Dan Lott Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 Bought me a handy dandy amp/watt meter and now i am thinking i have to convert 2 of my 30 amp boards to 40amps. I do have 20amp fuses laying around i could put in the boards. They are on 20 amp breakers so the only thing i need is to upgrade the power wire to 20 amp wire. My lor boards are only 6' or less from the 20 amp outlets and wondering what to do with new power cords. Or if the 15amp cords will handel the extra load. Yes i know they say 15amp but did not know if they underestimate them for safty reasons. i was thinking of using one of my 12awg extension cords laying around and cutting it up and putting a 20 amp male plug on it. But i do not have any to spare. So what do i use, where to get, or because it is temprary and only for a month and i put a male end on a peice of 12/2 romex and call it good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmoore60 Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 To be rated for 20 amps you have to have the input cord sized accordingly. There is no downrating for short distance.You also did not mention what controller you have. I would only push 20 amps per side if the controller is in a metal enclosure.Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iresq Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 12/3 is what you want. You could always buy a couple feet at HD/Lowes.You would be in violation of the 80% rule . If you are doing a lot of switching at the max range of your controller, you might also have a heat issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Lott Posted November 9, 2009 Author Share Posted November 9, 2009 They are all ctb16k (deluxe) high power heat sink boards. They are not mounted in a metal case but once i transform them over i can shoot them with my temp gun and see if i need to add a metal plate on the bottom of the box and put the controller on that to help transfer heat.So will it get hotter when there is a good size load on it and it is turning on and off alot or hotter if it the lights stay on for a while. I hate all my c9s there killing me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bisquit476 Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 I buy from these guyshttp://www.stayonline.com/125v-straight-blade-cords.aspxI use the item #1338 for my boards, 20amp right angle cords so that they come out of a weatherproof box without putting any stress on the box. Just a little overdone on my part, but I'll only do it once. Just mho.Bill Attached files Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iresq Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 Jeff's correct. I've read many posts were heat was a concern but never a proven villain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Lott Posted November 9, 2009 Author Share Posted November 9, 2009 Jeff Millard wrote: I wish I had the time and money to load one at 40 and pay for the electricity, just to see how it fairs. (Had a little Fruedian slip the first time I typed "fairs" Typed it "fails" Hmmmm)JeffI wish i had the time and the money to build more boards so i do not have to worry about overloading my boards. I admit i have to much display that I am trying to do with not enough channels and but it is working out. Just have to be a little careful on what i turn on. My energy sucking c9 take up all power on the boards and I am trying to add more to the boards. But i would reather have power problems that go to leds. All the boards have held up well in my testing so who knows. I had about 75 amps of c9s blinking and at a few times 2 house colors turning on which would be about 37 amps turn on at once. They were running off of 3 boards and were all on one side of the boards and nothing has blown up yet. And some how that was all running of a 20 amp breaker so i don't know if its not staying at over 20 amps for long so its not blowing the breaker or what is going on. I do know that i was over 15 on one side of the boards and no fuses blew. And so far no blown triacs. As i do have one channel with about 8.5 amps on it.:shock: I do have spares if it does decide to blow.well heat would be my biggest worry as i have 4 out of the 5 boards in a plasic box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff 1S.A.H.D. Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 well you can run the C9's on 60% and save on amps that way some where in the fomrs someone did a test that showed the amps lower with lower intensity Good luck Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-klb- Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 Yes, but not as much as the percentage they are dimmed. There should be results from a few different tests here and on PC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iresq Posted November 13, 2009 Share Posted November 13, 2009 I did some testing but can't find my spreadsheet of results. I can't recall the numbers but was very surprised at how little the power savings are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Mitchell Posted November 13, 2009 Share Posted November 13, 2009 The thing that people seem to forget when lowering the intensity is that it is lowering the voltage. The readings on an amp meter may not show amperage going down but voltage is going down so it IS saving power. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-klb- Posted November 13, 2009 Share Posted November 13, 2009 Just not capacity on the controller. And voltage is only down because the waveform is truncated, so the RMS voltage is down. A non RMS meter will likely show the same voltage until the phase angle drops below 50% on. This is because non RMS meters generally only look at the peak voltage, which will be the same until 50% Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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