This is a great site, thank you for all your very hard work
putting it together.

I plan to finish the basement of our new house being built as
soon as we move in this fall.

I've used your site to help me calculate the number if circuits
needed but I still have some questions.  I'm glad you're here,
I'm sure I'll have several before I'm done.

The unfinished basement is 2600 square feet.  I plan on
finishing it off in several stages.  The first stage will be
about 830 SF, 3 rooms plus a full bath.  Using your guidelines,
I've calculated 830 X 3 va or about total 2500 VA/1800 (for 14
ga romex)gives me about 1.5 general lighting branch circuits.

My questions:

Since I plan on eventually finishing most of the basement, would
it be advisable to branch off a separate box from the main panel
to accommodate future power requirements, some of which may be
higher power requirements such as a kitchen and laundry.

In this first stage, I'm planning about 16 recessed lighting
fixtures.  I'm assuming that these are not yet covered in the
initial 2500va calculation.  Is that correct?  Also, I would
think that I would need to check the lighting fixtures to
determine any additional power requirements, correct?

Should I wire the receptacles and recessed lighting separate
from each other or be more concerned with areas rather than
types of loads?

Thanks for your guidance and patience
Rich/Mdtigger

YOU SAID;
:This is a great site, thank you for all your very hard work
:
putting it together.
:
REPLY;

Thank you for you kind thoughts hope our site helps you and
anyone else that wants the knowledge available. We hope much more
to come but it does take a lot of time writing answers before you
have the question. This forum is here to cover that part of the
unanswered questions or solve certain confusions.

Again thank you !
:

:
YOU SAID;
I plan to finish the basement of our new house being built as
soon as we move in this fall.
I've used your site to help me calculate the number if circuits
needed but I still have some questions.  I'm glad you're here,
I'm sure I'll have several before I'm done.
The unfinished basement is 2600 square feet.  I plan on
finishing it off in several stages.  The first stage will be
about 830 SF, 3 rooms plus a full bath.  Using your guidelines,
I've calculated 830 X 3 va or about total 2500 VA/1800 (for 14
ga romex)gives me about 1.5 general lighting branch circuits.

REPLY;
You did good, but remember that your calculation is minimum
safety standards only. Our belief is that if you know the minimum
safety standards then you will know just how far above minimum
standards you want to go.

YOU SAID;
My questions:
:
Since I plan on eventually finishing most of the basement, would
it be advisable to branch off a separate box from the main panel
to accommodate future power requirements, some of which may be
higher power requirements such as a kitchen and laundry.

REPLY;

When it comes to residential dwellings unless you have a part of
the home that is more than 150' away with a lot of heavy loads in
that certain area, I would not see an advantage to installing any
sub panels. However thinking ahead is a good thing. If you plan
to build in stages then you might want to ensure you have a false
ceiling or bulkhead area that will allow you to run any future
loads whether it be plumbing heating or electricity. If you have
a drywalled ceiling the be sure to make a bulkhead to use as a
chase. If you have a false ceiliing then you always have access
through you basement to move around with mechincals used in the
future. If your panel is not in an accessible location then run
single branch circuits needed to run what your first stage is
requiring then run single circuits for any known future loads
required in you next stages of construction and leave them
blanked off inside a junction box in the next stages of
construction areas. Any future branch circuits that you install
on the first stage of construction for future stages of
construction should be taped off inside you main panel for
connections inside that panel when the next stages come ready.
Just be sure to leave these future branch circuits de-energized
while they are unused for safty considerations.

YOU SAID;
In this first stage, I'm planning about 16 recessed lighting
fixtures.  I'm assuming that these are not yet covered in the
initial 2500va calculation.  Is that correct?  Also, I would
think that I would need to check the lighting fixtures to
determine any additional power requirements, correct?


REPLY;

The general lighting calculated by you at 3 volt amps per square
feet does include normal lighting. However the 16 recessed
lighting fixtures if using one 100 watt bulb per fixture would
hit pretty close to the maximum of one 1800 va 15 amp circuit.
When you are installing more than the minimum lighting in an area
you always want to check what the wattage adds up to in your
certain lighting circuit. When you say you are installing 16
recessed fixtures depending on the fixtures but if you use 16 -
75 par 30 light bulbs in those fixtures you would add up to 1200
watts. This lighting design would exceed the minimum calculation
for general lighting. The 1200 watt load for you lighting causes
more than one thing to consider. First you should consider
running these light fixtures on a dedicated branch circuit at
least 15 amp rated 14 awg wire. This would leave you room for
future to add to that lighting circuit in the future. The second  
consideration would be if you plan to use dimmer switches. I
would wire these fixtures you are planning on one branch circuit
yet controlled by two different switches. The normal dimmer
switches are rated at 600 watts which would only be half the
fixtures you plan. There is a heavy duty dimmer that will control
all 16 fixtures if only 70 watt bulbs are used. This heavy duty
dimmer will be made with cooling fins and you had better be
sitting down when you ask the price of this larger rated dimmer
switch compared to the normal 600 watt dimmers normally used. Now
if you think you may use larger wattage bulbs in your recessed
fixtures then you need to confirm the maximum wattage rating of
those recessed light fixtures compared to the trim of the tank
you plan to use. The ratings in wattage compared to the trim
types should be found inside the recessed tanks. I suspect that
if you use a enclosed glass trim your wattage rating will be 60
watts, if you use a trim with a hole in it or an eye ball trim
designed to have a flood bulb exposed then you will most likly
find a maximum rating of 75 watt bulbs. You should check the
above suggested before you commit to far with you investment. You
have done a good thing, you seem to have asked how deep the water
is before you jumped over that cliff into the water, proabably
good thinking. Seriously now is the time to ask and plan before
you get to committed.

YOU SAID;
Should I wire the receptacles and recessed lighting separate
from each other or be more concerned with areas rather than
types of loads?


REPLY;

I believe this question was ansered as I was rattling off
everything in the previous reply.

YOU SAID;
Thanks for your guidance and patience
Rich/Mdtigger

REPLY;

Glad to be of help if you have more concerns feel free to ask.

Thank you for visiting Don and My Site.

Wg

Another thought;

I forgot to mention the 3 watt per square foot concerning
receptacle. You are allowed to calculate the number of receptcles
per circuit as you have. You must at least meet that minimum
calculated. Most people install about 9 or 10 receptacles on a
circuit in more than one room thus having other receptacles in
both rooms on different circuits. You are not required to stay in
on room with a circuit. I advise you not to stay in one room as
many like to do. Intermix two or three rooms with your
receptacles thus having more than one receptacle partial circuit
in each room allowing you still to have power to receptacles in
each room if one branch circuit malfunctions or kicks off for
some reason. Another advantage to having more than one partial
receptacle circuit per room is that if you have a heavy load to
apply temporarily to that room you have 30 amps capacity of
receptacle loads instead of just the 15 amp capacity if that room
is served by a dedicated receptacle circuit with no other partial
receptacle circuits in that room. Try to plan your wiring design
concerning receptacles so that certain receptacle circuit mixes
in several different habitable rooms and doing that type circuit
finding more than one partial receptacles circuit per room. Be
cautious if you have a kitchen or kitchenette. The receptacles in
that type of room is considered as small appliance branch circuit
receptacles and have special requirement including required to be
20 amp rated "see wiring a dwelling in a kitchen" for referance
to these small appliance branch circuit design requirments.

Good Luck

Wg

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