft (approx) electric kiln (which goes to cone
>10) but need to have the electrician upgrade my outlet now before I have
>decided which kiln to buy. I believe I need 50 amp service but would
>appreciate confirmation that that should be right. TIA Bonnie
>
erik hertz
CaroleER@aol.com on tue 2 apr 96
In a message dated 96-04-01 14:21:57 EST, you write:
>I expect to purchase a 7 cu ft (approx) electric kiln (which goes to cone
>10) but need to have the electrician upgrade my outlet now before I have
>decided which kiln to buy. I believe I need 50 amp service but would
>appreciate confirmation that that should be right. TIA Bonnie
>
>
>
When we had our electric upgraded for my 7 cu ft kiln which pulls 50 amps,
the electrician recommended a breaker of at least 60 amps. Right now the
breaker for my kiln is 75 amps. We installed a sub-box for the kiln and
garage electric. Your user's manual should have all the scematics and stuff.
If you are unsure of what kind of service you need, you should contact an
electrician.
Carole Rishel
Bastrop, TX
CaroleER@aol.com
Barton on tue 2 apr 96
Your service is the total number of amps coming into your panel from the
electric company.Look at the big breaker at the top of the panel-if there
is only one 100 amp breaker then you have 100 amp service. Newer panels
will have two 100 amp breakers with a row of breakers under them- that is
200 amp service. What this is leading up to is that you need to add up
all the amps of the breakers under each 100 amp breaker to see if you
have enough room for another breaker. A seven cubic foot kiln pulls about
45 amps so you need enough amperage left over for a 50 amp 220V breaker.
BUT you should not have more than about 90 amps total on each 100 amp
main. I hope this helps. I am not an electrician, just a potter who has
wired up a lot of electric kilns
Kurt Unterschuetz on tue 2 apr 96
Jeremy/Bonnie Hellman wrote:
>
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> I expect to purchase a 7 cu ft (approx) electric kiln (which goes to cone
> 10) but need to have the electrician upgrade my outlet
Dear Jeremy/Bonnie,
When I bought my first Skutt 1027 kiln I new I had to upgrade my service
since the kiln needed 48 amps. But I also have air conditioning and fans etc
that usurp electricity. So I wanted to have more than enough amps to handle
everything running at the same time just to be safe. I upgraded our service
to 100 amp service and have had no problems at all. I then added another
kiln but rather than further upgrading the service, I simply alternate the
firings.
Kurt Unterschuetz
Gerry Barbe on tue 2 apr 96
> >I expect to purchase a 7 cu ft (approx) electric kiln (which goes to cone
> >10) but need to have the electrician upgrade my outlet now before I have
> >decided which kiln to buy. I believe I need 50 amp service but would
> >appreciate confirmation that that should be right. TIA Bonnie
Bonnie;
Service usually means the current rating of the main breaker and the wires
coming into your house. I assume your service is greater than 50 amps,
probably more like 100-200 amps.
A typical 7 cu ft kiln uses about 40 amps. Most electrical codes require
that the load on a circuit not exceed 80% of the breaker so your kiln
would probably need a 50 amp breaker. There are exceptions, ie a stove
breaker can be less than the total stove load, a water heater
can't exceed 80%.
But the most important thing is wire size, which is what the breaker is
designed to protect. #8 wire is rated for 40 amps. The next typical size
#6 is rated for 65 amps (sometimes less depending on code, length of
run), so the electrician will probably install #6 wire from the panel and
put in a 60-65 amp breaker.
Gerry Barbe - gbarbe@julian.uwo.ca
Dept. OB/GYN
University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario, CANADA
______________________________________________________________________________
TWoodr2429@aol.com on wed 3 apr 96
Be leary of plug-in kilns, a voltage arc, due to loose connection, can
scorch a wall. Have your kiln wired directly to the box. Tom
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