Proton Soup said:
i think 15A is a common breaker size now for wall outlet circuits. in the past, larger size fuses may have been used. few enough and large enough to be fire hazards.
wall outlets in an actual "shop" in a commercial building may be another story, though. do we have an electrician in the house?
Wall outlets in the USA that have the conventional two vertical slots are limited to 15A, whether in a shop or not. You can have a 20A circuit however. The plug has one vertical and one horizontal blade. The 20A outlet has one vertical slot and one "tee" slot so it can accept devices rated for either current limit. Beyond 20A, there are many sizes/shapes/flavors depending on voltage/current/phases, which is why I usually end up buying the wrong pigtail for a new (non-amish) dryer.
Now that I have butted-in to your forum... This looks like a fun place. Can I stay and play?
I had a little comment about Heat-Scourge fireplaces. My 83y/o dad bought one last year from a USSA-Today ad, against my advice. He was impressed by the claimed energy savings. I was impressed with the huge uninsulated barn they were building them in instead of a workshop, and the fact that several of the electric units seemed to be operating.
Fortunately, they took it back (incl. shipping) without a problem. All of the arguments against this thing are clear to the people here, but here's a little icing. The unit does look really nice, kind of like the ones at Home Repot and Crustco for half the price. It is laminated plywood with what looks like a polyurathane finish (organically grown by the amish I'm sure.) It weighs little, and has tiny wheels that will bury themselves in the shallowest pile carpet. We never plugged it in, but you can imagine what the "flame" must have looked like anyway.
Other than the "amish made" (don't go all lawyer about who made the heaters vs mantles) and "energy savings" claims, the most insulting blow is the size of the thing. To quote a famous musician, "it was in danger of being trod upon by dwarves!" If you see their current TV spots, you'll see what I mean. In every scene, they are careful to make sure that all people (mostly children) are always sitting on the floor next to it, because the arm of the(empty) couch next to it is TALLER than the thing! Even the "dad" is taller while on his hands and knees!
These people score marketing points, but with me they ethically rank up there with the guy who wanted to sell me 200-Tesla (not a typo) magnets that would remove impurities from my house water and make it more healthy by "polarizing" it.
