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I just bought a Hisense A/C that uses up to 1800 WATTS of power. Im worried about my electrical installation, mainly if it can resist such a big power consume and if its safe using it large periods of time.

My home cables have the following specs printed on it:

CABLE THW 12 AWG 3.30

600 VOLTS ANTIFLAMA

And I bought the higher AMP socket I could find, its of 15 AMP max.

Im in Mexico, were voltage is usually 127 V.

So the question is how much power in WATTS does that cable support to be in a safe range of consume??

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  • 1
    What's the mains voltage in your country?
    – The Photon
    Jun 7 '18 at 3:30
  • 4
    Resistance in watts? Power energy?!!! Be careful, the electricity of particles is dangerous, use with insulation safety.
    – Gregory Kornblum
    Jun 7 '18 at 3:34
  • Thanks for migrating my question, I have the doubt if I was in the correct stack. @GregoryKornblum sorry if I didnt use the correct terms. The main voltage here in mexico is up to 125V
    – Karlo A. López
    Jun 7 '18 at 4:42
  • Assuming 110V power, (you forgot to mention the voltage) that 15A socket is operated well beyond its ratings. Bad idea.
    – user_1818839
    Jun 7 '18 at 10:19
  • 1
    @BrianDrummond whaaaa? "110V" is the slang term for North American mains power, which is actually 120V since WWII. 1800W is 15A. The socket is being operated precisely at its rating.
    – Harper - Reinstate Monica
    Jun 7 '18 at 13:15
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That load should be all right. The wire you named is considered good for 1920 watts continuously (3 hours or more at a time). This assumes 120 volt AC power as used in North America, Colombia, parts of Ecuador and parts of Philippines.

In other parts of the world that use 230V for power, the wire can carry even more watts.

However the 1920 watts is for all loads drawing from that circuit if you were to turn off the breaker, whatever else lost power is also on that circuit.

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  • Thanks a lot, thats a relief. Even though, I need to make the addition of the other electrical stuff connected? So I dont pass the 1920 range?
    – Karlo A. López
    Jun 7 '18 at 4:45
  • Yes, you've got it!
    – Harper - Reinstate Monica
    Jun 7 '18 at 13:18
  • @Harper Can't the wire carry up to 9.6kW continuously? Given its 600V rating, it should be capable of 16A @ 600V continuously, correct? (Unless 600V refers to the peak-to-ground voltage not the RMS-to-ground)
    – Hari Ganti
    Jun 7 '18 at 17:00
  • @Hari watts aren't fungible across voltages. The maximum wattage of the cable is greatly influenced by the voltage actually in use. The numbers I gave presume OP has the standard voltage.
    – Harper - Reinstate Monica
    Jun 9 '18 at 0:07
  • I understand the numbers were based on 120/240V. It seems that watts should, in fact, be fungible across voltage since the wire is limited in ampacity due to resistive heating and in voltage due to insulation resistance. Regardless of the line voltage, 16A is 16A, so it will heat up the same amount. To use an analogy, this is a lot like how power lines use high voltage to minimize current, or appliances use 240V to avoid larger gauge wire for the same wattage.
    – Hari Ganti
    Jun 9 '18 at 6:31
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You have already accepted an answer so this is just an addendum to address a couple of points in your question.

I just bought a Hisense A/C that uses up to 1800 WATTS of power energy.

You are confusing units.

  • Power is measured in watts (W).
  • Electrical energy is measured and billed in kilowatt-hours (kWh).

That is, energy = power x time.

So the question is how much energy in WATTS does that cable support to be in a safe range of consume??

Power, voltage and current is related by the formula P = VI where P is power (W), V is voltage (V) and I is current (A). We can calculate the current required at a voltage by rearranging as I = P / V. At 230 V the current required will be I = P / V = 1800 / 230 = 7.8 A.

Your 15 A socket will be adequate.

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  • Thanks a lot for your additional information. I've updated my question to correctly use terms.
    – Karlo A. López
    Jun 7 '18 at 15:27

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