In an Airbnb, the microwave should always be on a separate breaker – then you never find yourself apologizing to guests for “mickey-mouse” wiring scheme.
1 Like
I sympathize. I have a 210 year old home and have updated some but can’t afford to do everything that I would like. When I moved here in 2000 my refrigerator was on an extension cord that ran in front of the back door. Thus we’ve had a long road of making improvements as we can afford them. We don’t need to go in a bedroom but we do need to go into the hall in our suite to access our basement. That is a little easier for guests to accept. We also have signs saying don’t plug everything in together but that occasionally gets ignored or honestly forgotten. You might want to start with warning the guests that ignoring the cautions or storms beyond your control might require access. Save part of the rental income to fund making the separate room when you can afford it. When you get the smaller room, I like the idea someone else mentioned of making that a bunk room. The set ups with a full on the bottom and twin on top are versatile.
Seriously, if he set up his kitchen Without the proper amount of outlets for Simple breakfast and simultaneous use the hairdryer in the bathroom , and the need to have written instructions to use certain items without other items at the same time, the poor planning and the potential fire hazard is obvious. As we see in many comments on this forum, people are very resistant to simple common sense advice. Telling this person to set it up so that all the breakfast machinery in the kitchen is usable is a good answer for his complaint.
1 Like
The OP has not responded to this thread or to direct posts in a different thread. I think he has left to go find new friends.
5 Likes
That’s never bothered us before in terms of continuing a thread!
7 Likes
Quite right. And the point isn’t just to address the OP. As we often point out, there are many lurkers here. The same handful of people may make all the comments but there are typically over 100 user visits a day and that’s just people who create accounts and log in.
It does sometimes bother folks who don’t want to get notifications from the site and they don’t know how to turn them off.
2 Likes
There are both electrical code and recommendations for specific use. I.e. code is to have kitchen circuits be 20A and have GFI and a recommendation to have built-in high-current appliances, such as an over-the-range microwave, on an independent 20A circuit. Having a microwave, mini-fridge, coffee pot/ water kettle, etc. in a space wired as a bedroom would definitely throw up red flags to an electrician.
While it’s possible, it’s really unlikely. You’d need to have a situation where a hair dryer and a curling iron or hair straightener were plugged into the same circuit and being used at the same time, something that doesn’t happen that often and wouldn’t even require a breaker reset if used in a bathroom with a modern exposed GFI reset.
In this case, the room itself is the problem. There’s a microwave (and probably other kitchen appliances) on the same circuit where a guest would plug in a hair dryer, something guests aren’t accustomed to. If the kitchen appliance were on a dedicated circuit, then those problems instantly disappear. The other extremely unlikely possibilities will now have the same risk as literally every other bedroom and hotel room in the world.
This is definitely something to consider. I probably need to get into my breaker box 2 or 3 times per year for maintenance of some kind. If it’s not planned maintenance, then it could be an inconvenience to a guest.
You are correct. I mentioned it so no one would be expecting a response from the OP
1 Like
Then it’s time to add another breaker to the box and pull wire for a second circuit so that some outlets are not on the circuit being overloaded. The OP apparently doesn’t want to do this because ?
OMG he hasn’t responded in … nearly an entire day? (gasp! … fainting)
.
@Dave_vancouver. IMO a perfect solution is to prevent any overload situation. It avoids inconvenience and it is a safety issue.
.
Personally, I would give the microwave a dedicated 20 amp circuit for the microwave. Why? Then it does not matter where the guest plugs in a hair dryer. The room has other outlets and you won’t have to care what they do or when.
.
Hopefully, it is a quick and easy install. It is just some 12/2 romex wire and a 20 amp breaker. Should be about $50 material cost, more if you add an arc fault breaker. As you just had the panel installed, there may be some extra 12/2 (yellow) left over.
Hosts are always saying how guests will do anything you can imagine or not imagine. So regardless of whether there is a dedicated kitchen circuit and a separate bathroom, as well as bedroom circuit and the host would assume the guest would use the bathroom one for a hair dryer, and the bedroom one to iron, that doesn’t mean that will always prove true.
The guest could take it into their head to dry their hair and iron their shirt while they are heating up their coffee, and plug all that into the same circuit.
In other words, you can only idiot-proof things so much, but there will eventuallly be some idiot able to override that.
.
Well said. This really sums it all up and is absolutely the best solution.
We’ve seen threads glean an abundance of responses to end with unhappy comments because time has been invested and the OP disappeared.
This is why I posted that I thought he would not be responding. While the information about wiring & breakers is good info, a response may not occur
1 Like
You’re missing the point. A host needs to eliminate the problems that the host has control over.
A microwave, coffee pot, water kettle, refrigerator aren’t normally on the same circuit where a guest can plug in a hair dryer or curling iron, etc. And the host has control over the circuit where those appliances are plugged in. Putting those appliances on a dedicated circuit eliminates them from the equation. Period.
Of course, if the guest uses two hair dryers simultaneously in the bedroom (NOT one in the bedroom and one in the bathroom which will already be on separate circuits), then it would probably trip the breaker, but be honest about it, that is both unlikely and expected in every bedroom and hotel room in the world (or at least North America). Whereas a using a hair dryer simultaneously with a microwave oven or coffee pot is not.
2 Likes
You suggest that a guest may want to make coffee WHILE drying their hair?! How dare you! What?! Coffee needs 100% attention span. Same goes for heating a hot pocket.