I am redoing my outdoor lighting and need to move 3 wall switches used for outdoor 120V lighting to a different place within the house. The issue is that the inground wire is 10/2 UF but the inside wires going to the wall switches and a timer is 12/2 on a 20A breaker. Should I keep as it is, if so what will be the pros and cons. Or should I rewire it through with 10 gauge wire on a 30A breaker. If so, what type of wall switch should be used and can I still use regular 15A lighting switches?
Lighting – How to switch 40A timer used for outdoor lighting and direct 120V outdoor lighting
lightingoutdoorswitchtimerwalls
Related Solutions
You can get heavy duty switches at Grainger.
Here is another at Grainger that is a bit less expensive than the switch above.
Since you already have a 20A small appliance branch circuit feeding receptacles in the bathroom in question, your plan is fine. NEC 210.23(C)(3) requires that at least one of the bathroom receptacle outlets is on a 20A bathroom SABC, but still allows additional receptacles to be on a 15A circuit.
(3) Bathroom Branch Circuits. In addition to the number of branch circuits required by other parts of this section, at least one 120-volt, 20-ampere branch circuit shall be provided to supply a bathroom receptacle outlet(s). Such circuits shall have no other outlets.
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Best Answer
Not sure why you got a down vote but I changed that. The problem with your electrical setup is the switches and fixtures are not rated for 30 amps in almost all cases for residential, someone may have used 10awg to limit the voltage drop. So your first job is to swap out the 30amp breaker with a 20 amp breaker. If your lighting load will work on 20 amp you may be ok. Code limits a continuous load to 80% or 16 amps on a 20 amp breaker. As far as your 40 amp timer it can be used on a 20 amp circuit and it will last longer than a 20 amp timer. Last if you do have heavy duty fixtures rated for 30 amps you could replace the 12 awg wire and all the switches with 30 amp switches, they do exists but are expensive. Prior to replacing wire and switches I would look at LED lighting, last year I replaced 4 ea 1000w MH lamps with 4 250w led floods and I now have more visible light at 1/4 the power consumption, I was also able to get an energy rebate of 80% of the cost of the lights so in reality they save enough energy that they are paying for them selves in months and I don’t have to mess with them (hopefully for 10+ years). So check your fixtures if they are standard fixtures change the breaker to the proper size of 20 amps, if they are heavy duty fixtures replace the 12awg wire with 10 awg and make sure the switches are 30 amp rated (note 15 amp snap switches are allowed on a 20 amp circuit as long as the load is not above there listed rating ).