40 amps per controller

[JimCanfield]

With the premium heatsinc and using the 16 channel board that is not the PC board you can use up to 40 amps. I think I am correct in assuming that is 20 per side. So 1 set of 8 has 20 amps and the other 8 has the remaning 20. So........ if I use 8 ams on 1 channel that leaves me with 12 amps over the remaining 7 channels on that side. Am I correct in assuming this?

[JimCanfield]

I also just realized something here. If I get the 40 amp board and figuring 3 100 mini strands to one amp I can only run a total of 120 strands (12000 lights)? If I go with the PC boards, which are 30 amps, I am only able to run 90 strands (9000 lights). That is a far cry from the 28,000 I wanted to go with next year. 28,000 lights is 280 strands which is 93 amps OUCH. I cannot do that lol. I only have 100 amp service. Time to do major rethinking here.

[Push Eject]

Remember to keep your max load to 80%

[JimCanfield]

man thats right. 16 channels cannot really handle many minis. I guess I will ahve to save for my LEDs

[dburg30]

JimCanfield wrote:

man thats right. 16 channels cannot really handle many minis. I guess I will ahve to save for my LEDs

IMO it's not so much the 16 channels cant handle it as much as the circuit in the house cant. I'm just starting, and I'm going to go LED where ever possible.. Using planetchristmas.com's power estimator, IIRC you can run like 12 or 15000 LEDs off one single 15 amp circuit.. If I'm wrong, I'd like to be corrected on that. Also, in that case would you be safe in having more then one controller on one circuit, of course making sure what your total draw was.

[JimCanfield]

What's a lighting enthusiast to do? PLUG IT ALL IN ANYWAYS!!!! lol j/k

Thank you Jeff that made sense. So basically we can run 40 amps with the PC controller? That makes it a bit easier (I think).

[smarts53]

I believe the reason you couldn't run 40 amps through the PC controller is beacuse of the plastic enclosure supplied with them. I think if you were to bolt it straight to a metal enslosure (thus using the enclosure as a heatsink also) 40 amps would be fine
Ian

P.S. Dont forget to change the fuses!!

[JimCanfield]

The winds are fierce without the corn stopping them. The other day they were clocekd ay 65 mph and hte blowing snow made it impossible to see anything. I am just over an hour west of B/N.

Fuses? I take it you mean the fuses from the controllers themselves.....

Jim

[randallr]

There's also different values for different strings.. I.E., HomeDepot 300count strings measured at .57 amps, so to get 28,000 bulbs would be 53.2 strings...

Here's my table from actual measured loads at 121 volts

HD 300 .57

Walmart 100 .31

C-9's 1.42

C-7's 1.05

Proline 150 .47

GE 33x100 .32

Floodlight .81

Also, I think boards are cheaper than LED's, at least unless you find some good after Christmas sales.. My problem was getting any kind of matching quantity in sales, so I stuck with mini's again.

My yard has close to 60,000 mini's (half clear/multi) In order to get a nice wave effect, I only loaded up on a few circuits, most only have a few strings on them so the limits of the board wasn't really a factor. Ended up with 46 channels per color.