TitanBry77 Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 Hey all,What do most of you do with plugging in to receptacles. Have you gotten dedicated lines/breakers now?I only have 2 controllers and roughly 8,000 lights, most being incandecent and just tonight in my always on segment it's tripping the breaker. I have both controllers plugged in to my front porch receptacle, which is on a 15A circuit, but also tied in to some lights in the master bedroom.My good friend is a Master Electrician and said he can easily get me an outside circuit just for my lights etc. What kind of juice are you guys running, he said start with a 20A line but I have a feeling that won't go to far when I add more etc.For now I've ran a long extension cord to the rear house outlet so I have one controller on the front, and one on the rear and she seems ok.Just wondering what kind of power you guys are running especially ones that have mucho controllers!? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CooBeans Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 I've heard that when people install circuits for LOR, they tend to use a 30a breaker per 2 plug outlet, because Each plug on a controller pulls 15a So 15 x2 Is 30 (Cause there are 2 plugs on a controller which you already know) So I would think that would work best, and if ur running 8000 lights spread over two controllers, I would guess that your not pulling anywhere near 30a per controller. But I'm not an electrician so this is just a guess, anyways good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Rise Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 Had 2 dedicated lines and a 50amp RV outlet installed over the summer.I use the 50amp for my portable panel that I built over the summer.Going to have at least 2 more installed next year for more controllers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caniac Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 CooBeans wrote: I've heard that when people install circuits for LOR, they tend to use a 30a breaker per 2 plug outlet, because Each plug on a controller pulls 15a So 15 x2 Is 30 (Cause there are 2 plugs on a controller which you already know) So I would think that would work best, and if ur running 8000 lights spread over two controllers, I would guess that your not pulling anywhere near 30a per controller. But I'm not an electrician so this is just a guess, anyways good luck! i used this approach. had two open slots in my power panel in the house, my electrician said he could either 2 20a or 30a (don't remember which) in. He routed one to one side of the house and then the other to other side. I have two controllers plugged into each circuit plus some inflatables. While doing the work he noticed that there was an outlet in the storage room outside that had it's own breaker. so we have three total to use plus the usual front and side porch varieties. even before LOR we would occasionally trip breakers so we switched over to LED's, easier on the light bill and it doesn't trip breakers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caniac Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 TitanBry77 wrote: Hey all,What do most of you do with plugging in to receptacles. Have you gotten dedicated lines/breakers now?I only have 2 controllers and roughly 8,000 lights, most being incandecent and just tonight in my always on segment it's tripping the breaker. I have both controllers plugged in to my front porch receptacle, which is on a 15A circuit, but also tied in to some lights in the master bedroom.My good friend is a Master Electrician and said he can easily get me an outside circuit just for my lights etc. What kind of juice are you guys running, he said start with a 20A line but I have a feeling that won't go to far when I add more etc.For now I've ran a long extension cord to the rear house outlet so I have one controller on the front, and one on the rear and she seems ok.Just wondering what kind of power you guys are running especially ones that have mucho controllers!? Thanks!is there anyway you can replace some of the ican's with LED's? might ease the problem somewhat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitanBry77 Posted December 2, 2011 Author Share Posted December 2, 2011 Thanks for the info guys. So I can definitely see why 2 controllers on my 1 front porch 15A circuit was tripping the breaker considering it isn't even on its on circuit.Caniac, I plan to replace with LED slowly, I hear that a lot of stores, day after Christmas sell lights ridiculously cheap, I plan to hit them up and clean them out :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caniac Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 TitanBry77 wrote: Thanks for the info guys. So I can definitely see why 2 controllers on my 1 front porch 15A circuit was tripping the breaker considering it isn't even on its on circuit.Caniac, I plan to replace with LED slowly, I hear that a lot of stores, day after Christmas sell lights ridiculously cheap, I plan to hit them up and clean them out :-)yes they do but more importantly the commercial sites do too!! most of my stuff i got from either Holiday-Lights-Express or Novelty-lights. January and February they have great sales. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitanBry77 Posted December 2, 2011 Author Share Posted December 2, 2011 Thanks, I am going to keep an eye out for sure, I'm not going to miss the sales! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff bush Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 98% led11.58 amps this yearStock up when the sales hit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bhewson Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 This is what I have. I have a 50amp 220v plug on the outside of the house. The portable pannel plugs into it. Then splits off into 4 20amp circuts all on GFI plugs. Attached files Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitanBry77 Posted December 2, 2011 Author Share Posted December 2, 2011 Thats awesome Jeff! What a difference going LED! Guess I could sell the Incan's once I get to all LED lol.That is a sweet electrical setup you have there also Bhewson!How do you guys measure what amps you are pulling or do you just use the formula and multiple your lights etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitanBry77 Posted December 2, 2011 Author Share Posted December 2, 2011 Just for the heck of it, I just threw my amp clamp on the 2 black power wires in Box 1 with all lights on and it's at 9.1 amps, Box 2 with all lights on is 8.8 with all lights on.There's why my 15A breaker was tripping haha. That doesnt even count the lights inside the house that are on that feed. Doh! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caniac Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 TitanBry77 wrote: Just for the heck of it, I just threw my amp clamp on the 2 black power wires in Box 1 with all lights on and it's at 9.1 amps, Box 2 with all lights on is 8.8 with all lights on.There's why my 15A breaker was tripping haha. That doesnt even count the lights inside the house that are on that feed. Doh!look at one or two of the channels and see if you can switch to LED's on that channel. say you have two ican net lights on two of your channels just switch those and see if that makes a difference. if you can get just a hair under then you can get thru this season until you can revamp next year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitanBry77 Posted December 2, 2011 Author Share Posted December 2, 2011 Well I'm ok now because what I did was run a 50ft heavy duty outdoor cord to a plug out back, so each box is only pulling around 9amps and it's on 2 different circuits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caniac Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 TitanBry77 wrote: Well I'm ok now because what I did was run a 50ft heavy duty outdoor cord to a plug out back, so each box is only pulling around 9amps and it's on 2 different circuits.that works too!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bhewson Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 :)LOL. The one thing I like about my set-up at the end of the season I move the panel in the garage trip the breaker and no more power outside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitanBry77 Posted December 2, 2011 Author Share Posted December 2, 2011 Very nice. So the box that is on the wall with the clear cover and plug coming from it, does that unplug, is it like a twist plug similar to what your dryer uses? Or do you have to hardwire it, and then un-wire when done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bhewson Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 It is a plug. It is a 4 wire 50amp Range cord 6' long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roknjohn Posted December 2, 2011 Share Posted December 2, 2011 I bought a new 100 amp panel with 20 20A breakers for $150 from my local supply house. This is wired into my main panel with a double 100A breaker. I hung 10 receptacles (20 plugs) on the sub panel using two circuits per recepticle. (top and bottom plugs on different phases).This let's me power my 10 controllers. I'm careful to balance my loads across controllers AND more importantly across phases. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitanBry77 Posted December 2, 2011 Author Share Posted December 2, 2011 That sounds like one mean setup John! Nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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