That’s basically it. While it’s a long shot, it could conceivable happen, along with wires, plugs and devices (outlets) overheating. Under-protected will result in nuisance tripping and overheating of the breaker, which will likely lead to failure of the breaker altogether once the spring is weakened enough.
Thanks for the responses. I didn’t even consider the split outlet thing. The disposal has a switch over the counter to turn it on and off, so I guess that means it’s a split outlet?
I don’t know how the circuits are wired. The breaker box was never labelled for some reason. When I get a moment, though, I’ll look up all the power requirements for the appliances and see what they add up to. I guess I’ll then have to test the breakers to see who is hooked up to what.
If you’re in the US and wiring to protect the end product you are doing it wrong. NEC wiring and breakers are to protect the wiring itself. If a device has specific voltage or amperage requirements that can’t be exceeded that protection needs to be incorporated into the device.
If there is a switch and the device is plugged into half of a duplex outlet, then yes. One can either buy a split outlet, or cut the strap on a regular duplex to create a split outlet. I would guess the latter.
Yes, in general breakers are sized to the wire, but the service needs to relate to the loads. It may make sense as hair driers get bigger and bigger to wire bathrooms with 20 amp service. A gargage disposal should rely on its own built in over load when jammed. Still for something maybe drawing 6.5 amps, I fail to see the wisdom of a dedicated 20 amp circuit.
I agree. For the smaller ones, 6.5 amps may be appropriate; but a 1.0 HP Insinkerator like this one draws 10.2 amps, average. While it doesn’t warrant a 20 amp circuit, it will need all of 15 amp protection. I would hesitate to install a 20 amp circuit just in case somebody decided to put in a commercial grade disposal. On spec is a different story, of course.
That is from the current US NEC for residential rough-in wiring, so the NEC says 20A.
Also required currently is a minimum of one GFCI protected outlet every 24" of counterspace.
Every bathroom is required to have at least one GFCI protected 20A outlet.
Note, homeowners pay for all that, not those writing the code. Do they have numbers showing refrigerators need 20 amp circuits?
refrigerator manuals have specified separate circuits for a long time.
you can get a voltage sag and overloads on shared circuits especially at startup.
No it doesn’t. Did you read your own cite?
That says you need 2 20 amp circuits dedicated for convenience outlets. It doesn’t mention any specific requirements for the garbage disposal.