Yes the wire needs to be at least 14 gauge before you can change the breaker safely. Once you have the 15 amp breaker in place as I said before simply count up the total wattage on your bulbs and / 120 and that will give you the amperage. on a 15 amp breaker you want to keep the amperage at 12 amps for your 80% rule

And 10 bulbs would give you about eight and a half amps so yes you would be fine on that

I'm pretty sure the wire is 12 gauge (not at the house rn), so I should be good

One more question - the basement's unfinished, so the joists are bare; is it code to drill holes thru each joist to run the line thru? I see a mix of that and stapling the wire to the underside of the joists. It would mean me drilling more holes, not enough space in the existing holes

If wire is number 12 you can put a 20 amp breaker in safely again keep it at the 80% rule which is 16 amps maximum load

(If you haven't picked up on it, I'm a complete novice; just bought my first house in April)

Gotcha

I'll go with 20 amps then

Code now tells us not to strap to the bottom of the floor joist. I guess that's in anticipation of finishing out an area further down the road. So if it were being inspected yes you would need to drill through the joist. The way you decide to do it is up to you it is an existing home with a mixture of both styles of wiring so it's kind of at a decision call on your part

Not sure that I'll end up finishing, but if its code it's worth the extra time to go ahead and do it

No problem that's what we're here for. You'll find a lot of this stuff is just common sense. You just need to exercise safety anytime you get into a live panel. If you're unsure of what you're doing you can always shut the main breaker off and use a flashlight or a headlight of some type to perform the work

^i did that twice already replacing all the outlets; I have a pretty healthy fear of getting zapped

Thanks again for your input, it's much appreciated 👌🏻

Yes I can be difficult because you have to kind of visualize how the circuit works a lot of times in order to work and safely. Anytime someone with limited experiences working on something they should be energized the circuit

* de-energize

I concur with greg 100%

@Izat - VA keep an eye out for broken tabs on outlets. They may be switched

As a rule of thumb on a 120v circuit a 100w is around 1a

And dimmer switches can only handle usually around 600w. So if you plan on dimming that area you may need to divide the load across two dimming switches

Good to know, luckily no dimmers here but I may do some on the main level eventually

Anyone ever make an alternator?

That is, convert physical energy into electrical?

It is not the easiest thing to do. You basically have a motor that is working backwards. You have to have quite a bit of copper windings inside the frame and you would have to spein it very quickly. If you had it attached to a bicycle or other of means it would not be so bad

Electric lady would not be that difficult to build the difficult part is when you have to do the spinning!

*electrically

Seen them on sail boats. Was also thinking sewing table pedal.

Yes you have to get the ratios in the windings right and then have a set RPM to keep the voltage at a set level. I'm sure there are simple units I'm talking more along the lines of a consistent voltage output of 110v or higher

Any way to do it without copper? Practically I mean.

The two components of a motor or generator do not actually touch. It works off what is called induction. Copper or gold would give the best results. Some type of metal has to be used other metals do not work as well

Yeah is it basically a spinning core inside of coils?

Rotor and stator

Yes sir and giving what you're trying to do using steel or something of that nature just wouldn't work for the induction

Keep in mind when building this that it will always take more energy to make energy than the energy produced. Heat and friction are energy losses

^^^

This is the equation that prevents perpetual motion

Ugh im at a negro house giving an estimate

Literally a chimp out on tv..... and the smell....

slave art?

Hahaha

@Lebens What is a "R&R commercial 225A single phase panel?"

Remove and replace a 225A single phase panel