Saw the thread about power supplies... got me wondering....

[hairtrigger]

What does everyone do for the 15 or so cords they have to plug into a socket. I have about that many, but have two large surge protectors coming out of two wall sockets. Is that ok? and is this what everyone else does? If not... what do you do for all those cords? I am just worried that I am overloading the circuits. Is this possible with the amount of power aquarium equipment puts out?

 

[mlm]

Each wall socket can handle up to 15 amps for the enitre outlet (both pluds). Usually it will be connected to a 20 amp breaker and you also need to know what else is on that circuit. When I set up my new tank with 2 400 watt MH, 2 bigs pums and a chiller I had to get to new 15 watt wall sockets put in each connected to their own 20 amp breaker in the box.

 

[reef fool]

Hey Hairtrigger,
I had the same worry. I ran a seperate 20 amp breaker w/ 6 outlets on it. My electrician said it wasn't necessary, but I feel better.
The one outlet I had running my entire tank was also hooked up to the TV and a light. I guess you need to add up the Amp draw of each thing running.?
I now have 3 Surge protectors, one being a wavetimer also, running the entire system. Pump and lights on the old outlet and heaters and powerheads on the new outlet. Moonlights on their own surge protector run on a timer of course, also on the new outlet.

 

[thomas712]

The same thing that I thought of in setting up my 90, what 3 months ago now. So far I have one external pump, one heater, Berlin Classic/ Rio2500 and the lights. The return pump goes to a spray bar, which I had hopes would eliminate the need for powerheads, but I think that I will be adding two of them anyway. My original plan was to break down the 55 and add the heater and two powerheads to the 90 anyway. This will give me 7 plugs. Thus far I have not plugged in my Ozonizer which will give me 8. I am using a power strip and may have to add another once everything is transfered. But 8 isn't bad.
Thomas

 

[foulbrew]

I built a similar power center as the one in the other post, with a few differences. The top row is on a different breaker than the bottom row, I did this for redundancy (if one tripped I wouldn't lose everything. The switches on the right control the whole row and the first outlet inline in each row is GFCI, which is wired so each outlet after it is fault protected.

 

[reef fool]

Here is mine. The return pump and light is plugged in seperately to the right in the old outlet. Not as neat as foulbrew though. Nice job man!

 

[javatech]

This is mine it's on two 20 amp lines with ground fault

 

[hairtrigger]

Ahhhhhhh, thanks yall. That's good stuff. I am a little less worried now. But, I think I may need to do some reworking just to be on the safer side. Those are some nice setups y'all made. I wish I was that electronically skilled. I would just end up shocking myself though.

 

[sebae0]

if you want to know how many amps the circuit is pulling you have to divide total watts by 120volts.
so basically i beleive a 15 amp circuit cant handle 1800watts, dont have calculator handy but correct me if im wrong. also you want to allow for start up with higher draw devices because they pull a little more to fire up ie: metal halides.

 

[fishkiller]

HAIRYTRIGGER!!!! GET YOUR $H1+ TOGETHER!!!! chill, just messin witchya. Go to Home Depot! They are selling these orange plastic cord bundle quick gripper thing. I can pick some up here in Athens, I was just there today and saw a huge tub of these things, they have quite a few of em... They have different sizes, so bundle up the cords and measure around them so I know what size to get.. That way when you come up here, I can just give em to ya.

 

[newfishliny]

Originally posted by sebae0
if you want to know how many amps the circuit is pulling you have to divide total watts by 120volts.
so basically i beleive a 15 amp circuit cant handle 1800watts, dont have calculator handy but correct me if im wrong. also you want to allow for start up with higher draw devices because they pull a little more to fire up ie: metal halides.
I belive it is aprox 100 watts per amp , so 1500w = 15amps , just remember if you use any elect product that has a surge when it starts up , you can blow a fuse . just add up the watts on all your pumps and lights.