Ease/Cost of having new 20 amp dedicated gfci-protected circuit installed by electrician?

[Giraffe0621]

Does anyone know expensive it generally is to have a new 20 amp dedicated GFCI-protected circuit installed by an electrician? Is it an easy/fast job for an electrician?

My Reefer 250 arrives tomorrow morning(!) and will be set up in my living room, which is all on one circuit (it's a tiny house). I'm assuming setting up all the equipment on a breaker that also runs an AC, a smaller freshwater tank, etc. is a bad idea right?

So definitely need to have a dedicated Reef circuit is the best plan, right? Anything else I should make sure to ask for?

 

[coral-boss]

It's easy to do, your biggest expense will be labor depending on how extensive the wire run is. The parts are cheap at Home Depot. I did 2 dedicated circuits myself. One for each tank. Took about an hour but my panel is close to the tanks

 

[Giraffe0621]

It's easy to do, your biggest expense will be labor depending on how extensive the wire run is. The parts are cheap at Home Depot. I did 2 dedicated circuits myself. One for each tank. Took about an hour but my panel is close to the tanks

Thanks @coral-boss, I appreciate the info. The wire run would be from the first floor to the basement, and then about 10 feet. I'm guessing that's a bigger deal to run something to a different floor?

 

[coral-boss]

It really depends on how the house is built and the layout. Best idea is to get a few quotes from some well know electrician in your area.

 

[coral-boss]

[emoji106] good luck

 

[Giraffe0621]

Thank you Will do!

 

[tdileo]

Inside the house should be easy. I helped my dad do two of them a few months ago but from my garage to the backyard to the basement. We had to run ~75 feet of wire the way and drill through 3 concrete blocks. He has been doing electrical stuff all his life and it took us like 4 hours but we got REALLY unlucky. Our luck had the wires getting caught multiple times and not pushing through. One even partialy stripped when the casing got caught on some concrete and we had to pull it out and redo it.
Good luck though, it shouldn't be nearly that difficult for you. Especially if you have good luck

 

[BlueCursor]

Actually, by code a 20 AMP circuit uses different wires than 15 AMP. So you probably have to run a dedicated wire. In an existing house this can be problematic.

I'm not sure why you need 20 AMP. I have a dedicated 20 AMP GFI for my 100 Gal tank, but Apex says I never go over 10 AMP. I run heater, chiller, 3 AI 52s and 2 AI 26s, 2 250 Gyres, 3 DOS, and a pump that puts our 900 Gals/hr.

 

[Giraffe0621]

I had thought 20 amp was the standard, sorry about that! 15 amp it is!

 

[Giraffe0621]

I had thought 20 amp was the standard, sorry about that! 15 amp it is!

 

[Greybeard]

2 story home with a finished basement, tank on the middle floor, interior room... could be a nightmare.

1 story home with crawlspace or unfinished basement, easy as can be.

All depends on what you have to go through to get from point A to point B

I ran a dedicated 15a circuit with two duplex GFCI outlets for my new 150, through a crawlspace, to a dedicated reef closet, where I was going to be cutting up the wall anyway... No big deal.

 

[Giraffe0621]

2 story home with a finished basement, tank on the middle floor, interior room... could be a nightmare.

1 story home with crawlspace or unfinished basement, easy as can be.

All depends on what you have to go through to get from point A to point B

I ran a dedicated 15a circuit with two duplex GFCI outlets for my new 150, through a crawlspace, to a dedicated reef closet, where I was going to be cutting up the wall anyway... No big deal.

I'm happy to say 1 story home with unfinished basement Thank goodness!