Re: Power consumption

I'm no electrician either, but I've been running and setting up 90-130
games in various areas for a few years now.. generally I run at least 8
games per curcuit. Only because there are never enough circuits.. but it
is never a problem. 3 months 14 hours a day and rarely a breaker will trip
or wires will get warm.

For my own house I probably wouldn't run more than 6-8, but it should be
fine for "standard" games. Sega vectors ARE an exception.. they draw a
little more.

to sum up a couple other comments.. There is never really a problem with
turning on everything at the same time either.. At one installation the
hall had a single wall switch that hit contactors to the load panels.
That turned on about 300A worth of games & lights at the same time. you
definately dont need a power sequencer, but if you're looking for one they
are generally used in audio systems, and usually have built-in
"conditioners." Many audiophiles like to have their amp turned on first to
aviod any spikes to their $5k Krell CD player.. Still seems overkill to me
but stuff happens I guess. I still have my Sony digital reel-to-reel deck
plugged into the same outlet with my pinball machines, that can't be too
good.. :)

Breakers are made for daily switching use.. Maybe they say they aren't,
but they hold up fine.. just about all businesses/warehouses/buildings,
etc use them in that manner.

Jeff

On Thu, 12 Oct 2000, Harry Collins wrote:

> 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 Fri Oct 13 02:54:26 2000