- Oct 3, 2007
- 1,539
So I'm in the process of designing a new filtration station for the waste vegetable oil that I burn in my truck. I'm going to be using an open top steel drum for heating the oil prior to filtering, because as you can imagine, trying to push vegetable oil through a filter at 6 degrees F doesn't work so well. The drum will have two heating elements (the kind that are normally used in hot water heaters) that will be immersed in the oil (I'm having a friend TIG weld bungs into the drum for them) in order to heat it up quickly on cold days for filtering. I'm going to have to run an extra circuit or two in my garage because all of the outlets are currently run off of one circuit (15A) which won't be enough. I just want to check my math on how much amperage the heaters will pull:
The elements are 5500W @ 240V
At 1/2 the voltage (120V) the wattage should quarter correct? That would make it 1375W.
1375W / 120V = 11.4A
If that's correct I'll need to run two separate 20A circuits into the garage in order to run both heaters at the same time. Can someone check my math and electrical theory so I don't burn the house down?
The elements are 5500W @ 240V
At 1/2 the voltage (120V) the wattage should quarter correct? That would make it 1375W.
1375W / 120V = 11.4A
If that's correct I'll need to run two separate 20A circuits into the garage in order to run both heaters at the same time. Can someone check my math and electrical theory so I don't burn the house down?