Anyone have a rough idea as to what range in watts a typical block heater uses? Have 4 trucks being plugged in and need to know how big the circuit should be. Any &quot;rough&quot; ideas would be appreciated.<br>Thanx, Rick

 

CattleHauler (Ricki) just replaced his, it was a 750W-120V.

 

How hot you think the block heater keeps at?

 

Keeps the hood of the truck snow free during a light snowfall. And the truck thinks that it's actually warm when it starts up

 

I used my block heater when the temps got down to 7 degrees a couple of weeks ago.. didn't seem to do a whole lot for warm up. I'm pretty sure it was working because something was drawing enough current to make the plug spark when I unplugged it.

 

If you are going to use 4 heaters at the same time that will use about 12.5 amps @120 volts so a 15 or 20 amp circuit will do the trick

 

Thanx for the reply's, we just went ahead and ran dual 20 amp lines just to be on the safe side.

 

[quote author=figure_9_pro link=board=13;threadid=10206;start=0#99059 date=1044064393]
If you are going to use 4 heaters at the same time that will use about 12.5 amps @120 volts so a 15 or 20 amp circuit will do the trick
[/quote]

I'm not sure what you based your figures on, fig. The heater consumes around 750 watt (pure resistive load) so that's around 6 amps and some change. So you're looking at about 25 amp total for the 4 vehicles. JYD, I think you made the right move with the 2 20 amp circuits.

 

Commatoze, I actually came up with 6.5 amps per heater so it holds out on paper. Thanx again for all input

 

OK OK so when I add it with a calculator instead of my head I come up with 25 amps.......I hate when that happens [undecided]

 

[quote author=figure_9_pro link=board=13;threadid=10206;start=0#99332 date=1044138592]<br>OK OK so when I add it with a calculator instead of my head I come up with 25 amps.......I hate when that happens [undecided]<br>[/quote]<br><br>I can't count to 20 without taking my shoes off. <br><br>Like Jethro Clampett I studies Gozintas.