Softball Shawn Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 New to this and I have 6 controllers that I am setting up for the first time. Attached is a picture. Any tips on how to run power to them? I thought of a two 48" commercial power outlet strips with 8 outlets each from Grainger or McMaster Carr but I am worried about them handling the amp draw.I can run individual power to each controller box but this seems like a pain in the butt. I made this frame so that I could have everything mounted onto the frame and just plug it in to a disconnect box I am going to mount in my garage. When not in season I can unplug and out into storage.Any ideas on running power? Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caniac Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 New to this and I have 6 controllers that I am setting up for the first time. Attached is a picture. Any tips on how to run power to them? I thought of a two 48" commercial power outlet strips with 8 outlets each from Grainger or McMaster Carr but I am worried about them handling the amp draw.I can run individual power to each controller box but this seems like a pain in the butt. I made this frame so that I could have everything mounted onto the frame and just plug it in to a disconnect box I am going to mount in my garage. When not in season I can unplug and out into storage.Any ideas on running power? Thanks in advance.I am sure most of the electricians will chime in soon but until then most have put an external 240 outlet on the side of their house and setup some sort of portable external breaker panel. I have seen some with as many as 24+ outlets. As far as the parts list and specifics, I am the wrong person to ask. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
etherealone Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 Are you using LEDs primarily? If so, frankly you arent going to be pulling much across the entire display....I pull less than 20-25amps total...its just crazy how lil juice those guys use...that being said...I spent a good deal of money several years ago putting in dedicated, 20amp circuits (4 of them to be exact...I was still running some incand lights that have slowly been phased out) and I spread the controllers across those as equally as possible.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Softball Shawn Posted July 24, 2013 Author Share Posted July 24, 2013 All LED's. No Incan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightsinMaine Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 Calculate ur load for the LEDs Shawn. I run all LEDs and only run about 18 amps (including several blowups). I run off of 2 circuits and decide the load pretty much equally Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viennaxmas Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 I had about 20,000 led last year. All lights on used 1,633 watt.. I still have 6 15 A circuits. One of the reasons is to avoid the display getting all dark if one GFCi trips and to be able to expand. During normal shows, power consumption never went past 1,000W peak... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james campbell Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 (edited) one thing I noticed is how you have your controllers mounted..very nice however if your display is spread out like mine then your going to need a ton more extension cords than you may have planned on(that happens anyway)...just a thought Edited July 25, 2013 by james campbell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowbowsdaddy Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 need help installing usb 485 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Softball Shawn Posted July 26, 2013 Author Share Posted July 26, 2013 I had about 20,000 led last year. All lights on used 1,633 watt.. I still have 6 15 A circuits. One of the reasons is to avoid the display getting all dark if one GFCi trips and to be able to expand. During normal shows, power consumption never went past 1,000W peak...Did you do an amp draw test on your power lines? I would be interested to see how many amps you were drawing at peak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viennaxmas Posted July 26, 2013 Share Posted July 26, 2013 (edited) Did you do an amp draw test on your power lines? I would be interested to see how many amps you were drawing at peak.Shawn, I have a Brultech Energy Monitor which I use to track energy use in the entire house. One channel is dedicated to the sub panel I have in the back yard for christmas lights. Here is a screenshot of one hour of my show... Let me know if you cannot see it and I'll figure out a way to send it to you. Based on the accumulated power usage per day, it cost me about 40 cents in electricity (not including the show computer)... What I should mention is the box showing "Recently logged Data" is for the entire house. This is the main feed, the diagram is filtered for the lights only. Will be interesting to see how this changes with adding 3,000 Pixels this year... Maybe some more information on last year's setup: it had 10 PC controllers, 2 DC controllers, 6 RGB DMX Floods, one RGB Wash light and a few dumb strips. Just to give you an idea of scale. Edited July 26, 2013 by viennaxmas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulXmas Posted July 26, 2013 Share Posted July 26, 2013 I ran 20,000 (give or take a few 100) lights 13 controllers and 5 CCRs on one 15 amp curcuit during testing last year.I think if all the light were on I would pull a little over 20 amps.I was surprised I didn't trip the breaker.During the show I use 4 15 amp curcuits.Each outlet is a GFI.So it all deppends on your set up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Softball Shawn Posted July 27, 2013 Author Share Posted July 27, 2013 Thanks all. Your help is very much appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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