To all the electricians out there....

Long story short.... the new place im moving to doesn’t have power in the “garage” (more of a storage unit”. It does have a light in there throw and I was wondering what I could run off of it without popping the circuit with one of those that’s pictured below. Currently all I have that is a powered tool is my chop saw but my tool chest has a power strip and I will need to know how to keep my dewalt batteries charged...

 

Not an electrician, but likely a 15 amp circuit. Check the breaker box and the breaker for that circuit should indicate the amps for the circuit (15, 20 etc).

Your max current draw on that light socket needs to be the above number of amps minus how ever many amps are being pulled on the same circuit... e.g. if there is a 100w light bulb in he socket and nothing else then it would be drawing 0.83 amps, giving you 14.17 to work with.

For charging batteries or listening to the radio should be good. For a chop saw, may be pushing it upon start up or if you really bog the motor down.

 

The breaker box for this “garage” is in a different “garage” which is why I was asking

 

Plug in a heater and the saw you'll soon find out where the breaker is.

 

You need access to any breaker that protects devices in your unit.

My condo garage is on a breaker with 2 other garages. But the panel is in a common room and the breakers are well marked.

 

This sounds like a DIY wire job. If you don’t have ready access to the breaker it’s going to be a PITA when it pops. Anyway keep the fire insurance current.

 

Not an electrician but I am a fire investigator. I would not do that.

 

Laughing to hard at this

 

I’ll look around. Only been to the new place a hand full of times and didn’t realize until now that I had no power in there. I could run an extension cord from my place but it needs to be rolled up every time because it crosses the driveway

 

A few things you should understand about what you are considering . That device is a light duty unit, at best. You will be alright with a light bulb and a radio, but I wouldn't leave anything plugged into it when not there. With this device, you have no ground terminal , so no place to plug in the common three prong extension cords. Also , no ground protection , and most likely no ground fault circuit interruption protection . So, with every electrical safety advancement in the last 70 years thrown out the window, what could go wrong ? Don't want to scare you, just want to make you think safety.
You will be alright charging phones and even a tool battery or two. If you can find a power strip with a built in 10 anp breaker in it, it will keep you from overloading the 15 amp lighting circuit. It will trip before it trips the breaker in a remote location.
Is the light on a switch ? Could other garages use the same lighting circuit ?

 

Very likely that one lighting circuit serves multiple units.

 

For that lightbulb socket I would just get one of those expanding led lights

Then just get a solid 30amp outlet wired in that you can throw a power strip on

 

It’s a rental or else I would ask for an outlet.

 

The electrical code does not allow a regular receptacle on greater than a 20 amp circuit.

 

And just learned something new today, thanks bud

Alright 20amp outlet and a power strip plus an led on that bulb socket

 

Legally you can't use a standard 20 amp outlet on a 30 amp circuit. It is legal to wire multiple garage outlets on a single circuit so you basically have no ideal of the power demand because of the multiple load use. The instant you touch any wiring in a setup like that you become responsible for all of the units and it's kind of doubtful your insurance co. would touch it. Because of the length of the runs it probably a #12 wire protected by a 20 amp breaker so one little electric heater in the mix you are in the 9-10 amp range on a 20 amp circuit.