Power usage question

[oilmoney]

Hi, I've built 12, 4 CH mini trees with 8, 100 light C6 strings on each tree. Those 48 channels neatly fit into 3 controllers so they will all be mounted in a enclosure together. I bought the lights from HLE and they're full wave.  I was originally planning on powering them through a single 15A breaker. I know that there's a simple equation to figure this out but for the life of me I can't find it.  I'm no electrician, I just make oil....: (

 

96 strings of 100 C6 bulbs= 9600 lights x ??? x ???   arrrrrggghhh!!!!

 

There will be lots of " all on " moments in my show, should I run 2 power supplies or if I'm not over the limit then how close am I? Last year I was small and didn't have to take power into consideration, getting bigger this year and now are starting to realize the problems the rest of you face on a yearly basis. I need to address this demon now as I'm still going to add another 20000 lights on top of this and need to plan accordingly, I don't want all on to turn into all dark! Thanks in advance for reading this?

 

Chad

[75redman]

If your running all LEDs you shouldn't have a problem.  I ran 7 controllers and 22,000 lights, mostly leds and a few incans, last year on one 20 amp outlet.  I was drawing a little over 16 amps with everything on.

 

It would be a good idea to invest in a killowatt meter, Good way to keep track of your amps.

[Little_b]

Last year I put together a spread sheet and calculated out all the lights I was using according to what the tags on the lights and light box said they used.  It gave me a good start to know where I was at on each channel and controller.  The best advice I have is to invest in a kilowatt meter like 75redman said.  After I plugged everything in and started testing I found that my equations were very ballpark not 100% accurate.  When I tested one strand it was what the box said, but when I would plug 15-20 in at the same time, they weren't what was calculated, but surprisingly came in way under.  I was happy for that because it meant more lights.

[Max-Paul]

The formula is really simple. First thing you do is look on the tags that are on the light strings. I presume from the sounds of it. All of your strings are the same, but look at a sample of strings. Like the red strings versus the green strings. On the tags should be either a current rating in Amps, or a Wattage rating. If it is wattage, just multiply the wattage rating by the number of strings. Once you have the wattage you can divide it by 110, that would give you the amps. Or you can do it the easy way if the amps is given on the tag. Just multiply the number of strings and stated amps.

 

Not one of those secretes that you only will learn after you paint your body with the blood of a chicken.

[HiTechLights]

Depending on what brand and color of 100L LED C6 light strings you have, the watts/amps per string should be anywhere from 4.8w/.040amp to 8.0w/.067amp.  Doing some calculations here you go.

 

If each string is 4.8watts, 96 strings will consume 460.80 watts & 3.84 amps total.

If each string is 5.8watts, 96 strings will consume 556.80 watts & 4.64 amps total.

If each string is 8.0watts, 96 strings will consume 768.00 watts & 6.40 amps total.

 

I'd use the 5.8watts number just to be safe!

 

If you were just curious how many of your light strings you could use to fill up a 15amp circuit, the answer is 300 light strings of 100L LED C6 bulbs using 5.8watts per string, it would consume 1740 watts and 14.50 amps (basically 30,000 lights).  Using the 80% rule, I'd use no more than 250 strings / 25,000 lights which is 1450 watts and 12.08 amps total.  NOTE: You MUST stay within the controller's "Power Considerations" on page 15 of the LOR Controller Manual however!

 

Hope this helps!!!

 

---Michael

[oilmoney]

Great info, thanks guys, I'm good to go!