Amperage

[dustinpelletier]

Ive been surfing a lot researching for my first light show next year.

Somewhere I saw a chart that shows how much amperage strings of 50, 100, 200 of mini, c7, c8, c9 etc use. I just can't remember where I saw it. Does anyone know where I may have seen this?

[Guest guest]

you'll find this helpful.

http://www.quartzhillchristmas.com/12.html

[dustinpelletier]

Wow. Thanks. Not the same as I found before but this is soooo much better.

[CKSedg]

Buy one of these and you will never have to worry about putting too much on a channel:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/KILL-A-WATT-Electricity-Power-Usage-Monitor-meter-P4400-/360420287489?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53eab92401

[Ken Benedict]

Or one of these, that shows Voltage, Amps and Watts on one display: http://www.harborfreight.com/digital-electricity-usage-tester-65731.html

I have several and well worth it.

[Guest guest]

Dustin...there are really two pieces to this. The software will help you plan, the kill-a-watt tools help give you real time info, both under operating conditions, and also, if you have a decoration or string that doesn't fit any of the existing data.

You definitely want to make the Kill-A-Watt one of your first purchases, watch the forum and the website for regular deals on these, you should easily be able to get one for under 20 bucks.

[dito]

I would highly recommend the KillAWatt. The Killawatt also shows amp, voltage, watts, kwh. Sorry, but I've shopped at Harbor Freight before, and I wont go back there for anything I want to trust.

[Surfing4Dough]

HD usually has them in the store for $22-26
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202196386/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053


Free shipping on-line for $21 (about every 2 months they reduce these to $16 for a few days on their Daily Deals page).
http://www.meritline.com/p3-international-p4400-kill-watt-electricity-detector---p-22980.aspx

[KStatefan]

There was also a very cool spread sheet that would look at your sequence and graph your amperage draw. I do not know if it has been updated to work with S3. Here is a sample graph from his website. I know it took a lot of time to create this.

[Surfing4Dough]

KStatefan wrote:

There was also a very cool spread sheet that would look at your sequence and graph your amperage draw. I do not know if it has been updated to work with S3. Here is a sample graph from his website. I know it took a lot of time to create this.

It is the LOR utility:
http://t2lights.com/christmas/lorutility.html

Very handy program.

[Guest guest]

I looked at that think a long time ago...seemed like the setup was a bit of a pain...

[Surfing4Dough]

DonFL wrote:

I looked at that think a long time ago...seemed like the setup was a bit of a pain...

It really isn't. The only thing is that you have to know the amperage of each channel, so I usually print out my channel config and just use my kill-a-watt and check each line as I am setting up (plug it into a live cord with the kill-a-watt attached to measure prior to plugging it into the controller--nice job for a child as you hand them the individual channel cords from around the display). You could type it right into the spreadsheet if you have a laptop to take out to the setup area. After that, the rest is a breeze. The directions are a little wordy which makes it sound confusing. It is particularly useful if you will be pushing the power limits of the controller/bank or a house circuit (multiple controllers). The program will let you graph by individual bank, by controller, by house circuit (multiple controllers on 1), or total display.