I have a vacuum cleaner, which I wish to add a switch to, so that I can leave it plugged in all the time and use the switch to turn it on and off. The vacuum cleaner has a fuse rated 13 Amps.
I purchased a light switch, and noticed when I got home that it said that it was rated for 10A on the packaging.
The vacuum cleaner is rated for 1100W at 230V. I used this electronics calculator, which returned a value of under 5A. Why is this? Is it safe, therefore, to use the 10A switch on the vacuum cleaner?
EDIT: The vacuum cleaner is a ShopVac Micro 4 litre / 1 gallon model. Specs are available here
Best Answer
There are more things to consider.
First: Note that the vacuum taking only 1100W, i.e., 5A, could still draw a very short peak of much more current when the motor starts; it really depends on how exactly are these 1100W calculated.
Second thing: Is the 13A fuse in the cleaner accessible? Could you exchange it for a 10A fuse? The only thing that can happen then is that the fuse blows up unexpectedly.
Third thing: Is spending couple bucks for a 15A rated switch that much a problem?
While I don't think your house will catch fire because of this (since 1. mostly when something goes wrong, the current drawn is much higher than what it should be and should blow up your 13A fuse and/or your circuit breaker long time before the switch heats up to ignite and 2. the 10A rating of the switch means it should withstand much more in practice, there's a certain safety margin), I wouldn't recommend violating the rules of the game, since in this game, the game over could be quite serious.