Lights In One Channel

[StephenJTaylor7]

So I'm just curious on this matter.

What is the most amount of lights you all have plugged in in one channel?

[jimswinder]

Solofilmmaker wrote:

What is the most amount of lights you all have plugged in in one channel?

Only 420...and those are LED Icicle Lights...

Or are you really talking "strings"..then it is 6

[captainron19]

The most I have on 1 channel is 20 strings of 100 count minis so 2000 bulbs (all color for my mega tree) - I am using the energy efficient phillips minis you can get from Target so 20 strands are pulling 4 amps total

If you were curious for amperage reasons I believe the most you can have on 1 channel is 8 amps

[bwaldrep]

2700 incandescent mini's maxing out the 8amp's

Most LED's on a channel, 1380 using a huge 0.62 amps.

[Guest Don Gillespie]

Solofilmmaker wrote:

So I'm just curious on this matter.

What is the most amount of lights you all have plugged in in one channel?

If you have a meter reader you can add the lights to one channel but they must not exceed 8 amps that will leave you with one amp for the remaining seven channels I don't run my channels to the max just in case I want to add an extra component to my display just remember the rule do not exceed 15 amps per side on your controller if you want problems this will definitly cause you some greif.

So the answer to your question is I have 17 strings of 100 count C6 leds a total of 1700 lights

[PerryH]

I've wondered how many I can run because, going by everything I've read, I'm overloading my system. The most I have on one channel is 1580 mini's which makes about 7800 one my first bank of 8 channels and about 2200 on my second bank of 8 channels. For a total of about 10,000 mini's on a 16 channel controller.

[KStatefan]

PerryH wrote:

I've wondered how many I can run because, going by everything I've read, I'm overloading my system. The most I have on one channel is 1580 mini's which makes about 7800 one my first bank of 8 channels and about 2200 on my second bank of 8 channels. For a total of about 10,000 mini's on a 16 channel controller.

It is not the number of lights it is the power that is important. Get a Kill a watt meter and know what you have. They are only $20-$25. There are also some very neat spreadsheets that people have posted to look at.

[PerryH]

Well I broke down and got a Kill O Watt. The good news is that none of my channels have over 8 amps. The highest one rates 4.83. The bad news is that I have been running 4 channels with this amount on the same bank. In fact, the first bank rates a total of 20.49 amps with the second bank rating 6.38 amps. I guess I need to rearrange some of my channels. That is going to be a pain.

My question is why was the controller able to run with a load of 20.49 amps on the same cicuit?

[PerryH]

Switching everything around was much easier than I thought it would be. Just a few clicks in the software. I now have no more than 4.83 amps on any channel with a total of 13.66 on bank 1 and 13.21 on bank 2 for a grand total of 26.87. I can sleep better tonight.

Kill A Watt is a must have tool, I my humble opinion.

[KStatefan]

PerryH wrote:

Well I broke down and got a Kill O Watt. The good news is that none of my channels have over 8 amps. The highest one rates 4.83. The bad news is that I have been running 4 channels with this amount on the same bank. In fact, the first bank rates a total of 20.49 amps with the second bank rating 6.38 amps. I guess I need to rearrange some of my channels. That is going to be a pain.

My question is why was the controller able to run with a load of 20.49 amps on the same cicuit?

It will only pull that many amps when all the channels are on. There is a spreadsheet posted somewhere here that will graph your power draw for your show.