RE: Power consumption

From: Bret Pehrson <bret_at_infowest.com>
Date: Thu Oct 12 2000 - 10:37:03 EDT

> My biggest concern is the power spike when everything is turned on. From
> what I've seen 4 games turned on at once will trip a 15a circuit. I was
> planning on wiring up 2 duplex outlets per box with two circuits
> (hence the
> 12/3 wire). I might look into those "outlet strips" so I can
> spread out the
> wiring.

Someone on the ng mentioned that there are power strips that when switched
on turn on the outlets individually, just to avoid a single momentary drain.
I don't know anything else about the strips, and have never seen one.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-vectorlist@synthcom.com
> [mailto:owner-vectorlist@synthcom.com]On Behalf Of Harry Collins
> Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2000 7:31 AM
> To: vectorlist@synthcom.com
> Subject: Re: VECTOR: Power consumption
>
>
> Clay,
>
> I'm not an electrician but I've read the BOCA books. I too have
> run 10 guage
> for a 20a circuit (10gauge is rated to 30amps). The books tell you to set
> the breaker for the wire size but run the wire for the
> "typically" loading.
> You should only use 80% of the wires capacity "typically". Good
> examples of
> this are refridgerators, which can consume a kilowatt. In that
> case a single
> 15a (14 gauge circuit) is required.
>
> For my installation I have 16 games (2/3rds are raster). I'm figuring on
> putting in a sub-panel and then running about 6, 20a circuitls
> (using 12/3
> wire). I'll probably hang lighting off it also (about 400 watts of
> flourescent should do). This should give me room for growth and using the
> outlets for other things.
>
> For outlets I'm going to use true 20a outlets. They have the funny little
> horizontal tab on the right hand spade.
>
> My biggest concern is the power spike when everything is turned on. From
> what I've seen 4 games turned on at once will trip a 15a circuit. I was
> planning on wiring up 2 duplex outlets per box with two circuits
> (hence the
> 12/3 wire). I might look into those "outlet strips" so I can
> spread out the
> wiring.
>
> I'm mounting in a basement to cinder block. This room will be
> "functional",
> not pretty.
>
> /harry
>
>
>
> >From: "Clay Cowgill" <vector_clay@hotmail.com>
> >Reply-To: vectorlist@synthcom.com
> >To: vectorlist@synthcom.com
> >Subject: Re: VECTOR: Power consumption
> >Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2000 17:13:30 PDT
> >
> >>There
> >>is a GOOD reason for 15 circuit breakers/fuses for house wiring, it is
> >>often 14 gauge wire, and will run a bit hot at 20 amps, also the
> >>connections for the wiring will be even hotter and this is the biggest
> >>risk.
> >
> >When I wired an "equipment closet" in our house I ran a dedicated 20A
> >breaker with 10 gauge wire. Turns out that 10 gauge wire doesn't fit
> >"normal" wall receptacles, so I ended up buying some orange-colored
> >hospital-grade ones. Looks cool, and is a handy way to remember
> it's a 20A
> >service.
> >
> >One thing I noticed in my garage when I was blowing the 15A "garage"
> >breaker
> >with games was that the house was wired to that the "garage" service was
> >also a couple light sockets, garage door opener, laundry room fan and
> >light,
> >etc. Probably ~3-4A of "parasitic" draw on the thing before I started
> >plugging in games. I added another 15A wall-jack and could run
> ~14 rasters
> >and vectors between the two 15A legs.
> >
> >-Clay
> >
> >_________________________________________________________________________
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Received on Thu Oct 12 11:02:53 2000

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