too many amps?

I was just poking around, wondering a bit if I might use a lot of my circuit's power when I start my garden, since when I look at the box in the garage it says the circuit for my bedroom is also the circuit for a bathroom and another bedroom we don't use much. So I made up a scenario where all the components of my garden were pulling their max amperage, which adds up to 5 amps exactly, and I was using a desktop and laptop in my bedroom, we had guests using a laptop in the other bedroom, somebody had just showered and was drying their hair, and all the rooms were lit by 3 cfls each, was gonna add up the amps on that whole thing, but I ran into a problem when I got to the hair dryer. I was just looking at my desktop, my laptop, and all of that stuff for watt and amp ratings, and double checking them with a watts/volts/ohms/amps calculator online. The hair dryer didn't have an amp rating, but was labeled to pull a massive 1850 watts on 125 volts.
so this should be about 15 amps right?
I'm on a 15 amp circuit, so I wanted to find out, I plugged it in in the bathroom, turned it on high, nothing happened. I turned it off, unplugged it, turned it on high, and plugged it in thinking that would make it pull its max amps at the beginning. nothing happened. I tried again in my bedroom, where I have a laptop and desktop running right now, even though it shouldn't have mattered since the rooms are on the same circuit (?), and nothing happened.

What is the reason for this magic?

a hair dryer is not 15 amps friend

how would you figure out the amps that hair dryer uses then? 1850 watt 125v

google watts to amps man...i think it's divided by 200. but a 15 amp hair dryer would the worlds most powerful hair dryer ever made.

I came up with the fifteen amp figure by googling watts to amps.

I'll be buying a kill a watt meter this weekend so I'll figure it out eventually, was just trying to get an idea of it and then this has just confused the crap out of me and made me wonder if I did any of the math right

mudballs said:

google watts to amps man...i think it's divided by 200. but a 15 amp hair dryer would the worlds most powerful hair dryer ever made.

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W = V x A
A = W / V

15 Amp hairdryer is 1800w (15 Amps x 120 Volts).

1800w is the max draw on a standard outlet.

At 1850 watts, the hairdryer by itself should trip the breaker. I suspect it doesn't really draw 1850W

mudballs said:

google watts to amps man...i think it's divided by 200. but a 15 amp hair dryer would the worlds most powerful hair dryer ever made.

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Watts/Volts=Amps

yeah I thought I would trip the breaker with two computers and other stuff plugged in and running, that's why I'm so confused

yeah well i know no hair dryer is 15 damn amps man
lol
borbor for comparison avg handheld grinder is 6 amps.
small window air conditioners 7-9amps
so the heating element in the hair dryer has the most 'draw' and sure as shit ain't 15 amps. not sure what's going on with the math. probably some marketing scheme 1850 watts is an 'equivalent' measurement or something

mudballs said:

. probably some marketing scheme 1850 watts is an 'equivalent' measurement or something

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thank you, once I thought of that I went and looked at a curling iron, its label was 300 watts, seems more like it

now I feel dumb

borbor said:

thank you, once I thought of that I went and looked at a curling iron, its label was 300 watts, seems more like it

now I feel dumb

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no worries man..i had to learn just about the same way, ask someone or find out on my own.

Dude, if it's 1800w and it looks like a hair dryer, that is called a heat gun, don't use it on your hair, lol.

sorry but im still laughing at a 15 amp hair dryer ...later in life you'll laugh too

From somewhere.
AC single phase watts to amps calculation
The phase current I in amps (A) is equal to the power P in watts (W), divided by the power factor PF times the RMS voltage V in volts (V):

I(A) = P(W) / (PF × V(V))

It's not as simple as watts/volts=amps.

I think any appliance that plugs into a regular socket is limited to 1500 Watts

Red1966 said:

I think any appliance that plugs into a regular socket is limited to 1500 Watts

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It's 1800, but heaters and such are usually 1500 because people get pissed if plugging in the heater and turning on the light is enough to pop the breaker. Basically setup to where you have to have 2 large power users on the same circuit to pop it.

Red1966 said:

I think any appliance that plugs into a regular socket is limited to 1500 Watts

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for 115v maybe but 220v you can hammer amps...like water heaters 35+ amps

mudballs said:

sorry but im still laughing at a 15 amp hair dryer ...later in life you'll laugh too

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I about shat myself when I looked at the hairdryer and saw the 1800w thing.

mudballs said:

for 115v maybe but 220v you can hammer amps...like water heaters 35+ amps

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There is also a such thing as a 30 amp 110/115/120 (whatever you choose to call it). Campers use them.