I had an electric water heater installed in my bathroom this morning. It uses a 16A plug but I only have 10A sockets in the bathroom (the only 16A in the apartment is high on the bedroom wall for an AC unit).
I know the hardware store sells powerstrips that can take 16A plugs, and which have 10A heads. The largest is rated to 4000w.
Would this be a safety hazard?
If yes, can I just replace the socket in the wall or do I need to get the whole damn thing rewired back to the fusebox?
ADDITIONAL INFO
- The heater's plug has a built-in fuse, the kind that pop-up and can
be reset, and says10 mAon it. - The heater offers 3 heating modes: 1000w, 1500w, and 2500w (the first 2 are individual heating elements, I assume)
- I have two breakers for the bathroom. One is dedicated to one outlet, the other to the lights and another outlet. Both are rated
230/400V 50Hz 6000w IEC 60898 GB 10963
Best Answer
It depends on the power rating of the water heater. From an earlier question, I see that you live in China, so your electrical supply is 220 VAC/50 Hz. That means that the maximum power draw on a 10 A circuit is 2.2 kW (220 V * 10 A). In general, you should draw less to allow a safety margin, if the water heater uses more than about 2 kW you should get it rewired because you'll be coming close to the maximum rating of that circuit.
Note: I'm not even considering the presence of other appliances on that bathroom circuit (lights, electric razors, electric toothbrush chargers, etc.).
Based on the additional info in the question, if you only use the 1000 W and 1500 W modes on the heater, the existing wiring should be sufficient. If there's a way to prevent people from using the highest setting (like mounting the whole heater in a box where it can't be changed inadvertently), you should be OK.