Power to controllers?

[shovelracer]

First off, hello. I am new to LOR but have been watching for a few years while I build up my light collection using static displays. I just took shipment of my first controller yesterday. My light collection consists of approximately 12K led mini lights both mixed color and white. I also use 150' of traditional rope lighting on our roof lines as the rope stands up to the occasional roof shoveling we have to do much better than the prior mini lights. I also have about 7500 traditional minis that likely will never make it back into circulation as I continue to build my LED collection.

 

With the rope and LED minis all static on I was measuring about 12.5 Amps at the panel. For what it is worth our feed generally produces around 116-117v.

 

So I am looking at running some new lines for now and future. I suppose I will limit myself to 4 additional 20 amp circuits.

 

My question is so long as I do not exceed the board limits is there any reason why I can not for the meantime run the controller off 1 dedicated 20 amp circuit, IE both inputs to 1 dual receptacle. I realize that my limit becomes the line and not the board, which I limit to 15 amps anyways.

 

Thanks.

[Dave Batzdorf]

Two cords in a dedicated 20amp outlet is fine.  Always use the 80% rule of thumb.  80% of 20 amps is 16 amps and you are under that.  More will chime in so you'll get a good consensus of opinion. 

 

Note:  There are no shortages of opinions on this board! 

[Jim Hans]

I'm 100% LED so maxing out power is not an issue with me. Personally, I take each side of the controller and plug it into a 3 way adapter and then run an extension cord from the 3 way to one plug in an outlet. That way I can plug two controllers into one outlet (GFCI of course). I do this for all 10 of my controllers and have never had an issue. As mentioned above the biggest thing to watch is that you don't go over the 80% rule and remember, it's 80% for the circuit not each plug!

[dgrant]

I'm about %95 LED. I use two 20amp outlets to run everything, which is 7 controllers and one CCR controller, at this time. Even with everything turned on, I doubt I'm anywhere remotely close to the maximums. If I had to guess, probably about 10-11 amps total. I could fabicate a special wire-separated plug and measure it to be sure with my current meter.

[75redman]

I did the same as Jim Hans,  3way adapter and a power strip, pluged 3 controllers into one 20 amp GFCI outlet.  Using LEDS of course.  This year I have 6 controllers and will be doing the same thing with 2 outlets.

[Duckman]

On a side note save all of your old incandescent light strings and use them as an extension cord for your LED lights. Just remove one of the bulbs so that the string does not light up.

[Santas Helper]

Here are my 5 controllers for the mega tree. Plugged into a power strip. LEDs make this possible with no issues.

 

 

[m1ke05]

I'm also running both power supplies off of one 20a line and I see no problems. All LED here