marsh28 Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 I am doing a 32 channel light show this Halloween. Although I will be using some LED spot lights, at least one of my controllers will have have 7 90 Watt incandescent spots hooked up to it. I live an old house and the circuit breakers will sometimes trip when things like a microwave and vaccuum cleaner are on at the same time. In order to make sure I have plenty of power for the two controllers, should I run the controller from two separate breakers? I know that each breaker in my house can only handle 1440 watts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caniac Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 marsh28 wrote: I am doing a 32 channel light show this Halloween. Although I will be using some LED spot lights, at least one of my controllers will have have 7 90 Watt incandescent spots hooked up to it. I live an old house and the circuit breakers will sometimes trip when things like a microwave and vacuum cleaner are on at the same time. In order to make sure I have plenty of power for the two controllers, should I run the controller from two separate breakers? I know that each breaker in my house can only handle 1440 watts.what worked for me is was having an electrician take the two available spots on my breaker box and run two separate outlets to the outside. The distance from the breaker box to were he put the outlets was minimal so the cost wasn't that much. I had 32 channels plus countless inflatables and spots with no issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caniac Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 oops Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Saul Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 Hi Marsh, as Canic said, dedicated circuits from an electrician is your best bet.If you are not ready for that yet, you need to look at what is on the circuits and try to find out which ones have outside outlets or are the ones you are going to run out the window Next you need to go to home depot and pick up a kills a watt meter - it's about $30 and plugs in between the outlet and the controller. It will tell you how many watts / amps you are pulling.Most homes have 15 amp breakers so if you plug into to 2 different breakers you can use your 1440 watts on each half of your controller.By the way, where did you get the 1440 number from? At 120v that is 12 amps, which is a safe number for a constant load but for LOR is not a constant load. Your 15 amp breakers will pop at 1800 watts (15 amps times 120 volts) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Benedict Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 If your controller has two power pigtails, they need to be on the same electrical phase, or else the second half will not work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CKSedg Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 Jeff Millard wrote: Ken Benedict wrote:If your controller has two power pigtails, they need to be on the same electrical phase, or else the second half will not work.That's not the case at all. The controller is split in two sections of 8 channels. The power source for the controller itself is connected to channel 9-16. The power sources for the two sides of the board can be independant of each other in phase relationship as long as the zero referance cross occurs at the same time. In a normal houshold configuration, there are two legs of 120VAC that are 180° out of phase. The difference of potential between the two is 240VAC. One leg can power one side, and the second leg can power the opposite side. The only case I can come up with where there would be a zero cross problem would be if the home was wired in a non-standard way where two or three phases were 120° from each other as normal three phase power is arranged. This causes an odd 208VAC leg that is commonly used to power lighting systems for businesses, industry and the utility. Having opposite sides of a controller powered by phases that are 120° apart will result in 1-8 behaving oddly, due to the difference in the zero cross between the two sides.It is a common misconception that there are multiple "phases" in a standard home electrical system. A residential pole or pad mount transformer is actually a single phase, center tapped 240VAC supply with the center tap grounded at the main breaker panel.So, for our purposes, the isolated two power sources to a controller can be connected to opposing "legs" otherwise known as "phases" and still function properly. In fact, the power supply for the 1-8 side doesn't even have to remain at 120VAC. You can use a low-voltage lighting power supply at 12VAC to power 1-8 and control landscape lighting from those channels. In fact, as long as the zero cross is the same, you could power 1-8 at 240VAC and control Kiwi lights from it. They are in fact independant of each other as long as the 9-16 side knows when 0 volts happens for both.JeffWow, too much for my little brain, Jeff. But I appreciate knowing that I don't have to worry about them being on separate legs of power. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 I had that problem too. Tripping CB's, so that is EXACTLY what I did with a few of my controllers too.Two had both cords on one circuit, Three others had one cord on seperate circuits, 5 controllers in total. Not one issue of a CB trip when I did this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Burge Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 Jeff Millard wrote: Well, I'll see if I can be a little more clear. "Phases" refer to the three lines you see running down a high tension line from tower to tower, or pole to pole. Each phase is powered by a generator at some point. The windings in the generator are spaced evenly around an exciter... 120º apart from each other. As the exciter rotates it induces a potential in each winding that changes direction in relation to the angle between it and the exciter. In a 360º rotation, there are two points when the potential crosses zero volts. Due to the fact that there is a 120º angle between each winding, the point at which each winding crosses zero volts... is 120º prior or later than an adjacent winding. IE: When Phase 1 crosses zero from it's positive peak, Phase 2 has 120º to go to get to zero, and Phase 3 has 240º to go to get to zero.The dimming used by our beloved controllers uses the point at which the potential crosses zero as a marker to determine when to switch the channel on and off. In a standard household power system, due to the fact that the transformer out on the pole is only connected to one of the three "Phases" ...all the potential crosses zero at the same time. So, your controller has two sides that will behave normally regardless of which leg of 120VAC thay are plugged into.JeffJeff you may have just blinded everyone with science.:shock: . As a commercial electrician I build 3 phase services all of the time, but could not explain as well as you have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Amedee Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 Yea I'm impressed also been in I/E my whole carear... Think I just learned something new..Now gotta "PURGE" something so it will fit...What was my kids names? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cenote Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 Jeff, great explanation, now can you please start a new thread where you can please explain the principals behind Albert Einstein "Relativity". I have been reading his books for months, and can't grasp the whole concept behind his space/time thingy.Note to self: Stop reading Albert, and start .lss file for epic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
double000 Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 My Grandmother used to put a penny behind the fuse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Burge Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 double000 wrote: My Grandmother used to put a penny behind the fuse Hmm FIRE HAZARD!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caniac Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 Jeff Millard wrote: double000 wrote:My Grandmother used to put a penny behind the fuse Showing my age here... My Mom used to put a penny in the fuse!Jeffmy mom wouldn't waste a penny that way!! lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
double000 Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 Jason gave me an Ideal for a new affect for the 4th , the grand finale. (THE GREAT FIREBALL). I would definitely take first place. How would you sequences that. LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Burge Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 double000 wrote: Jason gave me an Ideal for a new affect for the 4th , the grand finale. (THE GREAT FIREBALL). I would definitely take first place. How would you sequences that. LOLYes! pyrotechnics - redneck style:shock: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rgardner518 Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 Here is how I did it. This is what my outside outlets look like. Attached files Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rgardner518 Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 Each box looks like this inside. The grey is on one 20amp breaker phase 1, and the brown is on another 20amp breaker phase 2. Attached files Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rgardner518 Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 This is what my 200amp service panel looks like. The yellow wires to the right are coming in from those outside boxes. Attached files Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rgardner518 Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 Here is a close of the the 20amp breakers the control the outside outlets. Attached files Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dale J Posted May 8, 2011 Share Posted May 8, 2011 now that's real nice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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